Carl L Rosner wrote:
Jay:
Going along with Jerry's diagnosis, is it possible that you took the air
layer a little too soon and that there was not enough roots to support
the tree's foliage? That might account for the soil staying wet if you
were watering it as you had previously when it was outside?
This is a possibility - I've worked with cuttings quite a bit, but have very little
experience with air layering. I did cut back the foliage quite a bit when I took the
layer, so as not to overtax the new roots. I suspect that all of the factors mentioned
by you and Jerry weakened the tree. I may have been lulled into complacency by the tough
nature of ficus.
Jay
Jerry Meislik wrote:
Its hard to know what went wrong but the cold may
have shut the tree down, and with a wet soil around the roots this may have
doomed the tree. My experience is that figs may not look like they are
having a problem after chilling them down but they often almost go dormant
and show no growth. A wet soil under those conditions is not good.
Thanks, Jerry -
Heeding your previous advice about this, I got my trees in before it got cold.
My practice has been to bring them in if night time temperatures are expected
to drop below 50 F. Is this too cold? All of my other trees are fine (knock
wood). Maybe the stress of this, or the transition to the much drier indoor
environment, or both, was more than a recently layered tree could survive. I
think that the wet soil was a consequence of non-functioning roots. I had been
watering it normally, and had not noticed a problem, although thinking back it
seems that it had not dried out as much as usual in the day or two before I
left for the weekend.
--
Whenever one comes to close grips with so-called idealism, as in war time, one is shocked
by its rascality.
H. L. Mencken
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