Ficus root rot

Colorado Josh

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I acquired this ficus in 2000 with at the time, little knowledge on its care. It's probably around 35 years old. I have kept it in a potting soil, granite, and bark mix for the past 19 years. After removing the top dressing it became very apparent that some of the roots are rotting. I have read that you must remove ALL of the rot to prevent it from spreading. Because of the rot in proximity to the main trunk, I am hoping that is not the case.

My hope is that I can sparingly scrape away the rot without cutting out huge sections of nebari. I would then soak in an antifungal. And repot in an akadama, pumice, pine bark mix with a sphagnum top dressing. What are your thoughts? Would this be sufficient in mitigating the issue?

The main rot is in the root with the cavity in it. Most of it is hollow.
 

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Shibui

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My eyes are old but I can't see huge amounts of rotted root. Most look fine but you are far closer and can make a better assessment. Rot is not the only cause of discoloured roots.
Healthy trees can recover from many problems so if there is root rot your plan should be fine. Remove what you can and treat with anti root rot fungicide (not all fungicide treats root rots). Most important, fix the issue that led to the problem in the first place - which is usually keeping the mix too wet for too long.
Most figs can tolerate really drastic root pruning, especially in warmer weather. Far more than most people will allow for so don't be too worried if you do need to remove a fair bit of the root system but please check that it really is rotted roots before carving whole sections away.
 

MHBonsai

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Sounds like you have a good plan. Address the issues that caused the rot and get it growing hard and healthy would be my top priority. You can get really aggressive with roots if the tree is healthy.

If you send more photos of the tree you'll get better advice likely.

I have a ficus that was rotting up into the trunk from being in an overly moist soil for decades by the previous owner. I carved out the trunk/roots to good wood and coated the hole in an epoxy. So far so good. It'll eventually grow over the epoxy and seal itself.
 

Colorado Josh

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Thanks everybody. The tree is in recovery mode right now. My green room got really cold in January, and the tree dropped all of its leaves, and even died back some branches. Its pushing buds hard right now, with a lot of new growth. I'm going to wait another month or more and for very vigorous growth before i conduct the surgery.
 

Tieball

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Me.....I’d concentrate on fixing, replacing, that soil mix you mention. Potting soil and a bark mix are a good combination to create a soggy situation. I believe that a switch over to a more coarse substrate that actually builds the condition for moisture and air movement without retaining so much water will make significant improvements. After a change to a good substrate mix I think you’d see overall health improve rapidly.
 

amcoffeegirl

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I actually would not use top dressing of spaghnum moss if it’s being kept indoors.
Airy fast draining soil is the key to success.
Water as needed only. If you have kept it alive for 19 years though you know that. :)
 
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