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

Likely fireblight. Cut the whole branch out.

Could easily be a product of two years of drought. Either direct damage, or weakening/stressing the tree so that it starts to fall victim to something else.I Elm that I drive by on the way home I noticed a few days ago, is dying after surviving two horrendous years. Even if the weather is great for the next five years, there will continue to be casualties during that time due to the last two years. My "GUESS" on very limited info, is that it is the result of drought. Have the tree checked out by a PROFESSIONAL CERTIFIED Arborist if you want to keep it (what I would do), and that doesn't mean some Monkey with a chainsaw that claims to be a professional pruner etc. Anyway, you go, the tree needs treatment of some sort at best, and removal at worst. Arktrees

I don't think it's a bug problem, bingo. I don't know of any insects which can cause wilting like that... I'd stop spraying, as it probably isn't doing anything but costing you money. That branch-by-branch progression you're describing is extremely typical of a fungal or bacterial wilt. They persist in the soil for years, and in the case of the fungi, some varieties handle it better than others. My biggest question is: do the leaves turn yellow, or just limp floppy green all of a sudden? If it's yellow I'd say Fusarium wilt, a fungus -- it's what is named by the F in "VFFNT", which you find on some hybrid tomato labels. Sadly, hybrids with tolerances like the ones listed in VFFNT only last another week or two; it's important to a farmer trying to get out a crop, but not so useful to a home gardener. The only solution I know of is to stop growing any susceptible plant in that bed -- anything in the nightshade family, which has tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and potatoes -- and grow them in containers with store-bought soil, raised off the ground. If you use the same tools all over the garden, it will spread. If it's floppy green without a hint of yellow, cut off one of the affected stems and stick it in a glass of water. I can just about guarantee you'll find milky streams coming from the cut end within minutes. It's a sign of bacterial wilt, a nasty critter with no cure that's usually brought in with store-bought transplants. The only way around it is, again, to stop using the bed for anything bothered by it and switch to isolated containers with uncontaminated potting mix. I find bacterial wilt a lot less likely, though, as it tends to nuke every tomato plant out there and shouldn't spare your grape tomatoes. My money's on Fusarium. --Alison