Ficus benjamina care: light, leaf drop and keeping it small
A weeping fig wants bright light without hard sun, soil that never dries out completely, and one spot it is never moved from. It is a tree, so this page covers keeping it small as well as keeping it alive. Light, leaf drop, watering, pruning, the cold it takes and the cat are all here.
- Give it the brightest spot without hard sun, then stop moving it.
- Water when the top of the soil is dry, and never leave it standing in water.
- Toxic to cats and dogs, and it irritates skin, so prune it wearing gloves.
What a weeping fig is, and how big Ficus benjamina gets
It is a tropical evergreen tree from southern and south-east Asia and northern Australia, sold as a houseplant for its glossy pointed leaves and drooping branches. NC State Extension gives it 40 to 50 feet in the ground, about 12 to 15 metres, and 2 to 10 feet as a houseplant. The RHS puts the potted plant at 2.5 to 4 metres.
So what you buy is a young tree, and what holds it at houseplant size is a pot that limits the roots and a pair of secateurs. That decides where it can live. A plant you trim every year stays shelf or wall sized, and one you leave alone ends up on the floor with the other large indoor plants.
You know it by the leaf. It is glossy, leathery and oval with a long pointed tip, and NC State measures it at 2 to 5 inches, about 5 to 13 cm. Variegated forms such as Golden King are sold alongside the green ones. The plant care guide lists the other plants with the light and water each one takes.
How much light a weeping fig needs
Bright indirect light, as much as the room has, with direct sun only through a sheer curtain. Clemson’s factsheet puts bright indirect or curtain-filtered sun first and allows some direct sun where the air is humid. Variegated cultivars take somewhat less light than the green ones.
NC State says it tolerates shade, and tolerates is the right word. In a dim room it holds on with a thinner crown, sheds the leaves it cannot keep, and the soil stays wet for longer, which brings root rot closer. If your brightest wall is still dim, start from low light houseplants instead.
The spot you choose matters a great deal, because NC State calls the plant very sensitive to light changes. Pick the brightest place you can keep it all year, away from a radiator and a door, and plan on leaving it there.
Why a Ficus benjamina drops its leaves
Because something changed. Clemson lists overwatering, underwatering, draughts, a lack of nitrogen and low light as the causes, with moving and repotting on top, and the Missouri Botanical Garden adds sudden swings in temperature. A plant that drops leaves after a change usually recovers once conditions settle, so find the change before you touch the watering.
Leaves that turn yellow before they fall are worth reading on their own, and what yellow leaves are telling you covers that pattern on any plant.
- It was moved. NC State says a moved plant may drop its leaves and grow new ones suited to the new light. Leave it in the new spot rather than carrying it back and forth.
- A draught or a heater. A cold window, a door that opens or a vent beside it is enough. The Missouri Botanical Garden says even turning the heating down to save energy can cause some drop.
- The watering is wrong in either direction. Soil that stays wet and soil that dries right out both end in leaves on the floor. Feel the soil before you decide which it is.
- Too little light. A plant brought in for winter or set in a dim corner sheds what it cannot keep. It needs a brighter spot, which is one more move, so make it once.
- It is hungry. Clemson names a lack of nitrogen among the causes. A plant that has had no feed through a whole growing season is the likely case.
Watering a weeping fig in a pot or a pocket
Water when the top of the soil has dried, and never on a fixed day. Clemson asks for evenly moist soil while the plant is growing, a slightly drier spell between waterings in winter, and never a plant standing in water or in its saucer. NC State sets the floor at keeping the soil from drying out completely.
The Missouri Botanical Garden’s test, written for a tree in a large pot, is to wait until the top 2 to 3 inches feel dry. That depth does not carry over to a shallow container, where it is most of the soil. In a small pot or a wall pocket, push a finger in to the first knuckle and water when it comes out dry.
Light sets the pace, because a plant in a bright room uses water faster than the same plant set back from the window. In a pot, water until a little runs out of the drainage hole and tip out the saucer, as the Missouri Botanical Garden advises. In a pocket, water slowly and in measured amounts.
Soil, humidity and feeding for Ficus benjamina
A loam-based mix, humid air and a light hand with the feed. The RHS recommends a peat-free, loam-based compost under glass, and NC State says it grows well in a soil-based potting mix.
- The mix. A peat-free, loam-based houseplant compost. For the cultivar Danielle the RHS adds fine bark chippings, which keep the mix open.
- Humidity. Clemson says the plant prefers high humidity. Group it with other plants and keep it away from heat vents, which dry the air around the leaves.
- Feeding. A liquid feed every month or two through the growing season, on Clemson’s schedule, and none while it is not growing.
- Repotting. Late winter or early spring, and only when it needs it. Clemson says it tolerates being slightly root-bound, while a crowded plant makes smaller new leaves and grows more slowly.
Pruning a weeping fig to keep it small
Trim a little and often rather than cutting hard once. NC State puts light pruning for shape and size in late autumn or winter, and warns that the plant tolerates shearing but that heavy pruning shortens its life. Clemson says it takes a hard cut to reduce size and asks for less water afterwards, because a plant with fewer leaves uses less.
Wear gloves for it, because the RHS lists the plant as a skin allergen and pruning is when you handle it most. The cultivar decides how much cutting you sign up for, so check the label before you buy.
| Cultivar | What the sources say | Fits a pocket? |
|---|
| Danielle | The RHS gives 1 to 1.5 m indoors, and Clemson lists it as resistant to leaf drop | Yes, while young |
| Too Little | Listed by Clemson as a miniature | Yes |
| Wasana | Listed by Clemson as suited to bonsai | Yes, kept trimmed |
| Judith | Listed by Clemson as shedding very little | While young |
| Pandora | NC State gives 6 feet, about 1.8 m, as its maximum indoors | While young |
| Golden King | Variegated, so it takes somewhat less light than the green ones | While young |
| The plain species | The RHS gives 2.5 to 4 m in a pot | Only while young |
Can a weeping fig live outside on a balcony?
For the warm months, in a sheltered spot. The RHS rates it H1C, which means it can go outside in summer with a minimum of 5 to 10 °C, and NC State calls it very frost sensitive. Wind is the other limit, because the RHS asks for protection from it.
Plan the season around the night temperature. The Missouri Botanical Garden brings the plant in before nights drop below 55 °F, about 13 °C, and the RHS gives the same 13 °C as the floor for Danielle indoors. Check your forecast against that figure in autumn rather than waiting for frost, because the limit sits well above freezing.
Move it gradually both ways. The Missouri Botanical Garden suggests a week or two in shade on a porch before it comes indoors, and Clemson puts an outdoor plant in morning sun with afternoon shade. Each move costs some leaves, so take it out once and bring it in once.
Is Ficus benjamina toxic to cats and dogs?
Yes. The ASPCA lists the weeping fig as toxic to dogs, cats and horses and names two toxic principles, a protein-digesting enzyme called ficin and a psoralen called ficusin. The RHS adds that it is harmful if eaten by people or dogs, and that it is a skin allergen.
Put it out of reach, and pick fallen leaves up rather than leaving them on the floor, since this plant drops them often. If an animal has chewed it, call a vet or the ASPCA Poison Control line instead of waiting to see what happens. For green leaves in a room the cat uses, the ASPCA lists the spider plant as non-toxic to cats and dogs.
A weeping fig on the wall
Only a young plant fits, and only for as long as you keep cutting it back. A rooted cutting or a plant from a small nursery pot fills the Medium pocket, which holds 1.8 litres of substrate, about what a 15 cm pot takes. When the new leaves come in smaller and growth slows, the roots have filled it and the plant moves on to a floor pot.
Hang it on the brightest wall you have, away from the radiator and the door, and leave it there, because every move costs leaves. On a sheltered balcony it works through the warm months, as long as the wooden board stays out of the rain. The wall planner lets you try the board on your own wall before you drill.
The board hangs by a slot near its top on one wall hook, so the wall side is one screw, one plug and one drilled hole. Plasterboard takes an expanding plug, brick a standard one, and a tiled wall needs a tile bit before the masonry bit. The mounting guide walks through the seven steps, from drilling the hole to planting the pocket.
- Take a young plant out of its nursery pot.
- Loosen the outer roots with your fingers until the root ball fits the pocket.
- Sit it in, fill around it with substrate and press lightly.
- Water slowly, in measured amounts, until the substrate is evenly damp.
Weeping fig problems and how to fix them
Most of what goes wrong shows up as falling leaves, so read the soil and the spot before you read the leaf. Pests are the exception, and Clemson names spider mites and scale as the ones that turn up most. Fine pale speckling with webbing under the leaves is the first, and spider mites covers what clears them.
Aphids, thrips and mealybugs are on Clemson’s list too, and the last shows as white cotton in the leaf joints. How to get rid of mealybugs covers that one. Move any plant with pests away from the others before you treat it.
| What you see | Why | The fix |
|---|
| Green leaves falling after a move | A new light level. NC State says it grows new leaves suited to the new spot | Leave it where it is and keep watering by the soil. |
| Leaves yellowing and dropping, soil wet | Watering too often, or a mix that drains poorly, which Clemson links to root rot | Let the top dry before watering and never leave water standing under it. |
| Leaves dropping, soil dry right through | Underwatering | Water thoroughly and check the soil more often in a bright spot. |
| Leaves dropping in winter by a window or a radiator | Cold draughts or swings in temperature | Move it out of the draught and keep the heating steady. |
| Small brown bumps on stems and leaf undersides | Scale insects | Scrape them off and keep the plant apart until no new ones appear. |
| New leaves smaller, growth slowing | A crowded root system | Move it up one pot size in late winter or early spring. |
How to propagate a weeping fig from cuttings
Stem cuttings are the method NC State recommends, and Clemson says they root best taken in summer. The RHS describes semi-hardwood cuttings with bottom heat in spring or summer, meaning a shoot that has started to firm at the base rather than a soft green tip. Air layering is the other route, and Clemson says it works in any season.
- Wearing gloves, cut a shoot that is firm at the base, just below a leaf.
- Strip the leaves from the lower half so none sits below the surface.
- Push it into damp cutting compost.
- Cover it with a clear bag or a propagator lid, and keep it warm and out of direct sun.
- Pot it on once new leaves appear, the sign that it has rooted.
A cutting is also the honest way to start a wall pocket with this plant. It begins small enough to fit, and you shape it from the first leaf instead of cutting down a plant that was grown to be a tree.
Will a weeping fig grow its leaves back?
Usually, once whatever changed has settled. Clemson says plants recover when conditions are adequate again, and NC State describes the new leaves as adapted to the new light.
Can you braid a Ficus benjamina?
Yes, while the stems are young and still bend. Clemson says young flexible stems can be braided or trained into shapes, which is how the plaited trunks sold in garden centres are made. An older stem has hardened and will not take it.
Should you mist a weeping fig?
It helps in a room with dry winter air. The Missouri Botanical Garden suggests misting the foliage daily through the dry winter months, and Clemson says the plant prefers high humidity.
Is a weeping fig the same as a rubber plant?
No, though the names overlap. NC State lists Indian rubber plant as a common name for both Ficus benjamina and Ficus elastica, the large-leaved plant usually sold as a rubber plant. Check the latin name on the label before you follow advice for either.
Does a weeping fig grow fast?
At a medium rate, on NC State’s listing, and the RHS gives it ten to twenty years to reach full size in a pot. In a small pot or a pocket it grows more slowly still, because crowded roots slow the growth.
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