Plants
Creeping fig
Ficus pumila
BeginnerFine in a closed jar
Tiny heart leaves that climb glass and wood. Grows fast and needs trimming.
What the simulation uses
- Light
- 2,500 to 15,000 lux
- The brightness it grows well in.
- Humidity
- 50 to 90 % RH
- Air moisture it is happy in; below the lower end it dries out.
- Temperature
- 16 to 27 °C
- Comfortable range; outside it growth slows.
- Dies at
- below 1 or above 35 °C
- Days beyond these temperatures kill it.
- Soil pH
- 5.5 to 7 pH
- Soil acidity it prefers.
- Grows up
- 4 cm/month
- How fast it gains height in good conditions.
- Spreads
- 4 cm/month
- How fast its edge creeps outwards.
- Copes with wet
- fair
- How well it stands soggy soil; poor means rot comes quickly.
- Copes with still air
- good
- Sealed jars have still air; poor means grey mould finds it.
- Copes with shade
- good
- How well it holds on in dim light.
- Copes with drying
- fair
- How well it survives the jar drying out.
- Water use
- 0.08 ml/cm²/day
- Water drawn up from its roots per cm² of leaves in room air; a sealed jar cuts this to a fraction and returns it down the glass.
- Leaf drop
- 3 %/month
- Share of its leaves it sheds each month as litter for the cleanup crew.
- Soft leaves
- yes
- Soft new growth that hungry isopods will nibble.
- Full size
- 350.5 cm tall, 137 cm wide
- Its size when grown, before the lid stops it.
Care
- Day length
- 12 to 14 h
- Substrate
- Moist
What kills it
- drying out
- frost
- scale and spider mites in dry air
Description
Young leaves are tiny, and the vine clings to glass and rocks all by itself. Give it humid air and expect to prune often. Left alone it turns long and stringy and smothers everything else in the jar.
Also called climbing fig, Ficus pumila 'Minima', miniature creeping fig, Ficus repens.
Estimated, where sources were thin: growth rates in terrarium; ph; Minima-specific rates.