Fiddle leaf fig is a sought-after indoor tree sprucing up numerous household interiors, but you may also find it growing outdoors. It’s a native West African adorning tree with glossy and broad leaves. Its veiny green leaf appeal gives your indoors a fresher breath, and its hardy nature makes it a breeze to tend for. However, despite their unmatched subtle beauty, do fiddle leaf figs go dormant?
Fiddle leaf figs go dormant and are most known for throwing tantrums for failing to give them the care they deserve. These trees need sufficient sunlight to stay active and will go inactive in shaded ambiances. They also tend to minimize activity in the winter and will appear to grow relatively slowly.
This article explains why Fiddle leaf figs go dormant and whether or not that’s a good thing.
Why Do Fiddle Leaf Figs Go Dormant?
Fiddle leaf figs go dormant to cope with changing surroundings. That’s a typical response like most plants do when the ambient conditions change abruptly, and it helps minimize activity and resource use. Especially so, this dormancy in Fiddle leaf figs can be more dominant in shaded environments since they’re usually more vigorous in plentiful sunlight. This behavior is a way for these plants to respond to stimuli.
Fiddle leaf figs go dormant for the following reasons.
To Conserve Moisture
Fiddle leaf figs have broad leaves, meaning that they have the knack for losing too much water in quite a short span. Although these trees are adapted to tropical climates where it’s mainly hot, they thrive in areas with moderate temperatures and rainfall.
Note that these trees don’t fancy soggy soils, so please don’t always mistake their dormancy for low moisture. In extremely wet conditions, these trees’ leaves tend to turn yellow and eventually shed their leaves.
To Conserve Energy
Your fiddle leaf fig will try saving its energy in shaded conditions since it won’t have access to sufficient sunlight to create it. That’s typical primarily in indoor conditions, and fiddle leaf figs in such locations tend to be more dormant.
Irregular Watering
Fiddle leaf figs go dormant when you fail to water them consistently. They’re susceptible to varied watering patterns, significantly if the amounts during each watering schedule vary. Most other trees would thrive regardless of the watering frequency and consistency as long as moisture is available for their development.
With fiddle leaf figs, the narrative is quite different.
Do Fiddle Leaf Figs Go Dormant During Winter?
Fiddle leaf figs usually become dormant in the winter, and it shouldn’t surprise you if they aren’t vigorous in their growth. These trees can be hardy and adaptable to virtually every condition despite being native to tropical West Africa. So instead of dying, these trees will slow down their growth and won’t proliferate. However, they’ll display various signs indicating that their growth has stalled.
Here are the signs that your fiddle leaf fig has gone dormant in the winter.
Leaf Wilting
Fiddle leaf fig dormancy in the winter can obliterate its aesthetic value since it makes its leaves browner and eventually fall off. Decreased activity deprives the tree of its essential nutrients, which may not correctly circulate, reaching the other parts.
That stalls its growth and may reinvigorate it once the conditions change.
No Sap Oozing
When leaves fall off, an optimally functioning tree usually oozes sap in nipped areas and on nodes. And to verify whether or not it’s dormant, you may dent it on the stem to check if they drain sap. If not, it’s gone dormant and is definitely due to winter.
They Cease to Grow
Not that you must keep track of your fiddle leaf fig’s growth patterns, but it’s pretty easy to notice no growth. When your fiddle leaf fig is dormant, it won’t bud and will remain plumped for weeks or months. That means winter has significantly impacted its growth, and it’s hardly progressing.
What To Do When Your Fiddle Leaf Fig Goes Dormant?
It shouldn’t surprise you when your fiddle leaf fig goes dormant since that’s expected of these adorning trees. If it happens, it means that they’ve become less vigorous and viable reasons for that exist. The best you can do is to make your fiddle leaf fig more comfortable throughout the dormancy spell until the conditions are naturally right.
Here’s what you should do when your fiddle leaf fig goes dormant.
Give Indoor Fiddle Leaf Figs Sufficient Sunlight
If sunlight inadequacy forces your fiddle leaf fig into dormancy, you can try giving it more of it in ways it feels convenient to you. Perhaps, taking it out in the open can help recoup its ability to become more active again. Or, you may opt for artificial lighting if that feels less cost-straining.
These trees need lots of sunlight to photosynthesize, and indoor varieties can be more susceptible to sunlight inadequacies. It gives them the energy to grow through food production and improves their cellular osmotic pressure.
However, limit direct sunlight since it can burn the leaves and compound its misery.
Avoid Overwatering
Fiddle leaf figs have a few characteristics of an aquatic plant – particularly the broad leaves. However, they’re more adapted to moderately wet conditions rather than soggy soil substrates. If you’ve potted your fiddle leaf fig, you’re likely to water it more than you should, but that can be your tree’s undoing.
Instead, it’d help if you watered sparingly but be sure to keep your watering schedule more regular. Intermitted watering can spell doom to your fiddle leaf fig, same as overdoing it.
Remove Wilted Leaves
While removing wilted leaves works on your fiddle leaf fig’s aesthetic touch, you might as well do it to prevent further damage. Wilted leaves tend to weigh on your fiddle leaf fig and may further aggravate the condition. Wilted leaves may not be completely dead and therefore keep on siphoning the food that other leaves make.
Besides, they may be past their ability to make food, so it’s worth removing them to prevent further damage.
Keep the Temperature Moderate
If your fiddle leaf fig goes dormant, the unfavorable conditions and high temperatures could be the precursor. Therefore, it helps to identify whether or not that’s the cause and if so, keeping the temperatures moderate can come in handy. High temperatures usually increase the respiration rates, which is like adding salt to an already aching wound.
Choose Your Potting Soil Wisely
Fiddle leaf fig’s sensitivity requires that you replicate their habitat conditions, including using soil it’s adapted to. Although these trees are hardy and adaptable to virtually every situation, it helps to give them what they naturally flourish in, especially when they go dormant.
That cushions their growth and enables them to survive better. For outdoor fiddle leaf figs, they’ll have to adapt to the existing soil conditions since replacing the soil would be impossible. However, please ensure that the other states are more favorable.
Check the Humidity
Fiddle leaf figs love growing in more humid conditions, which reflects their natural habitat. So placing your indoor fiddle leaf fig in more humid ambiances can come in handy. Thus, spray showers can wet the leaves, so moisture is available around the leaf. That’s much better since it replicates a humidified airspace without making your home damp and uncomfortable.
Don’t Add Harmful Fertilizers
While adding fiddle leaf fig-friendly fertilizers is good, it’s good to avoid using harmful types when your fiddle leaf fig has gone dormant. If possible, you can avoid them altogether during this time until they start growing more vigorously.
FAQ
Is Fiddle Leaf Fig Dormancy a Sign of Death for the Tree?
Fiddle leaf fig dormancy isn’t a sign of death but a resting phase when the tree becomes less active due to less-favoring conditions. It’s also typical for fiddle leaf figs to go on a resting stage during winter when the temperatures are incredibly low.
Can You Revive a Dying Fiddle Leaf Fig?
Reviving a dying Fiddle leaf fig is possible, but you must cut the dying part to halt the destruction. If the damage isn’t so profound, you can remove the dead leaves without cutting a portion of its chunk. These trees can re-sprout and develop into new trees; hence you shouldn’t worry about damaging them.
Can You Grow a New Fiddle Leaf Fig from Its Old Leaf?
Growing a new fiddle leaf fig from an old leaf isn’t possible unless the leaf is attached to a six-inch stem. Trees can’t grow from their leaves but their stocks, and that’s not any different for fiddle leaf fig.
Should You Grow Your Fiddle Leaf Fig Indoors or Outdoors?
Fiddle leaf figs are adapted to every condition and suited indoors and outdoors. However, most people prefer placing them indoors as potted plants since they offer an aesthetic touch. Growing them outdoors isn’t bad either as long as the conditions are favoring.
Should You Mist Your Fiddle Leaf Fig?
It’d help if you misted your fiddle leaf fig despite watering it regularly. It’s a viable alternative to a naturally humid ambience common in the tree’s habitats and helps them grow. However, you should only minimally do that to avoid fungal foliage attacks.
Conclusion
Fiddle leaf figs are hardy and adaptable to every growing condition. That being said, these trees are susceptible to changes in growth conditions, especially if they’re extreme.
The good thing is that they won’t quickly die but go dormant until the conditions fit.
If you’re expecting adding it to your indoors, this article hopefully will help explain this behavior, so it doesn’t concern you.
