The white spots I see on my Ficus tree are just one spot at the base of the leaf where the branch starts. Is this a bug or something else; the leaves do turn yellow and drop over time. I have changed the soil and removed all these white dots by hand. Help.

Fig is a Celeste and I transplanted it to a terra cotta 24" pot because it was root bound. Today I found rusty spots on it which weren't there a couple of days ago.

Fig trees go dormant in cold weather and drop their leaves. This is part of the natural cycle. Figs are not evergreen. Actually, I love this time of year because when the leaves go yellow, nothing else is going yellow at the time, so it is a perfect time to go hunting for wild figs. I found three in very random wooded off-the-side-of-the-road places this year, and one of them has very, very distinct features that I've never seen before, so I'm really excited about the cuttings I took.

"When it was repotted the dirt was almost all shaken out, before being potted up. I attached an image of the root ball before the dirt was shaken out." ..... good that you removed all or almost all soil. We can talk more about your next repotting session if you like, but I'll provide some images of a Ficus repot so you have a better understanding of how tolerant they are of rootwork. Ficus benjamina "Too Little" Some soil and perimeter roots removed: Soil has been entirely removed: Rootwork finished - ready to be potted. Notice the size of some of the roots removed. All roots remaining are fine/small diameter. Repotted and top rough-pruned. "Do you feel as though maybe it should still be repotted? What steps should I do differently? And should I wait until June or repot immediately so the plant doesn’t suffer any further?" I apologize. I assumed that you would have up-potted only - not realizing you removed all the soil. The only reason I would suggest you repot it again is if I thought the grow medium it is currently in is going to be too water-retentive. There is a world of difference when you're using a grow medium that works FOR you, instead of at cross-purposes to your efforts. If you didn't cut back all roots circling the pot, I'd repot June '22. If you did - June '23. Every other year is normally best for the plant's health and development, but I'll leave you to decide what you want to do. I'm usually always around here trying to help, so it's not like this has to be our last exchange of ideas. Did you notice, when you repotted, that most of the roots were crowded into the space between the soil mass and the pot wall? That is because the medium the plant WAS in did not supply enough oxygen to the roots; so, the only place in the pot that provided an adequate oxygen supply is in the void formed when the soil mass started to shrink away from the pot walls as the grow medium dried down. Roots can't "grow in search of" an adequate oxygen supply, but when they find water, air, and nutrients, they grow there. Notice how roots of the plants colonize the entire soil mass when they are in a highly aerated, fast-draining grow medium: When you consider that fine roots do the lion's share of the heavy lifting for the plant, you can see how essential (a prerequisite, actually) a healthy root system is to a healthy plant. "As per your fertilizer question, this plant was fertilized for the first time since purchased about 2.5 weeks ago with 'Fiddle Leaf Fig Plant Food' image attached as reference." I'm really sorry, but by way of my calculations, the product you bought is hyped to the max. The owner or co-owner of the company was here 3 years ago trying to hype the product. We had a back and forth conversation that essentially focused on whether people were being scammed. This is how it eventually played out, her offerings begin paragraphs (3) in bold. ************************************************************************** Our NPK percentage is 3-1-2. That's NOT what your advertising says. From amazon: "Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree Plant Food for Ficus Lyrata – Calcium Fortified, Urea-Free and with NPKRATIO of 3-1-2 [my emphasis - your words] for Healthy Roots, Stems and Leaves (8 Ounces)." When you tout a 3:1:2 RATIO, the actual NPK % could be minuscule, which in your product they most certainly are. There is a very big difference between a fertilizer's RATIO and its NPK %s. I'm not sure where you are getting your information from. This doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out. Witness that 1 teaspoon of your product makes 2 cups of maintenance strength solution (use every time you water). 1 teaspoon of Foliage-Pro 9-3-6, a legit 3:1:2 RATIO fertilizer, makes 4 gallons of maintenance strength solution at a tiny, tiny fraction of the price you charge for your product. If you'd like to develop your own fertilizer for ficus lyrata, you are welcome to use whichever formula you'd like. There is no need for anyone to formulate their own fertilizer. They can buy better than you offer at a tiny fraction of the price. In fact, I'd bet large you don't "formulate" or manufacture your own product unless you consider buying a product like Foliage-Pro 9-3-6, then diluting it to minuscule NPK %s and selling it as a fertilizer "created specifically for Ficus lyrata" (which is prima facie absurdity in itself). Folks - a 3:1:2 NPK ratio fertilizer (like Foliage-Pro 9-3-6) is indeed great for almost any commonly grown houseplant and all Ficus species, but please beware of what you buy. It's almost always wise to be wary of products that make absurd claims, but don't even tell you what's in the product. ************************************************************************************ 8 oz of the product you have makes 384 oz of maintenance dose solution. The same volume of Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 costs less than 1/3 the amount of what you have, and makes 24,576 ounces of solution with the same NPK %s (3:1:2); so, it makes 64X as much at 1/3 the cost, which means (at that time) they were asking people to pay 192X as much for their fertilizer; this, w/o revealing what's in it, the source from which it derives it's nitrogen, and whether it contains any nutrients other than simply nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. I estimate the actual NPK % of the product you have to be about 0.28 : 0.09 : 0.06, almost nothing, less than 1/2 of 1% (.043%) of nutrients, the rest water. I feel bad for telling you, but I'd feel worse if I didn't. Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 makes an excellent 'go to' fertilizer for all your potted plants except perhaps for hibiscus and tomato, a couple of rogues. Al