Let’s talk about signs your fiddle leaf fig needs more humidity and how you can provide humidity in your indoor environment.
Fiddle leaf figs are tropical plants, which means they love humidity more than anything! However, in a world of air conditioning and indoor heating (not to mention the fact that a lot of us live in dry climates), giving our plants enough humidity can be a challenge!
It can also be tricky to identify when your fiddle leaf fig needs more humidity. But there are ways to tell if your fiddle leaf fig needs more humidity.
Signs Your Fiddle Leaf Fig Needs More Humidity
Pockmarked, puckering leaves
If your leaves look like the surface of Mars with lots of dimples, craters, and pockmarks, your tree might be asking for more humidity. If the leaves are curling around the edges, your leaves might also be too dry.
Cracked, torn leaves
If leaves don’t have enough humidity as they grow, they can crack and tear. These cracks can turn into even bigger cracks or holes as the leaves get bigger, so humidity is important for keeping your tree healthy, especially as the leaves grow. Read on for more signs your fiddle leaf fig needs more humidity.
Shriveled new leaves: Signs Your Fiddle Leaf Fig Needs More Humidity
If your tree doesn’t get enough humidity, baby leaves can stick to themselves or each other as they emerge from their sheaths, which can cause shriveling or even tear holes that won’t heal as the leaf matures.
As you can see, humidity is important to a fiddle leaf fig! Here’s how to create more humidity for your tree, or at least not make things worse.
How to Create More Humidity for Your Fiddle (and Minimize Dryness)
Watch out for vents and drafts
If you don’t minimize dryness before attempting to create more humidity, you’re fighting a losing battle! When you pick a spot for your fiddle leaf fig, be mindful of A/C and heating vents, drafty windows, and extreme heat from stoves and fireplaces. Fiddles don’t like the extreme temperatures, and these things can really dry out the air (and your plant!).
Get a humidifier
This is the simplest and most obvious way to create more humidity. The best part is, you can move the humidifier around to benefit your fiddle! We suggest setting up a humidifier about 5 feet away from your tree to give it a good dose of humidity.
Humidifiers are easy to find and are relatively inexpensive. We love this one!
Make a pebble tray
If you don’t want to spring for a humidifier, a great alternative is a pebble tray. To make one, simply fill a shallow tray or dish with pebbles or gravel and add water so that the pebbles are ⅓ to ½ of the way submerged. Then place your fiddle on top. The water shouldn’t be touching the bottom of your fiddle’s pot, because you don’t want your plant to absorb the extra water and become OVERwatered (hello, root rot!).
The pebble tray can also double as your drainage tray if you’d like.
This works really well because as the water evaporates, it will create some upward humidity that your fiddle will LOVE!
You can also buy ready-made pebble trays if you don’t want to make your own.
Get more plants
If you’re a houseplant addict like me, this should be no problem!
Plants raise the humidity of an indoor space as they respirate, so your fiddle can enjoy more humidity just by being around other plants. Just make sure to watch out for insect infestations, bacterial infections, and fungal issues like powdery mildew, because they can spread from plant to plant.
Mist your leaf buds
Those new baby leaves need a little extra TLC and humidity while they’re emerging so they don’t crack or shrivel, so it’s a good idea to mist your leaf buds and baby leaves daily while they’re still unfurling. This will help lubricate them as they go to prevent tearing.
A warning about misting:
A lot of people recommend that you mist your fiddle to create more humidity. While this does the trick, it also comes with some risks!
Misting can interfere with photosynthesis and promote the spread of fungus as the water drips from leaf to leaf, so this is why we recommend that you take other measures first.
Read more about our thoughts on misting here.
Remember, the trick to nurturing any indoor plant is to mimic its natural environment as accurately as you can indoors. For a fiddle leaf fig, this means humidity! Be sure to watch for signs your fiddle leaf fig needs more humidity!
Grab the Essentials for Your Fiddle Leaf Fig:
- Premium Fiddle Leaf Fig Potting Soil
- Fiddle Leaf Fig Plant Food
- Root Rot Treatment
- Houseplant Leaf Armor to protect against insects, bacteria, and fungus (As an added bonus, it also cleans and adds shine to your plant’s leaves!)
- Moisture meter to always know when your plant is thirsty.
To learn more:
- Sign up for our free Fiddle Leaf Fig Care 101 Webinar or enroll in our free Fiddle Leaf Fig Course for advanced fiddle leaf fig care.
- Make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter.
- Read The Fiddle Leaf Fig Expert, your complete guide to growing healthy fiddle leaf fig plants. The book is available in full-color paperback or Kindle edition on Amazon now!
- Click to join our community on Facebook: Fiddle Leaf Fig Plant Resource Group.
