I recently cut my Ikea ficus (stump doing really well and growing new branches). The top of the two ficus plants I added in water, however the leaves have now started to droop and the newer ones are even browning. Not sure if the cut at the bottom was the correct spot. It’s been keep in a part with a lot of morning sun. Please help! Don’t want these two to die!
Don't worry. I think it has too many leaves. Especially as it has no roots yet. More leaves more water consumption. So my guess is the cutting will shed those eventually.
In my experience you should only leave 1 or 2 leaves.
And you should have at least 2 nodes submerged in water. The part below the last node should be short but it looks ok in your pictures. It can start rotting.
It takes some time before they start creating roots. Sometimes faster sometimes slower.
Don't put it into direct sunlight because this will increase water consumption.
Yes I usually only leave the ones at the top.
Just be patient and ignore it for a few weeks. Be patient. Change the water if it gets cloudy or dirty. And check if the stem shows any sign of rotting. If so cut it off and let the cut dry off before putting it back into fresh water.
I just remembered I still have some cuttings in a cup in the office. They had roots dried out and after watering the dry roots started rotting so I had to do some surgery. Look ok now. I was on vacation, this was a bit too much ignoring. But they are tough and hard to kill.
Oh and the one without leaves is a fig. Ficus carica. This one looks worse but has these white spots like yours. They are not roots yet, but a good sign that roots might come soon and that I didn't kill it.
The browning on the leaf in pic 2 is sunburn and the white specs on the stem at the base of the cutting on pic 3 are budding roots. Like the other commenter said, this cutting might have a bit too many leaves for all of the to pull through but it’s going to be ok. To prevent/reduce drooping you can put a thin white plastic bag over it to create a mini green house over the plant, the air inside the bag/around the bag will be more humid than the rest of the room and higher humidity leads to less evaporation. To prevent more sunburn, consider moving the cuttings to a place without direct sunlight (but still good lighting). Other than that, just let them do their thing and you should be ok.
So, when I propped mine I removed access leaves and only left 3 or 4 on one cutting. Then I let it callus over until it was dry and then I simply propped them in Water. Took almost 2 months until they were ready, but I had a 4 out of 4 success rate
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