Question
While I was away on a 2-week vacation, my little lady feline decided to use the pot of my Ficus tree as her private litterbox...my housesitter never suspected! My once healthy and vibrant Ficus looked terrible! The pot absolutely reeked of urine, even after a day of fresh water flushing in the backyard! I decided to rinse my tree completely down to the roots because the concentration of urine was so strong in the soil...I washed the inside of the clay pot until I could no longer smell urine and repotted with fresh organic soil. I decided against any added nutrients at the time because the plant was under so much stress I thought the work of absorbing such would not be for the better. Leaves continued to yellow and drop at a rapid rate the following week. I watered lightly and, of course, added garden lime to neutralize. It has been a little over a month. Leaves are still dropping, but much less...seems as though the tree needs to drop ALL poisoned leaves before it is done...there are new buds often, but most seems to dry up and drop before they can unfold. Have I done the right thing? I have no plans of giving up, but is there anything else I should do or just be patient?

Answer
Hi Megan,
Ficus trees are very sensitive to any sort of change and they will respond by dropping their leaves to even the slightest change. I think your continued problem is because the pH level of the soil is now too high. The cat urine would have made the soil way too acidic but you repotted with fresh soil so that would no longer have been an issue but you added garden lime to the soil anyway and now I think the soil is too alkaline. Ficus like for their soil to have a pH level of about 6.0 which is somewhat acidic. In soil that is too alkaline the plant can not make use of the nutrients in the soil.
Since the plant is already stressed I would not recommend repotting again except as a last resort. First thing is to leach the soil. Then you can try adding a fertilizer made for acid loving plants, that may work or you can add an aluminum sulfate or garden sulfur to the soil. I would suggest using a product called Iron & soil acidifier by Green Light. Your local garden center (like Lowes) should carry it and it is fairly inexpensive. It is a water based chelated Iron and sulfur mixture. It is probably the safest way to lower the pH level of the soil. If that doesn't work then you have no choice but to repot with fresh soil.