Ficus lyrata name comes from the fact that its big green leaves look like violin, thereby is how it got its name, fiddle leaf fig. To stay strong and healthy, they need water like all plants, but it’s not clear how much they need. In reality, it relies on the plant’s size, the season, and the temperature.
This guide will teach you everything you need to know to water your Fiddle Leaf Fig. How to keep Ficus Lyrata from getting too much water, when it needs water, and how long it can go without water. You will find out when to water your Fiddle Lif Fig the most and a lot more.
There are 4 ways to know if your Fiddle Leaf Fig needs water:
If your Fiddle Leaf Fig is in a pot with soil that drains well and gets enough bright light, you can water it at any time of the day. But most Fiddle Leaf Figs aren’t in bright light and aren’t in pots with soil that drains well. If you water these plants in the evening, you might get swelling. That’s why morning is the best time to water a Fiddle Leaf Fig. If you water your plant in the morning, it will have all day to use the water from the soil and make food. This makes the chances of swelling much lower.
For a Fiddle Leaf Fig, the best way to water it is to slowly soak the earth all the way through. Why is it best to water slowly? That’s because the soil has time to soak up the water this way instead of it just running through the pot. And this almost always happens when you pour a lot of water at once.
Check the soil to make sure it got enough water after you water it. Check a few places that are an inch below the top. This is very important if the potting mix you’re using has peat moss in it. That’s because peat doesn’t let water stick to it, so the soil below the surface may stay dry while the soil above it is wet.
The Fiddle Leaf Fig needs a different amount of water each week depending on where it is stored. One cup of water for every foot of the plant’s height is a good rule of thumb. Let’s say your Fiddle Leaf Fig is two feet tall. It needs two cups of water every week. But this is just a general rule that doesn’t take into account the surroundings where your plant is.
Here are the other factors that affect the amount of water you need for Fiddle Leaf Fig watering:
Keep an eye on all of the above factors and change the amount of water as needed.
Fiddle Leaf Figs need different amounts of water depending on the person and the area where they are. Someone else might find that watering their Fiddle plant every two weeks works better than once a week for them.
Most of the time, you should wait until the soil is completely dry before giving it another good watering. A dry chopstick is a simple way to tell if it’s time to water. You should stick the chopstick all the way to the bottom of the pot. If it comes out dry, it’s time to add water.
River water, pure water, and reverse osmosis are the best types of water for your Fiddle Leaf Fig. You can also use tap water, but be sure to flush the soil every two weeks or give your Fiddle Leaf Plant a new pot every year.
Minerals in tap water may settle into the ground over time. If they build up, they could hurt the roots, which will show up as leaves turning brown.
Before you use a moisture meter on a Fiddle Leaf Fig, you have to put it into the soil. After that, wait to see what the meter says.
Take note that the moisture meter might give you different results based on where in the soil you put it. If the probe is too close to the ground, it might show that the soil is dry.
When you get too close to the bottom, though, the wetness level will be high. How do you figure out what the numbers mean when you measure the moisture in the soil?
It should be used in the middle of the pot, where most of the roots are, not around the edge. Make sure the wetness meter’s tip is at the root level.
You can see how much water is there on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being dry and 10 being wet. It’s still a great tool, even though it won’t tell you for sure when to water your Fiddle Leaf Figs. It will tell you how wet or dry the soil is, and then you can start your work.
You can use it on Fiddle Leaf Figs, as well as any other tropical plants you have.
You can water Fiddle Leaf Fig with a globe, but it might not be the best choice for long-term use. Fiddle Leaf Fig plants like it when they don’t get watered for a while, and watering globes keep the soil wet all the time.
As a result of this, they probably work better for short amounts of time, like when you’re leaving home for a while. Watering globes are a simple way to make sure your plants stay moist when you’re not there.
It’s hard to tell the difference between a Fiddle Leaf Fig that is too wet and one that is too dry because the symptoms are so identical. Look for these things:
How can you tell the difference? Most of the time, when you overwater a plant, the leaves at the bottom fall off, and when you underwater it, leaves fall off all over the plant. But it’s pretty easy to figure out what’s wrong: just look at the soil. If the soil is dry, it means that the plant is possibly too wet. If the earth is wet, you probably gave it too much water.
Repotting a Fiddle Leaf Fig that has been overwatered means getting rid of all the old soil and replacing it with potting mix that drains very well. Also, cut out any roots that are dead, soft, smelly, or mushy.
You should try to get the soil as dry as possible as soon as possible if you don’t want to do a full shift.
Moving a plant into a terracotta pot increases air flow around the plant. This makes the pot soak up water from the soil and dry out faster.
Very briefly, a Fiddle Leaf Fig can live in water for just two weeks. After that, root rot will happen to the plant. While the plant is living in the water, it’s important to make sure it has enough nutrients and air.
Fiddle Leaf Figs can go for days or weeks without water. This varies on the plant and where it is grown. How long a plant can go without water depends on its size, the amount of light it gets, the temperature, the type of potting mix it is in, and the type of pot it is in.
You can water Fiddle Leaf Fig trees from the bottom up. Watering from the bottom will make the soil more saturated. But there is a bad thing about watering Fiddle Leaf Figs from the bottom up. In this case, the earth will pull up any extra salts, which is different from top watering, where salts leave through the drainage hole. Over time, salts can build up in the soil and hurt the roots.