Don't be too anxious to check for roots by tugging on the plant - that can set the plant back considerably by breaking any fine roots that might be forming. When new growth is apparent, you'll know the plant has rooted. Watering every 2 days is much too often - especially if you didn't screen the perlite and if you stuck the cutting deep into the pot. The end of the cutting should not be immersed in any perched water the container/perlite holds. That will reduce the chances your plant will root w/o problems considerably. If you want a full plant, you need to truncate the main stem about 2/3 of the height at which you envision maintaining the plant. This will force branching from the main stem. Then, when branches on the lower half of the tree get to 4-5 leaves, cut the branch back to 2-3 leaves. When branches on the upper half of the tree get to 3 leaves, cut them back to 2 leaves. This will increase the ramification (fullness) exponentially. Al

This plant likes a LOT of humidity, so keep that in mind. I don't grow this plant, but my experience with the viney species of Ficus is that they usually have preformed root primordia at every node, making them exceptionally easy to root. I would shoot for an annual chop, prolly around Father's day. Rather than chop because the plant is top heavy, I'd stake it and take advantage of the food/energy produced by the leaves you would have removed to add girth and strength to the main stem. I have a F pumila 'Curly' that I started 15 years ago (a viney ficus), and the main trunk is only about a half inch in diameter. Most viney plants tend to focus almost all of their growth on extension instead of radial thickening. If you want it to grow full, prune all branches back to 2 leaves. As new branches form from the axils of leaves remaining, let them grow to 4 leaves, then prune back to 2 leaves. That maximizes the number of branches and leaves (ramification) and keeps your plant nice & full. After a single season, you just prune off the growth you don't think fits with whatever your vision for the plant is. Take a year to get to know the plant and learn how to keep it healthy. Tree time moves ahead much more slowly than people time - a year is nothing to a tree. Al

Insofar as how it would impact root health, there is no difference between plastic and high-fired clay/ceramic. If you can see no crazing (myriad small cracks reminiscent of a fish net with small holes) in the glaze, you can eliminate anything toxic making its way from the pot to the grow medium. If you haven't fertilized or used any type of tonics, insecticides, leaf shine, detergents, etc., it's a very good bet you have unwittingly over-watered due to the fact there is no way for water to evaporate or be used by the plant as the new medium is not colonized by roots and remains a hostile environment to roots due to lack of oxygen. My suggestion would be to lift the plant from the pot to see it the lower reaches of the soil column are saturated. If so, see figure D below. Remove the soil from the new pot, place an over-turned pot in the bottom of the pot so it fits snugly, and cover the drain hole of the over-turned pot with something that won't rot (it does not need to allow water to drain through the hole in the over-turned pot, but it's ok to use a screen if you wish). Mix enough of the soil that falls away from the roots or remains in the large pot with an equal measure of perlite and fill to the top of the over-turned pot, then reposition your plant on top of the pot. and back-fill with the remaining soil w/o the extra perlite. The shaded areas in the images above represents perched water. By comparing D to A, you can see the over-turned pot significantly reduces the amount of excess (perched) water your soil will b e able to hold, so air will return the the soil much faster. The operational words for the moisture level of a grow medium is damp/moist, never wet/soggy. After having put the pot to work as ballast, start checking moisture levels with a "tell" you can make from a wooden dowel rod. It is far superior to a finger or a "moisture meter". More about using a 'tell': Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Questions? Al

Nice! I had an unknown ficus gifted to me by a family member that i had repotted for her a while back in 5:1:1, and since, it has reversed it's decline and been pushing out new growth. I looked at it in a whole new light now that I have been interested in bonsai. It has a ton of aerials like yours near the trunk, and once I get it trimmed and wired into a rough shape where It has horizontal branches, I want to see about getting some aerials growing on the lower branches. Ill post some pics tonight, and ask for some design ideas.