Silverish worms in the roots

[Nos72]

my Mum has recently brought a Fig in W.A. and she has spoken to me about its suffering over the last few months. it has gradually lots almost all of its leaves, and yesterday i asked her to take it out of the pot to see if there was any evidence of issues with the roots.
she found heaps and heaps of silverish brown little worm looking things in the roots/soil, so i asked her to clean them all out really well and repot into a diffrrent pot for now to try to get some life back into the fig. i would assume the worms where probably killing the plant?

anyone know what and why? or seen anything like that before?

Jas

[Pup]

Jas, has your Mum been here in the West, or does she live here? where did she buy it how long has she had it. ?
The reason for all these questions, is to try and help. So we can get the right soil mix, also Perth has had no rain to speak of in 47 days, so unless she is over watering it, it should be growing well.
I have been able to defoliate my Ficus again, and they are powering away. So if we here in the west can help her we will.

Cheers Pup

[Nos72]

thanks Pup, She lives in Tom Price and i believe she brought it from somewhere close by.. lol which maybe karratha or eighty mile or.. would have been from a market and i think she has had it for about 6 months. was all fine and healthy utill a few weeks back when she informed me it was losing leaves on one side, but they appeared to be shooting back again.

all was fine untill yesterday when she called and told me it had lost all its leaves now, she has been hadn watering weekly she tells me. she has always been good with plants and understands overwatering or drying out.

she did mention that some of the "legs" had no roots growing off them and appeared to be rotting.

[Pup]

Well unfortunately that is a little to far for her, or me to travel to look at it. I would suggest what you have, get it out of the mix and maybe a little drier. As although we here in Perth are almost in drought conditions, Tom Price has been wet.

Next time she is in Perth you send me a message, and I will see what we can do to help.

Cheers Pup

[Leevers]

Any chance of posting some photo's of the roots and the tree in question?

this may help identify the pest or disease if any and possibly allow some experts to provide advice on treatment.

[Guy]

nematodes?

[gollum]

a most common problem this year and with wet soil is

Bradysia flies or fungus gnats
they are tiny flies that lay eggs in the soil
eggs become larval worms that eat the fine roots

plants will lose their vitality and slowly fade
leaves can wilt and fall off or it can just sulk and slow right down


they are hard to control

I know they love peatey soil or manure (like 5 in 1 manure etc)

often introduced through contaminated soil when repotting

best bet is to repot with fresh soil
I use gravel or red weipa pebbles to form a barrier against them

there is also a tiny brown spider mite that eats them

[Nos72]

thanks for all of you help guys, unfortunatly mum didnt take a photo of them before she clean them out, and if she did i doubt she would now how to send it to me

it sounds like this Fungus Gnat that you speak off Gollum.. she described them to me in her best way and i rekcon thats what they where.. i have sent her a photo from good old google images to see if they look the same..