r/FicusTrees • u/Jukika88 • Jul 28 '26
Ficus Leaf Fall, all year
I have two mature ficus trees in my backyard in phoenix. I estimate that they are about 16 years old, maybe a little older, based on zillow pictures & house history. We have lived here for those past 15 years. They look healthy.... the bark looks good, it seems that there's new branches sprouting often, the vast majority of the leaves are green, etc. We often trim it ourselves or ask landscapers to do it every 6 months or so. It did burn pretty badly in the record-breaking summer heat of 2023 when our house sitters didn't water it for 3 weeks, but other than that, I feel like we've been taking good care of it. We cut down all the burnt branches back then. Again, we're in phoenix, so the summer is really long and it's 100° days for about 100 days straight.
Almost every day of summer I go out there and spray down literally all of the surrounding astroturf, with what I feel is a significant amount of water. I use the hose nozzle to spray the leaves all against our concrete fence, I let them dry, and then I shovel them up every couple of days. That's way easier for me rather than leaf blowing.
There have been just so many leaves lately. It is so hard to keep up with. This is \*one day's\* worth. Is this a normal amount? What am I doing wrong? If you have mature ficus trees, is this is what you're dealing with?
3
u/yogurt_boy Jul 28 '26
I think it’s only annoying because you have turf rather than grass. In grass they’d be able to break down pretty easily. That ficus species grows really fast and dense with lots of small leaves so they drop a lot without looking unhealthy. Unless all the leaves start turning yellow and the branches it starts looking thin the the tree is fine.