Expert: Darlene K. Kittle - 10/25/2009

Question
I have 2 ficus benjamina - 1 has been in my house for the past 8 years and is ~10feet tall and I clip the branches every 6 months or so.  I just bought the other that has three twisted trunks.  This one growing hard yellow clusters up the side of the tree that to me appear to be fungus like but I'm not really sure.  I tried to use my thumb to slide the growths off but they're not moving.  The leaves have been falling daily.  Any idea what these hard yellow growths might be and how I might cure this issue.

Answer
Muna,

I beleive that you are probably right and your hard yellow clusters are fungal growths. If it wer my tree and I had not had it long I would first contact the store where I got it and see if they would take it back and if they had any problems with other trees they had sold, or if they had suggestions on the solution. If they refuse to take it back and have no suggestions to solve the problem I will tell you what I would do if it were my plant. I would use a pruning saw and cut the fungal growths off of the tree. Then I would spray the cut with Lysol spray every three days for a couple of weeks until the cuts heal. Then the tree should be fine. If you hve more questions feel free to write again. Goodluck.

Darlene