Niel... First, never listen to HD employees..lol.. One question to you..Why did you repot in a container, if you intended to plant outside in-ground? If you plan on planting in-ground, the sooner the better. As long as your Ficus roots are established, like any other plant/tree, it should be done immediately. To separate..Remove from pot, and carefully 'if possible,' untangle roots. Sometimes, soaking roots w/a hose is easier than pulling apart. Working with roots will have some drawbacks, but after time, they'll acclimate. IMO, Ficus Elastica isn't as fussy as F. Beji. I personally do NOT like MG Moisture Control. However, since you already purchased this stuff, the soil should have been amended with other agents..For instance, additional Perlite and extra coarse sand. (Does the pot have drainage?) I hope so. Even if you placed stones on the bottom, the water needs an escape route. Soil needs to dry between waterings. If there's no drainage holes, the soil will stay too wet for prolonged periods. If you plan on keeping your Ficus in container/s any length of time, I'd repot ASAP. Then again, when are you thinking of planting in-ground? I'm a tad confused with your plans... What type of light was your Ficus in at HD? Was it outside or in the gh? Or elsewhere? Never put a new plant in direct sun..Start off in semi-shade, then work its way into brighter light. Yes, it's true Ficus dote on sun, but not in the beginning. Too much light can be the reason your Ficus is drooping...I hope its soil isn't saturated... If it's wet, don't add more..and please don't fertilizer. Ficus don't like change, 'especially F. benji's,' so some drooping is normal. But, I have a feeling relocating isn't the only problem. Some plants go in shock when repotted, and if your Ficus doesn't like its new environment, 'soil' leaves will show distress. BTW, is you Ficus in or outside? Remove your Ficus from full sun ASAP. Place in medium light. What, to question 4? lol. No, you are not supposed to saturate then put extra water to flush..Especially every time you water..Neil, if you follow these instructions, you'll have one/three dead Ficus. It's true, after repotting the rootball should be watered thoroughly. But no additional watering/leaching is necessary, 'especially after each watering.' Leaching is done mainly to drain salts that have accumulated in soil, from chemcial fertilizers. Twice a year is sufficent. It's best done outdoors, with a hose. Run water through the soil, until it seeps out of drainage holes. It's a good idea to leach, but if done too often, there's no sense in adding fertilizer..it'd run right through. BTW, what type of fertilizer are you planning on using? Do not keep soil constantly wet..it will cause rot. Ficus are not bog plants. Hope I was of some help, Neil. Toni

I'ma skeert, too. I want to see what it will do next summer first. My green one put out some new small branches from the soil this year, which is helping to fill in the naked trunk without having to lop. I was hoping maybe my tri-color would do the same? Hey Dalar, could you post pics? Maybe we won't all be so chicken once we see the results LOL

I missed the 4th picture from the top, which shows the leaf arrangement to be 'opposite' (leaves arranged in pairs on opposite sides of the branch). Ficus leaves are alternate (arranged singly along the stem in alternating locations). So whatever it is, it's not a Ficus. Some good Samaritan who's better at IDs than I, will come along and tell you what it is. Your soil should be something you can water to beyond the saturation point (so you're flushing accumulating salts from the soil) without the need to worry the soil will stay soggy so long it affects root health or function. Your soil choice is probably going to have more impact on how easy/ difficult it will be to keep your new pals healthy. I'm not sure how much effort you want to put into learning about the importance of soil choice and it's impact on plant vitality; if you're interested this link covers it, and probably represents the largest step forward a container gardener can take at any one time. The goal for fertilizing containerized plants can easily be described. Ideally, we would work toward ensuring that all the nutrients plants normally secure from the soil are in the soil solution at all times, in the ratio at which the plant actually uses the nutrients, and at a concentration high enough to ensure no deficiencies yet low enough to ensure the plant isn't impeded in its ability to take up water and the nutrients dissolved in water. This goal is easily achievable using one water soluble synthetic fertilizer. You CAN use organic forms of nutrition, like fish/seaweed emulsions or various types of meal, but that makes it much more difficult to achieve the goal. I use Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 because it has ALL the essential nutrients in the ratio at which plants actually use the nutrients, and it gets most of its N from nitrate sources, which helps to allow plants in low light conditions to remain compact and helps keep them from getting leggy. Al

Bare with me, I just started turning my black thumb into a green one this year so I'm slowly working my way to different kinds of plants. :-) I finally graduated to house plants a month or so ago, and I went to the nursery for a stromanthe and ended up also buying a pretty rubber tree. I'm not sure if it's doescheri or tricolor but I'm pretty sure it's one of the two. Anyway, my stromanthe seems to be doing just fine (it was looking a little sad at the nursery tbh, I think it's filled out a little). However, I've noticed a few things with my ficus. The first is that it seems to be dropping a lot of leaves. I've picked up four off the floor in the last few days. Some of them had brown spots on them, some of them didn't. There are no brown spots on any of the leaves still on the tree. I searched the forums but all the spotting issues I saw were way worse than mine. I've just had some pretty small, round brown spots - not the extreme patching I've seen on other plants (yikes!). It seems like the consensus on those brown spots was watering and/or fertilization issue. I have never used fertilizer on any of my plants. I doubt I have been overwatering as I have been waiting for the soil to dry out in between waterings, and so have only watered it a couple of times (it's due for another today). I haven't repotted it from the nursery pot because the rootball was too big to fit into any planters I had, and I haven't been able to find a pot w/ tray in the correct size yet (the guy at Home Depot told me terra cotta is a SEASONAL! item? What?) so I haven't changed the soil. So second thing. The plant seems to be doing well other than that. It is growing new leaves. The new leaves are much shinier than the other leaves (I'm assuming this is normal), however, they are somewhat curled and not flat like the others. Is that normal? (I'm guessing they come out of the little red offshoots on the plant, so curling doesn't seem out of the question). They are also much more pink than green/cream like the other leaves. Do baby leaves go through color transitions? I read that the coloring is dependent on the light. I have the ficus on my coffee table in my room, it's in front of a south facing window. However, there's a building and a large tree on the other side of the window, that limits the amount of light that comes in. I figured that this perfectly fulfilled the suggestion of "bright but indirect" light. I could be wrong, this is the only light loving plant that I have indoors at the moment. I know that the succulents don't get enough light in my room, and I have gotten completely mixed suggestions on the amount of light that a stromanthe should receive, so I'm currently experimenting with a mostly shady corner of my room. I'm also experimenting with the ficus, because my room does get sunlight but I'm not sure if it's adequate enough to satisfy most plants, and I'm hoping to grow many more plants in my room (going for a Poison Ivy's lair look). Sorry, I don't have any photos of the brown spots because in a sleep-deprived stupor I tossed them without remembering I was going to ask you all about it. I can take some photos of the plant itself if it would help. Thanks!