Hi everyone.

Last month I bought my very first Fiddle Leaf fig! He was big and beautiful and boy was he expensive. $200 and the second he was at home I was chewing my nails, so nervous that me, the person with a black thumb, had invested in such an expensive and from what I hear, finicky plant.

I did my research though, and wanted to make sure I did everything right!

The first day we got him, he seemed super root bound. He had roots coming out the top of his container, and just slid out of the container from the nursery. I plopped him into a pot about an inch wider, gave him just a little bit of water, and then the next day we went and bought a saucer, sunshine potting mix, and then drilled a hole into the container. Instantly water poured out, so I felt like he must definitely be root bound because I had barely watered him the day before so it had just all gone to the bottom!

I read all all I could on teasing out root balls... I was a little afraid so I basically cut a couple slits around the edge of the root ball, and teased out some of the roots on the sides/bottom but then put some of the new potting soil in, plopped him in, and filled the sides in with the soil.

When I watered him next, no water drained out even though the soil seemed wet, so I felt like maybe teasing the roots out had helped! I didn't water until water came out of the saucer because I'm known for overwatering plants and didn't want to give him root rot.

The next few days I anxiously checked on him, wondering if I had shocked him. I put him by a south east/south west facing window, and waited.

There were a crap ton of millipedes that appeared over the next few days in the soil, and he did have a couple courky leaves/rust from the nursery. I figured I'd wait to remove these leaves until he was more settled, and bought some pesticide to spray on the millipedes (which didn't seem to work, sadly)

about two weeks ago, to my delight I noticed his upper leaves were growing rapidly! And I saw the tiniest bit of green on a new bud. And new roots growing from the base of the tree on the side facing the most light. He was live! I covered those roots up so they wouldn't continue to be green and exposed to light, and skipped on my merry way. I was growing something!

And then. Last week I woke up and I noticed little flying bugs. I thought they were aphids- I picked up some Neem oil to spray on the leaves and in the soil to kill the millipedes and the flying bugs. Zamzows said it wouldn't hurt my plant. But then after a few more days, I noticed that little green bud I had seen was no more. Just brown. And then I noticed black spots forming on my leaves. The new roots were turning brown and were no longer all white. I panicked.

Instantly i I thought maybe the soil I had bought was too dense and wasn't allowing drainage. Was I giving my poor Fiddle root rot this whole time?

I stopped spraying the neem oil. I drilled more drainage holes into the bottom. Currently I'm waiting for my pot to dry out more so that I can hopefully either flush out the soil or take him out and repot him in some other stuff I got.

At this point, the black spots are spreading to more and more leaves. I rotated my fig to face the light so that not just one side was getting a ton, and instantly those new roots shriveled and look dead now. I don't know what's happening or what I should do- I'm afraid I'll try to help and make all this worse. Any help would be appreciated, I've straight up cried I'm so frustrated and just don't want him to die :(

this is Sid. This is early morning light.

{{attachment:2836561}}{{attachment:2836562}}Some initial browning on lower leaves when we first got him. You can also see some of his roots that were coming up.

{{attachment:2836563}}Some initial rusty looking veins, and a very corky/stunted leaf.

{{attachment:2836564}}Growth after a couple weeks! Yay!

{{attachment:2836565}}And then.....

{{attachment:2836566}}Above pic was a few days ago. Today it seems like more brown is happening

{{attachment:2836567}}{{attachment:2836568}}Roots a few days ago when I noticed the black spots

{{attachment:2836569}}Roots today after tree was rotated

{{attachment:2836570}}

Please help... Is this a fungus? Root rot? Oedema? What should I do.... :(

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