We adopted this ficus from the street (it was thrown out with trash) about two years ago. For a year and a half it stayed green, watered every one to two weeks by my wife. Then I started ‘helping’ water (I meant well), and it started to lose leaves in batches.
A few leaves would turn yellow, then drop off, then it would stabilize for a while. After a couple months of this I looked into it and decided my too-frequent watering had created a vicious cycle that, combined with inadequate light, was causing the plant to die off. So I installed much stronger indirect lighting on a timer. I also stopped ‘helping’ water it, and it’s getting water from my wife every two weeks or so the past few months. For a while the ficus seemed to bounce back; it developed new leaf-shoots for the first time ever and I thought I had saved it.
Then it suddenly started losing leaves again, faster and faster. The new leaf shoots seem to have stopped growing and turned brown at the tips. I feel terrible about this, and I really hope there’s something I can still do before it’s gone. Can anyone tell me what might be wrong and how to fix it?