5 Tips For Fiddle Leaf Fig Care

Let me start by saying that I am no expert when it comes to plants and gardening. With Freddie, my fiddle leaf fig – it’s a combination of consistency and sheer luck. Just to give you a little background on our fiddle, my husband got it for me as a birthday gift back in February 2018. It did great for about the first two weeks, and then the leaves started to droop and spots started to form on the leaves. At this point I had not given it ANY water at all. Everything I had read made me fear over watering!

So, very fearfully, I gave him about a cup of water. Then I waited another week. Still the leaves were looking worse, and everything I was reading on the Internet seemed to give me contradicting information! Then a leaf fell off and I panicked! At this point, I decided to reach out to a couple of my Instagram friends for help – both of them agreed that I simply wasn’t giving him enough water. As soon as I increased the water from 1 cup to 4 cups, he started looking better pretty quickly.

If there is one thing I’ve learned about caring for a fiddle, it is that consistency is the KEY TO EVERYTHING! That’s probably true for a lot of things in life… put I’ll spare you from that tangent for today.

5 Tips For Keeping Your Fiddle Leaf Fig Happy

Make sure your FLF is getting plenty of light! Mine is in a Southwest facing window with plenty of afternoon sunlight. We live in a pretty wooded area so that direct afternoon sun is somewhat filtered.
Water at the same time on the same day every week, with the same amount of water. For example, I water every Thursday evening after work. Each week he gets 4 cups of water. You can increase this slightly over time as your tree continues to grow. **Take note of soil moisture. The soil should be moist an inch below the surface throughout the week. This is a great way to tell if you need to adjust the amount of water you are using each week.
Make sure your FLF is in well draining soil! I always empty the drainage tray under my pot about an hour or 2 after watering to prevent root rot.
Whatever you do, DO NOT relocate your fiddle! I am not kidding when I say that I once moved Freddie across the room for a photo, and the very next day he started developing spots on his leaves. Keep them stationary, slight movement is ok to empty any excess water from the bottom of the pot. **DO rotate your FLF periodically, I tend to do this about every 4-6 weeks to make sure the leaves are getting equal amounts of light.
Keep your FLF away from heating vents and any drafty doors or windows. Sudden changes in temperature will stress your FLF.

By following these simple guidelines, I am happy to report that Freddie is doing better than ever! In fact, he has sprouted 7 new leaves in the last month and it looks like more could be on the way soon.

Do you have any other FLF tips that have worked well for you? I’d love to hear them! And if you have any questions for me, please don’t hesitate to ask!

Xx,

katie

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