so my ficus benjamini was really happy living on the balcony - until about a week ago we had a frost night.
i took it in immediately which was a risk in and of itself (thanks to our neighbours, i never get a flat colder than 22° C 😑), but i had no other options.
Half of its leafs turned yellow and died, that was expected. But now the rest of the leafs have DRIED OUT. So i went and got fresh soil and repotted. Turns out my formely tiny branch has become three trees (yay?), but also
barely any roots
no root fouling, which is good
no bugs or critters
I washed it carefully, let it out for a few hours and inspected, then replanted.
The old soil was very compact, that might have been why it didn't make more roots. I mixed the soild with about a third pebble stuff, which should help with it not getting too dense. Thinking about throwing some worms in there, might be perfect for the tiny bit of vaggie scraps i have daily.
Anyhow. I can't figure out why it's dying. The roots looked good, there were tiny frail ones and big ones, just overall not a lot of them. And the whole tree looks like it's drying up, but the soil is wet/moist.
I just hope they (it's three now, so it's the Three Sisters 😊) make it. I grew this fella from when it was smaller than my hand. 😭