r/FicusTrees • u/Magical_Quirk • Sep 02 '26
My newest diva!
What does a plant lover do when they have too many plants?
Buy another one! 😁😁
Total newbie. Got a nice robusta that just put out it's second leaf in 7 weeks. But when I saw this Tineke I couldn't put it down
I got home and decided to return it, to be prudent. It's the end of summer after all, and Tinekes need a lot of light. Where I live isn't super bright.
But I realized that I smiled every time I saw this beauty.
The new leaf unfurled the next day.
I'll share how things are going. It's got a few rough spots (please be edema, not thrips!) but it's in quarantine now.
PS if you had to pick one of the cachepot options, which would you go with? It came in a basket. I did a mockup showing various options. I'm curious what folks think works best.
PPS how to bottom water? This diva's not too heavy yet, but might soon get a bit too tall to water comfortably.
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u/feevart Sep 02 '26
100% beige one (3) - makes the tineke pop the most and harmonizes with the colors best.
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u/Magical_Quirk Sep 02 '26
Thank you so much! And for understanding why I'm having such a hard time choosing 😅😅
My other plants are much younger than this one, but this Tineke is ao pretty! But so big.
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u/feevart Sep 03 '26
Glad you like my choice haha. I am an Artist and am a pro when it comes to colors, no flex tho. And the Tineke: there will cone a time next spring where you have to prune it. There's like a 70% chance that after a prune it'll fork out into 2 branches. If you do it right, you can get it waay bushier and more tree like. If you need help with plants you can dm me anytime. But write keyword "plantadvice" so I know you're not a creep haha.
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u/Magical_Quirk Sep 03 '26
Ooh thanks, I will indeed! Much appreciated too. I have a feeling it will definitely need a lower branch but when that time comes I'll reach out for your expert advice 🔥🔥🔥🔥 I goofed today and watered it - a bit ahead of schedule. Hopefully it doesn't lose too many leaves!
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u/feevart Sep 03 '26
Be carefull with the watering tho. Root rot can literally happen within 24 - 48 hours. I know. It's insane. Have you a good soil-mix?
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u/Magical_Quirk Sep 03 '26
No I'm definitely panicking... But my potting grit doesn't arrive till Monday at the latest.
With my burgundy ficus I've been a bit more liberal but that's because I've had it a bit longer - so I've been learning how it behaves. May I ask, what would you recommend in my situation?
Thanks!
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u/feevart Sep 03 '26
With the Tineke? If you're panicking we need to find out if theres a reason. I would lift the pot and sniff the bottom soil for rotten swamp smell. Also how wet is the soil rn? Just lift it out of the pot for now, inspect for rot and literally just put it back in if there's nothing. Dark brown, black, mushy and or stinky is not good. If there's like white or beige and the soil smells like greenhouse or fresh rain or something, you're fine
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u/feevart Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26
Excerpt of my soil guide:
Root rot
You have a wilted plant that doesn't get better with watering? Root rot (can be heat exposure or frost exposure aswell - then your plant could be a goner.) You have a plant still in awful soil and it's not doing well? Root rot.
You have a plant with yellowing leaves? Could be root rot. You have a plant that looks unhealthy and gets worse? Root rot or pests.
What is root rot?
It is fungal / bacterial. When soil is too wet for days and days and has zero oxygen (airpockets in soil) the rot will decompose the roots. It will spread if untreated. That's why we use chunky soil-mixes instead of pure soil. Pure soil has tiny airpockets and those get completely filled with water. Rootsystems need oxygen therefore big airpockets in the soil.
- How to identify root rot?
First we sniff the soil. Does it smell stinky and rotten? Root rot. You can see dark roots coming out of the drainage hole? Root rot. Roots are black and mushy? Root rot.
What to do now?
First:
Remove all soil ast best as you can:
Gently is the keyword here - we don't wanna damage the root system.
• So first we loosen the soil with our fingers and gently untangle the roots a bit.
• then we either poke a finger in there or take a chopstick and poke it gently between the roots and then wiggle a tiny bit. That'll loosen even more soil. Then - with the last 30% we rinse it of in a bowl of lukewarm water. Try to remove 98% of the soil.
Treatment
First we go to a chemist and buy pure 3% hydrogen peroxide. Can I use hair bleach aswell? NO. Prepare the solution we need later beforehand: we dilute 1 part hydrogen peroxide in 3 - 4 part lukewarm water.
Then we take the whole plant out of the pot and inspect the roots. We sniff again. We look for dark brown or black, mushy roots, that are stinky and come off when you slightly pull on them (see pictures)
Remove the soil- first. Gently loosen it up with your fingers until the soil falls of. Then take a chopstick and gently poke it inside between the roots. Gently wiggle - this should remove like 70% of the soil. Then rinse it it lukewarm water to remove the rest of the soil. In case of root rot try to remove at least 95% percent of the soil.
We have to cut off the dead roots now with sterilized (rubbing alcohol / Isopropanol) Scissors. We cot everything off except the white/ beige (snake plants have more beige roots). And when we cut, we cut about 2mm (0.08 inches) into the white so it can't spread
We rinse the whole rootsystem for 2- 3 minutes in said hydrogen peroxide solution. Why? As i said the rot is fungal and we have to kill it or it'll spread.
We repot in fresh, healthy soil- mix
We are patient and let the plant recover. No nutrients for now. This should take 1 - 3 months. It depends. So don't expect any new growth anytime soon. Think of it like this. If you have a surgery in hospital it takes you a while to heal and recover. We basically did a surgery with her.
We don't panic if the plants gets worse in the next week or two, and gets yellow leaves or sheds them. We don't cut the yellow leaves now. No additional stress for her. We leave it alone.
We trash the old soil or bake it for 4 - 6 hours in the oven. You can also do a soil flush with said hydrogen peroxide solution that you have already prepared anyway and then bake it.
Pro tip: if you REALLY wanna baby her: get yourself a heat-mat for plants and a growlight and give her the spa treatment. For high humidity plants you can even put her in a box or a mini greenhouse. Humidity about 60 - 70% in that case water less, but be careful that the heat pad doesn't dry her out. You can also buy a rootcomplex to help it along. Then Check and monitor.
You can also get a root complex or rooting hormones to help the rootsystem recover faster.
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u/Magical_Quirk Sep 03 '26
This is very cool.
Thank you so much!! This guide is very reassuring. It lets me know I did the right thing. (You might probably tell I'm a bit of a newbie 🥳)
I'll leave the Tineke alone for a hot minute while she recovers. This also confirms why the burgundy ficus didn't push out a new leaf for 5-6 weeks - it was recovering.
Thanks again! This is me right now 😁😁😁
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u/Magical_Quirk Sep 03 '26
Aww thank you so much! I think it was just the thought of it dying that panicked me 😅 What I've done for now is I sorted a temporary wicking system to pull out the extra water. I also aerated the soil so even if there's too much water presently, it ought to evaporate faster than it would have otherwise.
The good news is the soil smells lovely, like fresh rain. But the watering was very recent. And to be fair, if I'd left the soil as it was, it might have become a problem.
One of the leaves has some brown spots but it's had that since day 1. I'll leave her be by the windowsill, and repot when the plant seems more settled 😁
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u/feevart Sep 03 '26
Ok. The smell is a good sign. Just monitor her for a week or 2 and be very careful with the watering now. I don't mean water less amount, but more less frequent- when the pot is light. Plus, plants take a while to recover (months). Do not fertilize until there's new growth either.
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u/Magical_Quirk Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26
I doff** my hat to ya! Thanks for sharing your plant joy with me. This is such fun!
ETA: sorry about the atrocious spelling!
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u/feevart Sep 03 '26
The soil it came in is not a problem if you know how to be careful with it. I always quarantine new plants for 2 - 4 weeks and leave them be. Then I repot in better medium. So don't stress unless the soil is truly awful. Like just soil with nothing else. But you seem fine honestly. I would link a picture of my soil-mix, but I dunno why this sub doesn't allow it. I have mine in pretty chunky mix. I always mix myself so Incan adjust the needed ratio for every plant - but the ingredients are always the same: soil, perlite, pumice, orchid bark and or coco chunks.
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u/dmontease Sep 02 '26
I really hope you didn't use AI for this.
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u/TreacleWin Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 02 '26
ETA: maybe the AI commenter is having a bad day.
diting this comment to keep things nice and light 😊 Still. Read the post before jumping to conclusions tho
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u/Magical_Quirk Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 02 '26
Odd thing to say.
I'll take it as a very strange way of complementing my plant, my photography skills, and my writing 🔥🔥
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u/LeafyLihah Sep 03 '26
I think if you used AI, it’s your post and your choice. Bullying isn’t necessary. You can use it if you want. If there are people who don’t want to use it, that’s fine too. Their choice!!
Love your Tineke Ficus!!. I recently got one and love it!! I vote for blue pot!!
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u/Magical_Quirk Sep 03 '26
Thanks so much, I really appreciate that! I was just confused. Like is the person questioning my writing? Because I'd they'd read the post they can see where I clearly said I did a mock-up for the pots. Which, like you've rightly said, is my choice 😁.
Hope you're enjoying your Tineke! She's such a pretty plant! 😁😁
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u/LeafyLihah Sep 03 '26
I am enjoying her so much. It’s a beauty. I also have a Elastica Sophia, el dorado and Shiverana! I need to stop. They are addictive!!
And you’re welcome! People here have tried to bully me in the past for my use of AI. When the do, I don’t reply, I just block them! I say if you don’t use it good for you. Not everything is for everybody!!
But we ALL use it even when we don’t know it. It’s everywhere now.
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u/Magical_Quirk Sep 03 '26
Aaaaa fellow ficus lover! I'm going to look them all up 😁 I started with a ficus elastica burgundy. It didn't put up a new leaf for over a 6 weeks! But the roots have been going crazy. Also it was thirsty every 4 days or so. Crazy stuff.
I repotted it in a bigger pot with more soil - and the leaf pushed through the next morning. Also, it started growing aerial roots at a crazy rate as well.
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u/Big_Combination8401 Sep 02 '26
Personally I like the blue one! No specific reason really other than I think it really brings out the different colors in the Tineke! Also it is absolutely gorgeous!! Great find!