Killed my fiddle leaf fig after a cold draft hit it for one night

I left my fiddle leaf fig near the window in my Boston apartment when temps dropped to 20 degrees last week. Woke up to all the leaves drooping and brown spots everywhere the next morning. Tried pruning the damaged leaves and moving it to the warmest corner near my radiator. Anyone else lost a plant to something dumb like a draft or a random temperature dip?

2 comments

2 Comments

derek_bell1mo ago

Did you have it right up against the glass? That happened to my Monstera last winter. I put it on a table like two feet from a drafty window and the cold air settled right on it. The leaves turned black at the edges within a day. I ended up cutting off almost half the plant and it took months to grow new leaves. What really helped me was getting a cheap thermometer to check spots around the apartment before moving plants. Just a little air movement from a draft can wreck a tropical plant fast.

ericb661mo ago

Hold up, I gotta disagree a bit here. In my experience, cold drafts are actually way less of a problem than people make them out to be, especially if the plant is well established. My Monstera sits right on the floor next to a sliding glass door that gets opened constantly in the winter and the leaves are fine, no black edges, no drama. I think the bigger issue is usually overwatering or the soil staying too wet when the temperature drops, not the cold air itself. Your mileage may vary but I've seen way more plants die from people panicking about drafts and moving them to a dark corner than from actually being near a window.