Summer semester begins on Monday. Sunday is my last day to dig and pack. Monday is my last day dropping packages to the Post Office. I still have tons of it. Pm me asap. I have to close the offer on Sunday, 6/16/13. Thanks all who saved my plants.

Hi growlove, There are a couple options. You could re pot the whole plant in one size larger pot or separate the pups [which is your question] Its quite messy,but to separate everthing, I would take everything out of the pot. Carefully go through the roots untill you can see where the different plants join the parent. If you get enough roots on all of the offshoots, you could then pot them up individually. good luck, really hope this helps!

"I pick them and am very careful to dig up the whole root and then there are 15 more the next week" Here's part of the problem - you are bringing new weed seeds to the surface. Instead of digging out the whole root,use a V-blade weeder and slice through the root about an inch below the surface and remove it with as little disturbance to the soil as possible. We have asparagus in the garden which comes up every year so that is kind of limiting my options You can protect the asparagus shoots with bags or cardboard boxes and spray the weeds with a systemic killer like generic glyphosate. Give it an hour to dry and remove the shielding. Weeds have heavy and light years. I'm up to my armpits in weeds in NM, too. After you get this batch under control, thick mulches can suppress weeds.

I studied Tapla's answers, and I still have a few questions about my leggy ficus. (Tapla, I also messaged you. Hope that's okay.) It's fine that you messaged me, but I get 10-20 messages from Houzz/GW members daily, and I'm so far behind (at least 100 messages) I'll likely not catch up any time soon. I've owned a small construction related corporation (glass company) for 40 years now, and I've never seen anything like the business climate I've seen for the last few years, especially the last 2 years. I expected to transfer ownership to a new stockholder on Aug 1, but that's been moved ahead to Sep 1. Hopefully I'll finally get to retire then. Basically, I'm a lot busier than I want to be, and don't have a lot of time to myself. 1. Is this what I need to buy? Slightly larger pot Equal parts pine or fir bark Turface Gran-I-Grit or #2 Cherry Stones Gypsum Do I mix those things in equal parts? Small pruning saw Pruning clippers You'll need all of those things, but don't get your heart set on being able to find all of those ingredients in a weekend. You might, but it's not likely. As a fall-back position, you might want to concentrate on finding some pine bark in an appropriate size and some coarse perlite. The ingredients you listed would be what's required to make the gritty mix, but there is no sense in making it if you're not set up to screen the ingredients. You'll pay a premium for the gritty mix, and made correctly, it's well worth it, but made incorrectly - it's just another middling media that offers nothing you cant get from the 5:1:1 mix. You can use something like the 5:1:1 and do just fine with it, or you can use a bagged medium and eliminate almost all of the perched water by Using Ballast. 5:1:1 mix ^^^ 2. Is it okay for me to repot and prune on the same day? I know the ficus is definitely in the wrong kind of soil now. Yes - I do it all the time. There is very little risk if the plant is healthy. You'll need to prune carefully though. I can help more with that later. 3. Should I put rocks in the bottom of the pot? That depends. Rocks can be effective if they're used as ballast, but they can be ineffective, or worse, counterproductive if used as a "drainage layer". 4. To repot — I spray the roots with the garden hose. I cut off the bottom third of the roots with a pruning saw. Then loosen roots and cut off any that are big or encircling. Put in pot, add dirt, poke dirt around roots with a chopstick. Put in more dirt. Cut the bottom off first, then remove the soil, then prune problem roots. Do Not prune off roots attached to the bole of the tree. That's the part where the trunk transitions to roots. You want horizontal roots radiating outward from the trunk. Problem roots are those growing straight up, straight down, crossing roots, circling roots, girdling roots, roots growing back toward the center of the root mass, and j-hooked roots. While working the roots, it's important that you NEVER let the roots get dry. Work inside of a large tub if you need to and keep those roots wet! 5. To prune — I take off the top 80%? The goal isn't to remove just any 80% of the top. I'm guessing that to bring the tree back to a point where you can start rebuilding, that's about what you'll end up removing, but the selection should be judicious rather than random or haphazard. Maybe I can cut a branch off of a tree with the same leaf arrangement as ficus and give you some guidance. In all honesty, it will be very difficult and time consuming to try to teach you how to prune in a forum setting, but I'll try. It look like you'll need to take of the horizontal branch about half-way up the tree moving to the left in the image. Then, you'll pretty much be pruning back to roughly the outline of peck or half bushel basket from where that branch is removed upward. Should I leave the little limbs at the bottom? I would. First, you can always remove them at any time. Second - when you prune hard, you'll be left with a large root system telling (by way of chemical messengers) the top to hurry up and replace the growth you removed. The lower branches will siphon off some of that extra energy and help prevent the top from putting on coarse growth - large leaves and long internodes. You want your tree to be as compact as possible. This is a F benjamina: This used to be the tree above: This is what it looked like about 15 years ago ^^^ After defoliation: After pruning and some wiring: I’m not sure of the difference between a hard prune and a regular prune. Is it possible to over-prune? A hard prune is one where a large % of the top is removed to reveal a basic framework it makes sense to build on. For the average growing, a 'regular' pruning would be the one you do every June to remove all of the lanky growth and long internodes the tree put on during the dark days of winter. Prune in June, pinch for the rest of the summer, give the tree it's head (don't prune) from Sep thru May. 6. It gets up to the 90’s here. Is it okay for the ficus to be outside in the heat? 80* is fine for Ficus, but you should shade the container if in full sun to keep soil temps from getting so high it kills roots. If it's really hot and sun is intense, your tree will appreciate some shade during midday, especially if you're at high elevation. 7. How long should I wait before I fertilize? Wait until the fall? You can fertilize as soon as you're sure the tree is pushing new growth. I use Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 for all my plants but for a couple. Even then I still use it, but add some extra K for plants with an affection for it, like hibiscus. Thanks so much! I appreciate your patience with this beginner. No problem. I enjoy helping. Al