Thinking of buying a ficus

[Cadillactaste]

Good air flow is very helpful...if the humidity is low spider mites will be high

I have absolutely never heard of such a thing...quite opposite actually...high humidity is a breeding ground for pests and fungal issues.

Even before bonsai...I've done house plants and never had a case of spider mites from lower humidity...EVER!

 

[LittleDingus]

I have absolutely never heard of such a thing...quite opposite actually...high humidity is a breeding ground for pests and fungal issues.

Even before bonsai...I've done house plants and never had a case of spider mites from lower humidity...EVER!

Literally every thing I have ever read about spider mites says they love warm, dry, low humidity environments. Most prevention/treatment regemes I've read about suggest raising humidity.

I don't know what sources you trust or not, but google

Google Search

From experience, I only even have spider mite issues inside during winter when I don't keep the humidity high enough or mist frequently enough.

I do agree with you that high humidity is a breeding ground for other issues...which is why good air circulation is important.

 

[LittleDingus]

Literally every thing I have ever read about spider mites says they love warm, dry, low humidity environments. Most prevention/treatment regemes I've read about suggest raising humidity.

I don't know what sources you trust or not, but google

Google Search

From experience, I only even have spider mite issues inside during winter when I don't keep the humidity high enough or mist frequently enough.

I do agree with you that high humidity is a breeding ground for other issues...which is why good air circulation is important.

I will add that it is possible that ficus leaves...as with most succulent leaves...are to thick for spider mites to bother. I don't recall ever having a problem with mites on my ficus. They absolutely love my baobabs

 

[Cadillactaste]

Literally every thing I have ever read about spider mites says they love warm, dry, low humidity environments. Most prevention/treatment regemes I've read about suggest raising humidity.

I don't know what sources you trust or not, but google

Google Search

From experience, I only even have spider mite issues inside during winter when I don't keep the humidity high enough or mist frequently enough.

I do agree with you that high humidity is a breeding ground for other issues...which is why good air circulation is important.

I also don't mist anything for fear of fungal.

Here it mentions hydroponics and it breeds spider mites. Yes, I see it mentions low humidity. But all I've seen battle them have those tents...high heat and high humidity.

How to Control and Prevent Spider Mites

Spider mites are common arachnid-family pests that go after many garden plants. Epic Gardening Founder Kevin Espiritu shares his recommended management and control strategies to use!

www.epicgardening.com

 

[LittleDingus]

I also don't mist anything for fear of fungal.

Here it mentions hydroponics and it breeds spider mites. Yes, I see it mentions low humidity. But all I've seen battle them have those tents...high heat and high humidity.

How to Control and Prevent Spider Mites

Spider mites are common arachnid-family pests that go after many garden plants. Epic Gardening Founder Kevin Espiritu shares his recommended management and control strategies to use!

www.epicgardening.com

Well, I'm not going to argue with you...you're very strong opinioned

I've stated my personal understanding which is based on my research and my personal experiences from many years of horticulture. I provided a link for others to start their own research as well. I can only assume you're coming from the same place of your personal research and experiences. Where you state:

"I've done house plants and never had a case of spider mites from lower humidity...EVER!"

I state

"I've done house plants and ONLY have had spider mite issues in lower humidity environments."

We can agree to disagree and people can go on to make up their own minds...

 

[Cadillactaste]

Well, I'm not going to argue with you...you're very strong opinioned

I've stated my personal understanding which is based on my research and my personal experiences from many years of horticulture. I provided a link for others to start their own research as well. I can only assume you're coming from the same place of your personal research and experiences. Where you state:

"I've done house plants and never had a case of spider mites from lower humidity...EVER!"

I state

"I've done house plants and ONLY have had spider mite issues in lower humidity environments."

We can agree to disagree and people can go on to make up their own minds...

Problem with reading comprehension? Since you find me so strong opinionated. I will do you a favor and put you on ignore. For the last thing I want to do is come across as arguing with someone. I stated what I did know...with a link confirming what I knew. "I also stated that it did state low humidity could be a culprit." Yet...I'm strong opinionated...when...I also agreed with you. Nope...I don't get into these tit for tat things. I've got more to offer than that to this community.

 

[Paradox]

Literally every thing I have ever read about spider mites says they love warm, dry, low humidity environments. Most prevention/treatment regemes I've read about suggest raising humidity.

I don't know what sources you trust or not, but google

Google Search

From experience, I only even have spider mite issues inside during winter when I don't keep the humidity high enough or mist frequently enough.

I do agree with you that high humidity is a breeding ground for other issues...which is why good air circulation is important.

Where I live it gets pretty humid in the summer. Its not tropical jungle humidity but enough to be very uncomfortable in warm weather.
I have had issues with spider mites on my junipers in August and September so apparently they can do just fine in somewhat humid environments.

Regardless, the mites dont read the books. They will proliferate any where and any time its favorable for them to do so.

 

[coh]

I will add that it is possible that ficus leaves...as with most succulent leaves...are to thick for spider mites to bother. I don't recall ever having a problem with mites on my ficus. They absolutely love my baobabs

I've had spider mites on willow leaf ficus but have never had them on microcarpa types.

Regarding humidity and mites, people can argue back and forth. I've seen mites both indoors and outdoors, in dry and humid environments. I believe @Redwood Ryan used to grow ficus in highly humidified tents and he had a horrible time with mites. Basically, any time you bring plants indoors where there are no (or limited) predators, there is the risk you'll have a mite explosion; that's probably a much bigger issue than the humidity.

As for humidity, people will have a hard time raising indoor humidity significantly in an average room (unless you use a tent or enclosure of some type). If you do manage to get the humidity up, you run the risk of getting condensation on walls and windows in cold weather (this depends on how well the house is insulated) which could lead to mold problems. Personally, I've tried raising humidity a number of ways - with various humidifiers, as well as by using plastic enclosures. For ficuses, I haven't seen much difference in performance. Again, if you get humidity up to tropical levels and can provide the light and airflow to go along with it, you'll see benefits. But not by putting a humidifier in an average room. And you'll still run the risk of mites if you have no predators.

The one thing (short of chemicals) that I've found to keep mites at bay is regular spraying of the foliage with water. I tend to spray my indoor plants daily and once a week or so will take them to the bathroom and give them a real good wash in the tub. I've only had problems with indoor mites when I got lazy about doing this. I also spray my outdoor trees regularly if we aren't getting much rain.

Didn't intend to write that much LOL...

 

[dtreesj]

So I bought a hygrometer and my plant table is very humid apparently. It's around 70%. I tested the meter outside and it reads 40% there which seems about accurate.

 

[coh]

So I bought a hygrometer and my plant table is very humid apparently. It's around 70%. I tested the meter outside and it reads 40% there which seems about accurate.

Do you have air conditioning?

The RH in our non air conditioned house right now is between 65-70%. Outside it varies quite a bit (RH decreases as air temp increases).

 

[dtreesj]

Soil arrived today so I repotted both of them. I put them in 50/50 scoria and pine bark. The tiger bark had really good roots, and a lot of them, and I was able to uncover about half of them until I felt like I shouldn't go any further into the root ball.
The too little has insubstantial roots, but they look healthy. I wasn't really able to remove any of the old soil that didn't fall off on its own. It is full of pine bark and most of the roots have penetrated the pieces, so I can't remove them without removing the roots. They used a lot of pine bark so I think it will be close enough to my mix to just leave it.

 

[_space_bard_]

I had a Ficus bonsai once. It lasted about 6 months in low light windowless office conditions with a small grow lamp on it. I'm pretty sure it died from lack of natural light, that or root burn. Just make sure you provide it an appropriate amount of light whether natural or lamps. As for how awesome they are? We have two large potted Ficus trees that have been nigh indestructible. I made a post documenting the history of the ugly one, but here's a shortened version. Bought it at a thrift shop, it was in an ugly pot with no holes and living in standing water and mud, survived an out of season repot and and some aggressive pruning. The prettier one we have was just given to us when my wife made a facebook post asking for any houseplants people wanted to get rid of. Some guy just gave us this beautiful tree because it was left in the house he recently bought. We've had a few issues with pests on it ranging from spider mites to a full blown scale infestation. We had to take it outside and drench it in Neem Oil, then we regularly took it in the shower and bathed it like a god dang toddler. After the pest problem was taken care of it's become a staple companion in our living room. I will say with Ficus, from my experience, they don't like to be moved. Whenever we relocate it to another window in our house, it will drop 25-50% of its leaves, but it bounces back shortly after. What we've been doing is slightly rotating it every so often to avoid it throwing a leaf tantrum. We live in a very dry climate and even with two humidifiers running constantly, and around 120 houseplants in our home, our house stays at around 40% humidity during spring and summer, and drops to 30% during winter. The Ficus don't seem to mind, but I'll never see aerial roots.

As far as how hardy and awesome they are? They can survive our ham fisted horticulture attempts, severe pest infestations, and swamp like thrift shop conditions. Not to mention (I hope my wife never looks through this forum account) my wife's black thumb

 

[amcoffeegirl]

I think you should address the double trunks now rather than later.

It’s ok to have double trunks - you can make one into a side branch.
Not my tree or picture. I think it’s Jerry M.

 

[Zerobear]

I love my willow leaf ficus trees. The length and shape of the leaves are very appealing to me. Having said that, there are many nice varieties.