Right now, the large leaves are the only source of food for the plant. Fertilizer isn't plant food. It only supplies the building blocks plants need to grow, keep their systems in order, and to make their own food during photosynthesis. You can see now why the large leaves should be left to feed the new growth until the new leaves are about 75% their mature size - that's when they stop being an energy sink and become net producers of energy. After that, or around Father's Day if the plant is doing well, you can cut the plant back to just above a vigorous new branch that will become the new leader. Al

It makes perfect sense as I have only ever used hard water, I shall use rain water captured in our water butt from now on - thank you! I shall also repot him, in a succulent mixture. Gareth - the pot isn't attached to the white unit, the water drains into the white unit through pours in the bottom of the inner pot (black). In all fairness I have probably provided a little too much water, although not too frequently, but it'll still have the same detrimental effect I presume. In terms of mixture to repot into, I'm relatively inexperienced and would appreciate any suggestions in terms of brands and feed etc.

My daughter is moving and asked me to take her Fig Tree until she gets into her apartment. It's almost to my ceiling has 3 branches. She pruned off a dozen or so leaves that were not attractive before sending it over and it looks pretty good. It has moss growing on the surface of the pot and just pushed out two new leaves. So I think it's doing okay. All I've been doing is watering it once a week but now that March is here, wondering if I should think about fertilizing it? What about cleaning the leaves, is there a recommended way of doing so? I was thinking of spraying the leaves with water and then drying them with a paper towel. I also wonder should I be misting it? I'd like to give it back to her in better shape then when I got it.

Hi, Jocelyn. I'm happy to see you came back to share the progress and offer the kind words. Your tree has changed quite a bit from the first images you posted - strong work! "...... now branches A and B are growing a lot faster than the others bc they are closer to the sunlight which is a skylight. Branch D is moderate grower, E and F are toward the wall and not growing much - I think A and B may be shading them. Branch C has no leaves anymore. It used to have a couple but they fell off. That branch is totally shaded. My question is how many branches should I prune? All of them or only A and B, the big growers? Do I prune all the way down to two leaves again? Also, when I prune, is there a direction or exact placement of the cut I should do to encourage branching in one direction vs another? Just trying to figure out how to prevent shading of other branches...but maybe that’s due to the sunlight direction? And would you just cut off Branch C since there are no leaves, and if so, where do I make the cut? I'll try to go through and answer in the order your questions were asked, though I'm sure I'll get overzealous about one question and in expanding on it I'll likely answer other of your questions. I guess that's why the phrase "see above" was coined. As far as how many branches should be pruned, I think all that are growing strongly need pruning to force energy to the weaker branches. The branches growing moderately should be at least pinched (tip pruned to stop extension and force hack-budding. I would prune everything back in bounds.To establish where the boundary is, imagine a giant soup bowl, upside down, and settled over the trunk. Anything sticking out beyond that outline should be cut back to the outline, more specifically, to the leaf that is closest TO the outline w/o extending beyond it. This should produce back-budding in at least the 2 leaves closest to the cut. If the distal leaf heads in the wrong direction, which would be the direction where it will receive less light, you can cut back to the next proximal leaf (1 leaf closer to the trunk). If it was my tree, I would have no problem doing the following: Prune back to the outline as described above, then tip-prune every branch you didn't need to prune to keep it in bounds. Then, remove every leaf on the tree except the last (most distal) leaf on each branch and move the tree outdoors as soon as temps allow. Give it a week in dappled or open shade, then move it where it receives sun for a half day for a week before moving into full sun. This strategy will force lots of back-budding - just be careful not to over-water because transpirational water loss (due to reduction of the canopy) will decrease significantly. If you aren't using Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 regularly, the plant will show its appreciation if you do. If we didn't discuss that previously, we can do that. Oh - keep after the pinching, too. You can see by now, I would guess, how much difference pinching can make. Al