Soil looks very good. Did you add the lime when you made it? The 5:1:1 mix isn't foolproof, but you pretty much have to work at over-watering; so just by employing your good sense, you should be able to flush the soil as often as you think your plant needs water. Immediately after repotting, you need tro give SOME consideration to where the fine feeder roots are in the pot. If there are lots of fine roots close to the bottom, water when your stick tells you it's time after pushing it deep in the pot. If most of the fine roots are near the TOP of the soil mass, you need to water often enough to keep the top moist, so those roots don't dry out. That's about it. Your plant will reestablish faster if you secure the plant to the pot, so the plant can't move relative to the pot if it gets jostled or is subject to a stiff breeze. Start fertilizing when you see evidence of new growth. If temps are above 55*, your plant wants to be outdoors, in shade, and out of the wind. You'll need to water more often than you're used to, and some growers think that's a problem. It just might be .......... from the grower's perspective - but not from the plant's perspective. To me it doesn't make sense to slight a soil because 'you have to water too often' when you're comparing it to a soil that's inherently limiting because you have to water too infrequently due to the fact it holds too much water. That's the view from here. ;-) I'd say good luck, but luck really doesn't play much of a part in the process of learning to grow with consistent proficiency. Good growing! Al

What a great thread!! I have learned so much just from this thread alone in my research to plan Ficus Nitida in our backyard. Like everybody here we're concerned about the aggressive roots and I feel that if I combine consistent trimming, a deep root watering system with 24"x24" root guard barriers I should be able to mitigate the issues and ensure I don't have root problems in the future. I'm wondering if anybody has taken this approach. We're planning on planting them along the perimeter of our backyard which have masonry/cinder block walls separating the neighbors. They'll also be close to our pool. Pictures are attached. I'm looking at these products to accomplish this. Please let me know what your thoughts are. Thanks in advance!! https://www.deeproot.com/products/root-barrier/ https://www.rootwell.com/retail-store/shop/pro-318-case-black https://www.hunterindustries.com/irrigation-product/micro-irrigation/root-zone-watering-system

The physical make-up of your soil can be critical to your plants ability to achieve as much of its genetic potential as possible. Advising what soil to use is not easy, given the amount of consideration the question deserves. You should use a soil you can water at will to beyond the point of complete saturation, so you're flushing the soil of accumulating salts each time you water; this, w/o you needing to be concerned the soil will remain soggy so long it limits root function and/or wrecks root health. To a very large degree, your soil choice + the size of the root mass after root pruning dictates what size pot you use can or should be. Some things I wrote that should be helpful in answering your questions: What is a good soil? From my perspective, an appropriate medium is a medium that allows us to water to beyond the point of saturation at will, so we're flushing the dissolved solids (salts) that are present in tapwater and fertilizer solutions. These dissolved solids are left behind and accumulate in soils whenever we're forced to water in sips, which is commonly employed as a strategy in order to avoid the sogginess that limits root function and wrecks root health. It's important to realize that a healthy plant is not possible w/o a healthy root system. If you have established goals that include healthy and attractive plants, it's critical that you have a plan to avoid the limitations imposed by over-watering and an accumulation of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil solution. Not every grower fully understands the dilemmic issues associated with inappropriate soils that force the plant to pay a vitality tax resultant of an unhealthy amount of water being retained for extended periods when we water correctly – which is to say, when we flush the soil to limit salt build-up. On one hand, we have the potential for over-watering, and when we act to avoid it by offering dribs and drabs of water here and there, we have high salt levels to deal with. It's easy to see how we all might benefit from use of a soil that allows us to water so we're flushing away excess salts without limiting our plant's vitality via waterlogged soils. What size pot? How large a container ‘can’ or ‘should’ be, depends on the relationship between the mass of the plant material you are working with and your choice of soil. We often concern ourselves with "over-potting" (using a container that is too large), but "over-potting" is a term that arises from a lack of a basic understanding about the relationship we will look at, which logically determines appropriate container size. It's often parroted that you should only move up one container size when "potting-up". The reasoning is, that when potting up to a container more than one size larger, the soil will remain wet too long and cause root rot issues, but it is the size/mass of the plant material you are working with, and the physical properties of the soil you choose that determines both the upper & lower limits of appropriate container size - not a formulaic upward progression of container sizes. In many cases, after root pruning a plant, it may even be appropriate to step down a container size or two, but as you will see, that also depends on the physical properties of the soil you choose. It's not uncommon for me, after a repot/root-pruning to pot in containers as small as 1/5 the size as that which the plant had been growing in prior to the work. Plants grown in ‘slow’ (slow-draining/water-retentive) soils need to be grown in containers with smaller soil volumes so that the plant can use water quickly, allowing air to return to the soil before root issues beyond impaired root function/metabolism become a limiting factor. We know that the anaerobic (airless) conditions that accompany soggy soils quickly kill fine roots and impair root function/metabolism. We also know smaller soil volumes and the root constriction that accompany them cause plants to both extend branches and gain o/a mass much more slowly - a bane if rapid growth is the goal - a boon if growth restriction and a compact plant are what you have your sights set on. Conversely, rampant growth can be had by growing in very large containers and in very fast soils where frequent watering and fertilizing is required - so it's not that plants rebel at being potted into very large containers per se, but rather, they rebel at being potted into very large containers with a soil that is too slow and water-retentive. This is a key point. We know that there is an inverse relationship between soil particle size and the height of the perched water table (PWT) in containers. As particle size increases, the height of the PWT decreases, until at about a particle size of just under 1/8 inch, soils will no longer hold perched water. If there is no perched water, the soil is ALWAYS well aerated, even when the soil is at container capacity (fully saturated). So, if you aim for a soil (like the gritty mix) composed primarily of particles larger than 1/16", there is no upper limit to container size, other than what you can practically manage. The lower size limit will be determined by the soil volume's ability to allow room for roots to ’run’ and to furnish water enough to sustain the plant between irrigations. Bearing heavily on this ability is the ratio of fine roots to coarse roots. It takes a minimum amount of fine rootage to support the canopy under high water demand. If the container is full of large roots, there may not be room for a sufficient volume of the fine roots that do all the water/nutrient delivery work and the coarse roots, too. You can grow a very large plant in a very small container if the roots have been well managed and the lion's share of the rootage is fine. You can also grow very small plants, even seedlings, in very large containers if the soil is fast (free-draining and well-aerated) enough that the soil holds no, or very little perched water. I have just offered clear illustration why the oft repeated advice to ‘resist potting up more than one pot size at a time’, only applies when using heavy, water-retentive soils. Those using well-aerated soils are not bound by the same restrictions. As the ht and volume of the perched water table are reduced, the potential for negative effects associated with over-potting are diminished in a direct relationship with the reduction - up to the point at which the soil holds no (or an insignificant amount) of perched water and over-potting pretty much becomes a non-issue. Al

Take the aluminum wrap off the pot to ensure water can escape through the drain hole. The affected leaves show localized parts of the upper layer of the leaf's superior (top) surface which have been destroyed by photo-oxidation (sunburn). Too much light causes release of a hydrogen atom which joins with a water molecule to form the oxidase H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide), the same chemical compound used to bleach hair and disinfect wounds. H2O2 is a powerful oxidizer which attacks the first organic molecule it comes in contact with, in this case, t was the pigment chlorophyll. The leaves first turned a silver/gray color before desiccation became a player and turned the surface brown. The plant has chemical messengers that will inform plant central when the affected leaves move from being net producers of energy (via photosynthesis) to net USERS of energy. When the plant recognizes the leaves as a liability as opposed to assets, it will start adsorbing mobile nutrients and other compounds from the leaf for use elsewhere in the plant. That means they are still an advantage to the plant; however, the plant appears healthy enough that removing them for aesthetic reasons wouldn't be a significant setback as the leaves are already about 25% compromised insofar as their ability to produce food/energy. Your call. If you decide to remove them, only cut through the petiole (leaf stem) with a pair o scissors an inch or two away from the leaf's attachment point - especially the top leaf. If you cut the top leaf too far back, you could remove the apical meristem at the stem end where all extension growth occurs. Do this, and the trunk will never be able to extend. Instead, a new branch will occur from the new top leaf and take over as the new leader. The problem with that is, it will likely grow in a direction other than up for several feet unless you train it to grow upward as soon as the new branch appears. If you have questions, I can offer guidance as I have many bonsai Ficus and am very familiar with how you can expect them to respond. Al