Ficus Care Guide
There are many Ficus varieties, ranging from small climbing Ficus (Ficus pumila) to big and heavy fruiting trees like Ficus lyrata. In the Netherlands (my home country), a lot of houses have a Ficus carica 'Brown Turkey´, which can survive the winter with ease and gives delicous fruit. But this this care guide is about indoor Ficus plants/trees, i did a lot of research so let´s get into it!
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FLOWERS:
Ficus houseplants do not produce visible flowers in a typical home environment, but if the conditions are right, it might give you some fruits! That happened to me with my Ficus cyathistipula (African fig tree), it suddenly gave me more than 50 figs! Even if i could let the figs ripen, it wouldn't be edible because it has to be pollinated which is not possible by hand.
People say that the figs (scientifically called a ¨Syconium¨ that contains hundreds of tiny, unisexual flowers, which become one-seeded fruits after pollination. Figs need to be pollinated by a specific fig wasp. People say that fig from my Ficus cyathistipula is not very tasty, and i was going to sell the tree anyway so it doesn't really matter
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WATERING:
A lot of people say that most Ficus species prefer to have their soil moist, but i soak the soil with water, let the excess water drip out, let their soil dry out between waterings, and my Ficus thrives off of that method!
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LIGHT REQUIREMENTS:
Give these plants bright, indirect light, and if you want to put it in a spot with direct light, slowely train the plant by exposing it to a bit more direct sunlight each day, and after a few weeks, the plant/tree can stand in full sun, and you can actually do this with every plant.
People who have trained their Ficus like this in warm/tropical climates often put their Ficus outside during the summer to get more sun.
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PROPAGATION:
Ficus plants can be propagated through stem cuttings, air-layering or seed propagation (seeds can be found in the syconium/fig, harvest them, plant them, keep the soil moist and within 2 months it´ll sprout). Take cuttings a stem with lots of nodes, remove the lower leaves and plop it into soil. Once it has grown a few inches (1 inch = 2.54 centimeters) of roots, pot it up in some soil. Wondering in what kind of soil Ficus does best? Read the part below!
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MEDIUMS:
USe a well-draining mix (i do not recommend using potting soil if you are planning on eating the figs, more about that later) with perlite, coco peat, coco, leca and activated horticultural charcoal.
If you are planning on eating the syconium/figs your Ficus produces, you should be really cautious with what soil and fertilizer you use and with what insecticide you spray it with, because if you give the plant something artificial and toxic, that will be in the fruit you eat. Because the plant absorbs water and fertilizer you give it, it uses that to produce the fig you eat, so you are basically eating the toxins in the fertilizer.