Potting up is simply removing the plant from the pot, adding a little fresh soil on the bottom of the new pot, adding the plant, and filling in around the edges with more soil. Potting up, as opposed to repotting, ensures your plant cannot grow to its genetic potential, within the other limiting factors. Repotting includes removing all or nearly all of the soil and pruning roots. All the plants I work with in Moraceae (the Ficus family), which includes many species of Ficus + mulberry get bare-rooted at every repot and a complete change of soil. This guarantees the plant does have the opportunity to grow to its genetic potential within other limiting factors. I'll kind of narrate what I was thinking and describe what I did. Three or four years ago, I conducted a workshop with Ficus b 'Too Little' as the subject material. This tree was exceptionally ugly, and no one wanted it, so I took it home & set it on the grow bench. I cut it back hard as soon as I brought it home to establish some sort of future branch structure. I know I repotted it at least once, because it's in the gritty mix, but I didn't remember anything in particular about the tree because I only looked at the roots once & regarded it as pre-bonsai material. The pots are by Sarah Rayner, and I intended to put the plant in one of them after the work, but it took more than I thought it would to straighten out the root nightmare, so I wanted a larger pot with a greater soil volume to allow the plant a year to recover. The tree before starting: This is how the roots looked after I had removed a small amount of soil from the perimeter: There were a LOT of roots. A closer look, confirming that there is a mess under the soil that will need some work: If the roots are ugly, it won't matter to you because you'll bury them. In bonsai, the root base and exposed roots are a very important part of the composition because they are a very important part of the illusion of great age. This doesn't really tell you much, other than there are a LOT of healthy roots to be dealt with: As noted, I bare root Ficus completely. As I work, I submerge the tree in a tub like this, or I use a spritzer if the tree is too large for that kind of treatment. The important part is to be sure the roots don't dry out as you work on them: Sorry for the detour. I snapped this because it was close to where I was working and thought you might like it: Back to work now. The roots are still a mess, but you can see that I really whacked them hard. I didn't leave much in the way of any large roots. Normally, I don't cut the top back at the same time I work on roots, but the tree had so much foliage that the remaining roots could never support it. This means that the tree would have shed weak branches that might be important to the end composition. By cutting the tree back hard, it should prevent random die-back because I selected the branches to be 'shed'. Treatment this harsh should only be undertaken on healthy trees with plenty of reserve energy. You can see how large some of the roots I removed were: A look at the roots on the other side: The pot I settled on, a Tokonome ceramic training pot, prepared with a screen & a wick (wick, to facilitate drainage until the plant is well established & roots have colonized the entire soil mass). I did too much work on the tree to put it directly into one of the bonsai pots. The larger soil volume of the training pot will help it to recover faster: After potting. I'll cover the scar with waterproof wood glue to keep the cambium from drying & dying back. It's a large scar, but should heal over by the time the tree is fit to show, in 4-5 years: The other side: After the repotting work: The last is after the top is cut back hard and the tree has been secured to the container. I often prefer this method of securing plants instead of wiring them into the pot. It IS important though, to secure the tree so it can't move in relation to the pot. Jostling the tree or the wind, breaks many tiny roots and greatly extends recovery time. The wound has been dressed. The tree actually looks much better than the picture shows because you can't get any perspective on how the branches are positioned. Branching looks messy in the photo, but it doesn't when you're in front of the tree. A few days in the shade & then back on the bench until night temps start dropping below 50*. It comes in at that time after a couple of applications of neem oil about 2 weeks apart: That's about it - can't think of anything else at the moment. I hope it was helpful and hope even more that it bolstered your courage. ;o) Take care. Al

Have you repotted the fig. The roots grow quickly and fill the pot. Also if it is standing in water in the bottom of the pot that can cause root rot. Check for scale also. they are small brown round spots in corners of branches. They suck and kill. Penny

I can also confirm not. I actually started a thread to ask the same question when I first got mine. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/4004742/is-this-scale-on-my-new-ficus-lyrata

Happens but not often. Apically dominant plants typically grow faster at the apex. They just want to grow tall as fast possible. You will see a lot plants in nature do that before paying attention to lateral branches. As more lateral branches grow they have their own apex and want to do the same thing - grow out far. The apex produces an auxin which travels down the stem and inhibits the buds to grow new branches. But if the apex is far enough it influence down below reduces and so when the branch/stem is long enough you will start seeing side branches popping out. In your case it just did it earlier than usual. Sometimes a nick or injury above a node will induce that. That fact it can be used as means to also trick the plant to produce a side branch. I do that sometimes with partial success.