Weeping Fig Dropping Leaves

[paulypaul]

I bought a Weeping Fig on Monday and it is now dropping leaves. Ive read a few things on the internet saying that they could drop leaves because of a move, change in temperature and light.
All of these things have happened (Obviously a move from the store to my house, light changes because I didnt turn the Viv light on yesterday at all and the temperature goes from 24 degrees to 18 degrees cent at night). Also, and Im hoping I havent messed up here, I cut the plant in half with a sharp knife at the base of the root as the plant was huge and wouldnt fit in the viv. Did I mess up?

[HewesHort]

if you are talking about ficus benjamina then cutting the roots is what stressed it out. it should recover but it will take a while. i have several F. benjamina that are bonsai and it seems to be a 50/50 chance on survival after root pruning. a good trick is to soak the roots for about 20 min in a vitamin b solution or superthrive. this seems to help prevent shock.

[paulypaul]

Thanks for the advice. Its a Ficus Natasja but Id assume the same advice would be the same. The other half of the Ficus which is current on top of my book shelf doesnt seem to shedding leaves but ill keep an eye on that. Am I right in just keep the soil moist for it? I had to repot it in vivarium substrate (Exo terra plantation soil).

[HewesHort]

your right, the same is true for F. natasja. keep it moist, but dont let the soil stay wet. a major mistake people make when root pruning is to overwater thinking the plant needs more water because it has less root mass. if the other half is doing well it makes me wonder if there might not be some other issue. how much light is each one getting? how wet is the soil? which piece had more roots?

[paulypaul]

The other piece which is on my book shelf is the larger piece. The only thing Ive done with that one is mist its soil every three days gently. The one in the Viv just takes its water from when I mist the Viv once a day. The viv has a light at the otherside of where the Ficus is and is on 12 hours a day. The soil is dampned slightly every 3 days.
Ive had my hand in the Viv today doing some spot cleaning and obviously ended up brushing my arm against it. Only one leaf dropped which is a major difference to how it was before. Also, Ive seen frogs leaping in and nothing happened. Was quite suprised to see how sturdy it was under the frogs feet.