That also opens the door to the possibility that the new container is too large - especially if the soil isn't drying quickly enough (you have described some classic symptoms related to the former). You can grow small plants in very large containers, and even achieve what is tantamount to rampant growth if you are using a soil that drains quickly and remains well-aerated at all times. This is accomplished by using ingredients to make soils comprised of relatively large particles (compared to those in peat-based soils). Al

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

You don't get out much? Lead a sheltered life? ;-) See why GW is the best place to be? You can learn stuff here, that you can't learn at the other places you frequent. Ignoring its existence or sacrificing reason on the the skeptic's altar does nothing to relieve its limiting effects, btw. Once upon a time there was a man who wanted to become proficient at bonsai in the worst way, but he failed. He realized that root problems related to his soil choice were limiting his ability to keep his plants viable for the long term, so he put the plants aside and hit the books & the net until he had fixed his problems. Realizing that MOST other hobby growers were suffering under the same limitations HE had suffered under before he figured out how to fix them, he started to share what he had learned ..... I didn't 'discover' the concept. All growers with even a basic working knowledge of soils recognize it as an inherent part of growing. How water behaves in any medium is bound by a very rigid and predictable set of physical principles. All I did was define those principles in a way that allows anyone who wants to, to take advantage of a concept that can be used to build soils that work FOR the grower, instead of against him. Cindy - If the soil is colonized by roots and you can still detect moisture in the soil, in most cases there is no NEED to water. What determines whether or not a watering that occurs before it's needed is harmful and to what degree it might be harmful, is whether or not it creates a PWT, and if it does, how much and for how long. When you use MG soils, you must either water in sips or endure the effects of the PWT created when you water correctly. When plants are growing well and the planting is mature (roots fully colonizing soil and in the fast growth part of the growth cycle) a temporary PWT might be very tolerable because the water ion the PWT is used quickly, but in all cases where the PWT hangs around for a significant amount of time, the grower leaves a lot of potential lying on the table, EVEN if there is no direct evidence of root rot or spoiled foliage. Simply put, airless conditions in the root zone impede water and nutrient uptake, which affects growth and vitality. Plus, the fine roots subjected to the effects of the PWT die off very quickly, so the regeneration of these roots before growth recommences is all paid for in the form of lost potential. Since I did not detect any standing water can I assume that I did not have a PWT present after I flush watered?? Forgive me, but I'm not sure what you're asking. PWT in pots is the same as static water level within the ground? correct?? Not necessarily. Technically, water doesn't 'perch' due to slow percolation or a lack thereof. There are many cases where water exists close to the surface for extended periods because of a bedrock substrata, or even as clay substrata. When this occurs, it's simply slow or no percolation that is causal. Water can stratify even in coarse gravel under these conditions. PERCHED water is water that is held so tightly in intra-particulate (between particles) spaces that gravity cannot force it to drain from the soil. Will a constant light moisture cause any of the harmful "too wet" symptoms that most times will occur with houseplants? leaf discoloration, leaf drop, etc. NO. Constant light moisture (about like a recently wrung out sponge) is about as close to ideal as you can get for houseplants. Unfortunately, it's pretty close to unachievable. The closest you'll get in conventional container culture is with soils like the gritty mix. You can wet them frequently and they don't hold perched water in any significant volume, so they have an extremely favorable ratio of moisture:air as long as you water regularly. At the other extreme, when using heavy soils, every time you water like you should, you have extremely unfavorable conditions in whatever fraction of the soil holds perched water for as long as it holds perched water. That the soil CAN hold perched water is related to particle size and the tiny size of the air spaces between particles, so even the soil above the level of the PWT is going to have less aeration than soils formulated from larger particles, which means that even at their best (when the PWT has disappeared and the soil is largely just damp) these soils are still significantly inferior to soils with much better aeration. What signs should I watch for so that I can accurately water my tree? I have light moisture top - bottom with a rootball that should be within 2" of the bottom of the pot. I know I am experiencing water vapor within the pot: but, at what stage does the moisture get low enough to prevent this from occurring? -or- does it? How do you best determine when the moisture is too low to be absorbed? First, the less PW a soil holds, the less important it is to be concerned about over-watering. You could probably run a hose on a plant in a well made gritty mix for an hour twice each day & not over-water. It has all those evenly spaced air spaces between the soil particles that are large to fill up with water, so the soil is always extremely well-aerated from top to bottom. If you first put a definition to what a perfect container soil would be, it's actually very easy to see what type of materials you would need to use to achieve that end, and what types of materials are counterproductive when it comes to striving for the superlative. ;-) That would make an interesting conversation - reverse engineering a soil ..... Keep testing like you are. Use the wood dowel or a finger at the drain hole. Use your judgment - if you think you're under-watering, don't hold out and cause unnecessary stress, but in most cases, if you can still detect moisture, you can hold off watering (soil fully colonized w/roots). Al

Al: Over watering might be it and I was just thinking it needs to be re-potted. I was also thinking it may be fertilizers. It is in the 70's during the day and maybe drops ten degrees at night. I fertilized end of October I believe - this will teach me to keep better records. I used a tropical fertilizer. The majority of the plants in this greenhouse are tropical so maybe that combination is not the best for the ficus. I think it was around 1.5 cups that I used for the 24" container.