Question about ficus tree

[BrianD]

I am going to use a ficus tree i purchased from the hardware store as my main plant in my Jascksons chameleons's cage. I know about rinsing and repotting with soil that has no ferts or pearlite, but I wasn't sure about soil drainage. I am planning on some pretty heavy watering and am worried that it may be too much water for the plant. Do any of you add anything to your soils to increase drainage? I will cover the top of the soil with rocks so it is not accessible by the cham. I was thinking of maybe using sand and hydroton or maybe some tree fern fiber or charcoal. Any suggestions? Or should i just use plain organic soil with no additives? I'm sorry if this has been covered before. I am useing a tablet and when I try to use the search function it searches all of google instead of just this forum

Brian

 

[SaintJimmy]

I am going to use a ficus tree i purchased from the hardware store as my main plant in my Jascksons chameleons's cage. I know about rinsing and repotting with soil that has no ferts or pearlite, but I wasn't sure about soil drainage. I am planning on some pretty heavy watering and am worried that it may be too much water for the plant. Do any of you add anything to your soils to increase drainage? I will cover the top of the soil with rocks so it is not accessible by the cham. I was thinking of maybe using sand and hydroton or maybe some tree fern fiber or charcoal. Any suggestions? Or should i just use plain organic soil with no additives? I'm sorry if this has been covered before. I am useing a tablet and when I try to use the search function it searches all of google instead of just this forum

Brian

The ficus should do fine with large amounts of water, but there are ways to avoid having to repot at all.

Just cover the soil with rocks and you won't have to remove the perlite or soil. What I did was repot the plant into a different pot, but kept all the soil. Covered it with rocks and all that. Chameleon can't get into the perlite or soil.

I have a dripper running a lot during the day and I can move it where I like, so most of the time I pour half a liter into my dripper and it runs for a couple of hours. I just move the dripper away from the plant and water it manually, that way I don't have to have plant drainage.

 

[BrianD]

Thank you for the response. I guess i am mostly worried that the plant will die if constantly kept in soaking wet soil. I am using a mistking modified to rain instead of mist and it will be fixed in 1 spot so it can not be moved. The plant is directly under it so the soil will not have any chance to dry out.

 

[Beautiful4Ever]

If you are genuinely worried about it, which it should be fine, but you could also put rocks under the soil at the base of the pot. This acts as additional drainage and any excess water will not drown the roots

Hope this helps.

 

[BrianD]

Thanks again. Sounds like I'm over thinking it and worried for no reason.

 

[SaintJimmy]

Repot with organic soil, and mix the soil with sand. Put small rocks at the bottom, and then use a coffee filter to cover any holes in the bottom of a pot. I hope that helps too.

 

[sandrachameleon]

you do need drainage, or constantly wet soil/roots will lead to fungus gnats.

A layer of hydrotone or rocks on the bottom of the pot is a good plan.

be more concerned about rinsing the leave than repotting /changing soil, since you will cover the soil with rocks.

 

[SaintJimmy]

you do need drainage, or constantly wet soil/roots will lead to fungus gnats.

A layer of hydrotone or rocks on the bottom of the pot is a good plan.

be more concerned about rinsing the leave than repotting /changing soil, since you will cover the soil with rocks.

In any case, you don't REALLY need drainage but it entirely depends on the placement of the dripping/misting system on the top of the cages.

Let's say the ficus was in the middle of the cage, and the mister was on the left. The mister might not actually transfer all that much water to the plant itself, just the leaves. And whatever dripped down was an adequate amount for the plant to survive. Unless of course you had your misting system on an insane schedule with no dry periods.

However, a dripper/raindome dripping directly through the middle of the cage would definitely need drainage, because it gives a lot more water than mist touching dirt would. The water directly falls into the pot. Unless you put the pot to the left/right and the dripper on the other side. And manually watered the plant.

 

[BrianD]

Thank you everyone for the responses. I'm going to add a layer of hydroton at the bottom of the pot since the rain falls directly over the center of the plant. I will post some pictures of my set up soon for some constructive criticism.

Brian