[Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page

[Dick Gross]

I'm guessing, Grace, that you may not have enough escape or drainage holes 
in the bottom of the pot. But there are some contradictory facts here. A 
large pot cannot dry out in two days but might if black plastic cooks in 
direct sun boiling the tender feeder roots needed to take up water. Wrap a 
sheet or burlap around the pot to block sun and watch for improvement. Did 
you fertilize the tree when you moved it?

What size did you move up to? How many drain holes are in the base? What 
kind of media did you use for fill in the larger pot? Did the root ball 
remain intact when you moved it?

If the new material is less dense, it may act as an outer channel with less 
resistance and passing through without properly soaking the original root 
ball or leaving it quite dry and unable to sustain the foliage.

The symptoms sound like shock. You potted it up because of leaf drop but now 
they are drying? I can't imagine branches growing without leaves.

If you percieve this tree to be in its death throes, I would do the 
following if it were mine.

Make sure drainage is adequate. Turn it on its side and drill more if 
determine they are needed.

Use a hoe handle to tamp the soil firmly around the outer fringe of the pot 
and fill the voids.

Nestle the pot firmly in soil so that the soil in the pot is in contact 
through those holes with the soil  beneath it.

Adjust a water hose to a trickle to maintain a quarter to a half inch water 
level and let it soak and flush the root ball for at least four hours or all 
night.

When you think you have accomplished the purpose, add one tablespoon of 
all-purpose fertilizer to one gallon of water, shut off the water hose and 
pour the gallon in the basin. Let the basin get quite dry before re-watering 
but try to water again at the first indication of wilt.

Dick Gross, MGV MCCE

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <eglamas at cox.net>
To: <arid_gardener at Ag.arizona.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2006 4:54 PM
Subject: [Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page


> Grace
> 85383
> eglamas at cox.net
>
> I have a weeping fig plant that kept dropping leaves, I replanted it in a 
> larger container.  Now it is not dropping leaves but the leaves are 
> turning brown and dying. It continues to grow new branches but the leaves 
> continue to die.  Since it was replanted the soil seems dry, even though 
> I've been giving it water every other day.
>
>
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