Water distaster

[Elend]

Hi everyone. I had a bit of a disaster with a few of my plants last night. My upstairs neighbor decided to dump several gallons of fish water on them. I don't know how much water. I'm guessing his fish tank was about 30-40 gallons. Needless to say, it flooded the five plants I had sitting under the stairs, including my ficus. It was a mess, all over my front door. I was pretty upset. I just got a good watering routine down for the ficus after struggling to learn how to care for it. Fortunately, my mother has two, and she has a pretty good green thumb.

When I got home from work today, my ficus looked sort of sad. Several leaves were drooping, and I knew that if I didn't take action quick, I just might lose the plant. So I took all the soggy soil out and repotted the plant in new, drier soil. I also took the opportunity to plant the ficus in a smaller pot, since I had it in a pot that was way too big.

My question is, did I do the right thing for the ficus? I watered it a little after repotting it, but not too much, and I also loosened some of the wet soil from the roots.

The other four plants are cuttings from three succulents that my mother planted for me, so they are just beginning to root, and a dieffenbachia that never seems happy. All the plants have good drainage.

[zuzu's petals]

Hi Elend, and welcome.

It sounds like you made a good call to repot your plant, because as you probably already know over-watering can do a lot of damage to a plant's root system.

[needmoresoil]

What!?
Poor plants! That's probably the worst "storm" they have ever seen. Did your neighbor not see the plants and just dump the water?
I hope your babies make it. Sounds like you took immediate action which will help. There's only so much you can do. It is up to them now.
Good luck!

[bali]

Sorry

[Elend]

So far so good. I don't know if it's too early to tell, but none of my plants seem too traumatized from all that water.

I'm not sure if my neighbor ever realized I had plants under the stairs, and if he did, I don't think he was aware that too much water can be dangerous. I did find an apology card taped to my door the next day with a gift card to best buy in it. He didn't have to do that. But it was really nice. Unfortunately, he moved, so I can't even thank him.

[bali]

sounds like he made a mistake, an cleaned the air , Good luck an be glad he was so kind.

;O)

[memarodriguez]

Sounds like you have it pretty well under control. You replaced the soil, that's the best thing. Good luck and tell your neighbor they owe you a new plant or two, or at least a nice big bag of good potting soil! Lol �� Let us know how they do, I bet they'll be fine.��

[needmoresoil]

I am glad all is well!
And the gift card was really nice. Most people wouldn't have bothered. Especially since they were moving.

[Elend]

Yeah. I'm not so sure my ficus is doing too well. I think it might be dead or close to it. Several of the branches are dried out, and the leaves are wilted and yellow. Trying to prune it, it's not giving me any sap. I remember the last time I cut a twig off there was a bunch of sap. Should I continue to prune it and see what happens? If so, how much should I prune? Some of the leaves are still green but drooping. Should I keep some leaves even if they are drooping? There is still some green when I cut off some of the branches closer to the middle and base of the plant.

And now that I think about it, I don't know if the water that was dumped on it was fresh water or salt water. That could be a big difference right? I think my neighbor had a salt water tank.

[needmoresoil]

I am not so great with Ficus. I would say if you can find some green then cut and try to root a couple so you still have the plant. And hopefully if you baby the original plant it will be ok. But I'm just guessing here. I hope someone more knowledgeable chimes in and helps.
Fingers crossed for you guys!