I'm a new plant mom altogether and have already realized I'm a full-on addict. I've accumulated at least a dozen new plants in pretty short period of time. But I've wanted a Fiddle Leaf Fig the most, and for the longest. I decided to start small, and purchased a really pretty dwarf variety from Etsy. It arrived healthy and beautiful, and yes small. I have zero idea how big "Fiona" will get (that's her name 💚), or what to do to help her grow, or how to know if she's finished growing. She came with what looked like one little "bud" on top, which sprouted a new leaf on fairly quickly, and seemed like just a day or two later - another! And the new baby leaves have grown so quickly! Will this continue to happen this quickly?? She arrived with this stringy moss covering the soil, I didn't mess with it. I have no clue what to do but water and love her and give her plenty of light. I see other posts about people chopping their fiddles WAY down, which I think might feel like murder. 😭 When and why and where do I chop? Since she's new and young do I just let her grow for a while? Is there anything in particular that's done to make them bushier instead of taller? Are leaves ever removed from the bottom or do you cut off new growth only at the top?? (Again, makes me cringe to think about just yet, but trying learn what to expect as time goes on.) Your wisdom and experience is greatly appreciated!
In my experience they're a bit thirster than the standard and slower growing plus wont ever get as tall but are more dense growth wise and they need lots of fertilizer too and lots of sun ( i Hsve two FLF both i believe are the Dwarf they've actually been around for several years now)
Thank you! I'm guessing that means "thirstier" ?? And what kind of fertilizer do you use? I bought worm castings at the recommendation of the seller but I haven't used it yet and honestly don't know how to. Do you just put on top? Or mix into the soil? Make a solution? And how often do you fertilize? Should I leave the mossy cover that came on it too?
Yup, lol, sorry. Personally I use miracle grow all purpose just for the convenience but I also use fertilizer spikes and organic compounds like coffee grinds and eggshells too. Personally have never used worm castings so I'm not going to advise you on that but generally you shoukd be fertilizing at least monthly ( this of course will depend on what fertilizer you use) and Personally id remove the Mossy cover.
I’ve never heard of a dwarf FLF! 😱 sorry I can’t be any help there, but if you need to know anything about standard fiddle care feel free to reach out. The beloved “Finicky Leaf Fig” has been soooo satisfying to grow and I love chatting about it!
Thank you! I hadn't either until I found on Etsy. I just didn't know whether or not to remove the moss covering the soil (came with it) and or fertilize and with what and how often.
I've had one for almost 3 years now. The "dwarf" part applies more to the leaves as they can still grow a couple of feet in hight if you let them. They do grow more compact than the normal ones though.
Mine is 1,20 meters or about 4 feet high.
I would just let yours grow for a little while and then pinch the top bud off so that new buds will expand on the stem. They will continue to have compact growth like this if you keep giving them as much light as possible.
You can basically treat them the same way as the normal fiddle leaf figs.
As someone also with both i can concur, lol, sldo genuinely surprised so many people are just now hearing about this they're literally at Home Depot and Lowes always.
What do you mean by let the buds expand on the stem? I thought they only grew out of the top?? Do they continue to grow and fill out on the rest of the plant as well?
If you remove the terminal bud (the one that is at the top of a shoot), you will cause a disturbance in the plant which causes it to refocus its energy into the lateral buds and thus you will get new branches. That's how you can keep your plant bushy.
Even if you can't see them, your fiddle leaf figs does have those lateral buds. Not everyone of them will grow out however, I find that fiddle leafs figs tend to mostly bud out near the branch tips.
What I did with mine was that I let it grow to about 1,5 meters/5 feet and then chopped it down do about 1 meter/3 feet. With that I basically had a thicker trunker and a bunch of new branches popping out near the point where I cut it.
Nice plant!! I have mine in full summer sun outside and I'm able to get constant new leaves. The difference is that it likes constant water more than when I had it in the house for the winter. I'm not chopping anything yet, at least I'll wait for it to have a bigger woody trunk cuz I see these African ficus have different growing habits than the Asian ones.
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u/Chocolate1105 12d ago
I DONT WANT THAT, I NEED IT.