What Your Fiddle Leaf Fig Needs in June – 5 Simple Care Tasks for Shiny Leaves and Healthy Growth
June is the perfect time to do a little fiddle leaf fig maintenance. Proper summer care will set your fig up for a healthy rest of the year.
Houseplants are not all the same. Some decorate a side table or sit quietly near the kitchen window. Others have star quality and light up a room. Fiddle leaf figs (Ficus lyrata) fall squarely in the “star” category with their huge, shiny, violin-shaped leaves and proud, upright carriage. I happen to share my San Francisco apartment with three of them and consider them part of my family.
But every houseplant needs some care, no matter how strong and magnificent they look. And in June, as spring turns to summer, it’s time to focus on fiddle leaf fig care. Generally, these houseplants need bright indirect light, humidity and consistent watering. But in June, it’s time to go a little further.
Here are five tasks to put on your fiddle leaf fig list for the month.
1. Check Sun Exposure
When I first adopted a fiddle leaf fig plant, I associated it closely with a fig tree. I have planted a few fig trees in my garden in France, so I know their growth requirements very well. Fig trees I like sun, direct sun. My plants get sun 8 hours a day. As a word smith, I latched onto the word “fig tree” in my fiddle leaf’s common name and just went with it, placing my houseplant by a southern facing window.
But fiddle leaf fig plants are not closely related to fig trees and their light needs are different. Those gorgeous fiddle-shaped leaves need indirect light, not direct sunlight. Mine came in with large, lush, leathery leaves but these quickly turned crispy in full sun.
Even if you didn’t make the same mistake that I did, June is the moment to check your plant’s sun exposure. As spring matures into summer, the sun’s path across the sky changes and its intensity increases. One June day when you are spending the day at home, monitor the sunlight on your fiddle leaf every few hours. A tad of morning sun isn’t so bad, but if the rays of afternoon sunlight touch the leaves of your houseplant, move it to another location.
2. Figure Out if the Temperature is Spiking
Fiddle leaf figs are picky about a variety of things, but they are fairly tolerant when it comes to temperatures. They will thrive in average household temperatures (as low as 60 degrees F and as high as 85 degrees) as long as there are no temperature swings. Too big a temperature swing can cause drooping leaves.
As the sun exposure shifts in June, the temperature of the room in which your fiddle leaf is located may change too. You can combine this task with the previous one. Every time you check on sun exposure, check the thermometer too. A simple combination thermometer/hygrometer from Amazon will help immensely when caring for your houseplants.
A swing upward may result from too much direct sunlight entering the room, and a swing downward may result from extra air conditioner time. If that’s the case, it’s time to move the houseplant to a room without temperature swings.
3. Dust Those Beautiful Leaves
Dusting fiddle leaf fig leaves should not be restricted to June, but June is a good month to restart this every-other-week task if you have neglected it. Dust on the leaves impedes the process of photosynthesis. And it also lessens the beauty of the iconic foliage.
How to dust? Use a damp cloth and gently wipe both sides of every leaf. Microfiber cloth works well. Be sure to hold the leaf with one hand while you wipe it with the other. It’ll break your heart if you accidentally crack off the leaf.
4. Review Your Watering Habits
Fiddle leaf fig houseplants need regular irrigation, but they are somewhat picky about how much. They prefer moist soil but object to excess water. They’ll let you know by dropping their leaves and, if the condition continues, developing root rot. They will signal too little water, the leaves wilt and the color dulls. Generally, you want to water when the top two inches of soil are dry. You don’t have to use a tape measure. Just poke a finger into the soil up to the second knuckle. Or purchase a small moisture meter from Amazon.
If you keep your houseplant in a clay pot, you’ll have to worry about high salt levels in the soil. Salt can accumulate in the soil from the clay pot, or from watering with treated water. June is the perfect time to flush out the salt buildup. Run tap water into the soil until it pours out of the drainage holes in the bottom of the container. If the tap water is fluorinated, use filtered water instead.
5. Repot Your Fiddle Leaf Fig
June is the perfect time to check whether it’s time to repot your fiddle leaf fig houseplant. You don’t want it to be short of soil with summer rolling in. How can you tell if it’s time?
The plant’s leaves are a good thermometer of distress. If the leaves are yellowing or falling off, it may be a sign that it has outgrown its pot. Another indication is that the plant's roots are growing up and out of the pot or down and out of the drain holes. Finally, if there are no new leaves or growth, or the soil pales, it’s time to repot. Get a container just size bigger than the old one and put a base layer of fresh potting soil into the bottom.
The key to repotting your houseplant is to water it well a few days earlier. When it’s repotting day, turn the container on its side and wiggle out the plug of soil and roots. Trim off any dead or damaged roots. Sit the fiddle leaf fig in the new pot and add a 1:1 mix of old soil with new potting soil to fill the pot.
