Petite Negra fig losing leaves

Hello,

Sorry I don't have a photo but I'm hoping I can get some help anyway. I bought a 'Petite Negra' fig this spring and put him outside this summer. The summer was so wet that his leaves started getting brown on the edges, curling up, and falling off. I brought him inside and put him next to my AV so I can monitor the moisture.

My question is, is there anything I can do to make my little figgy happier? He is still losing leaves and I'm worried. I believe his root system is nice and strong (if the rain didn't drown it) so I'm hoping he will recover. I planted him in citrus mix but I'm wondering if I should have added sand or something to make it drain quicker. OTOH, my calamondin orange has the exact same history but is holding up much better. Any ideas?

I'll try to post some photos soon.

Deirdre/TL

p.s. I have a Meyer lemon and Bearss lime in containers on my apartment balcony this summer. A frog moved in although I have no idea how he climbed up to the 3rd floor! I see him often when I water. He's grown so big eating all the bugs! I'm so sad that the frosts are coming soon. I'm tempted to keep him in a terrarium for the winter! :)

Hi Dierdre,

My potted figs are outside all the time (for the Summer) and I sometimes let them dry out until they wilt. My point is, you may want to consider watering only when your little figgy begs, for a day, That will tell you it's not sitting with totally wet feet which is a sure cause of brown, falling leaves. I'd guess it will take a few days or more to let the roots recover from rotting so you can just limit the amount to, maybe one 8 oz measuring cup a day after one day with no water.

Now, you really may want to devote some time to one of the Dave's Garden experts on soil mixes for container growing. His username is TAPLA and I have read for, it seems like, hours on his instructions. Look on Soil and Composting forum. A good one to read is titled "Tapla - Question about container soil for transplant" and tonight the last post was on Sept. 4, 2010. This one isn't too long and stays on one subject while the one that I read for hours wandered around a lot. I thoroughly enjoyed the longer thread but I wasn't worrying about a sick fig. After you read Tapla's info, you will likely want to re-pot your fig and your calamondin but I don't know. I have a back yard and it's easy for me to re-pot stuff. At any rate, you will at least know a lot more about container gardening.

Good luck,

Paul