Why does my fiddle-leaf fig have brown soft patches on the leaves?

On a fiddle-leaf fig these are dark brown to black patches that begin in the middle of a leaf, away from the edge, and spread outwards. The tissue is soft and slightly damp to the touch, there can be a yellow ring round the edge of the patch, and the patches are often on several leaves at once.

The most likely cause is too much water. The NC State plant toolbox describes this plant as sensitive to overwatering, and the entry's note explains why it is easy to do: a big pot in a dim room stays wet for a long time. The entry's interval is about 8 days in the growing season and 14 in winter, and a plant watered on the summer rhythm into winter, or one standing in a pot much larger than its roots, keeps its roots sitting in wet compost.

To confirm it in a minute, push a finger into the compost to 4 or 5 cm. If it is damp, or the pot is heavy long after watering, that is the cause. Then check the saucer and the temperature of the water you use. Cold water on a tropical tree's roots in a cool room is the second cause the entry lists, and the patches are circular where it has stood.

Two other causes are worth ruling out. A bacterial or fungal rot in the leaf grows week by week, often starting where a leaf was damaged or two leaves touch and stay damp, and spreads on leaves that stay wet in still air. Sunburn on a leaf that was wet is the other: patches on the leaves facing the window, after water was misted or splashed on them and the plant then stood in sun.

The patches that are already there stay, because dead tissue does not recover. What you judge by is whether new ones stop appearing and whether new leaves open clean, which takes a few weeks in the growing season and longer in winter.

What this plant wants

The fix

Let the top 5 cm dry properly between waterings, use water at room temperature, and check the pot is not standing in a full saucer.

Read on

Brown soft patches on the leaves

The same sign on any plant, with the causes in the order they are likely.

Fiddle-leaf fig care

Light, water, feeding, repotting and the rest of the entry.

Check it in the diagnoser

Opens with the plant, the part and the sign already chosen.