linnea, I don't see a photo of your soil or the pot size relative to the plant, but I recently repotted a rather desperate leggy schefflera and found pretty much what you did: aside from a lot of thick woody roots that circled the pot and went in all kinds of less-than-useful directions, there were only a few small clumps of healthy looking roots which I pruned off, except for a few inches of a couple to support the unbalanced plant while I tired it down. I'm fairly positive that the culprit was overwatering due to a pot-full of old, collapsed, very fine soil along with mineral buildup from bottom-watering, both of which killed most of the roots. I had pinched the growing tips of this plant's branches a few weeks before finding this site, and got even worse results--no branching or new stems, although a single little lead did emerge from the smallest branch. The inauspicious timing contributed to the lack of growth, but after repotting it seems obvious that the lack of a functioning root system was the main problem. Now the schefflera is in 5-1-1. I can't stand not knowing what's going on in there, so I'm going to gently depot it next summer just to see what the roots look like!

I'm not sure if this comment will be seen, since this post is years old, but I wanted to explain why we say that a plant likes to be tight in its pot. House plants thrive when they're tighter in their pots because it allows for energy to be put into their leaves. When a pot is too big for the root system, the plant diverts all of its energy into developing roots to fill out the pot. This takes energy away from the foliage, and will slow down leaf/stem growth, and can cause the plant to drop leaves to make more energy in the root systems. Bigger pots also mean more soil to water. When there's more soil to water, the soil takes longer to dry out, which leads to roots sitting in wet soil for too long, which leads to root rot. So when we say "this plant likes to be tight in its pot" it's because of all of the above stated reasons. In nature, the moisture is usually evenly dispersed throughout the soil. There's also plenty of sunlight and wind to stimulate growth. Indoor conditions are vastly different, therefore the care is vastly different.

I'd repot in a container of its own, as floral suggested. These actually can grow to be large shrubs and with an appropriately sized root system :-) I'd also look into a faster draining, less peat-based, more mineral potting soil as well. These plants are quite happy in rather dry soil conditions and peat tends to hold too much water.

Based on what's been written so far, there's a lot to talk about. First, unless the cultural conditions are near or beyond the limits the plant is genetically programmed to tolerate, the idea that a plant needs to adjust to its surroundings before you make any cultural changes is a myth. If the timing is right and you know a particular cultural change represents an improvement - do it. It makes no sense to wait to improve a plants cultural lot, with a couple of exceptions. 1) A new fertilizer regimen for new plants which have been fertilized with controlled release fertilizer should begin with a bit of caution to ensure you don't at first over-fertilize by adding to the residual charge already in the soil. If no CRF in the soil, start your own fertilizing regimen within a week or two. 2) It's not a life/death call if you discover your Ficus needs repotting. Your tree has a natural rhythms (the main one being the annual growth cycle) during which its strength will vary gradually from it's strongest to weakest. It will be strongest sometime around the Summer Solstice (Jun 21 in N Hemisphere). Remembering to repot almost all houseplants at that time by associating repotting time with the Solstice or Father's Day is an easy way to keep track of when to repot. There is a huge difference between potting up and repotting. Potting up means you move all the root problems to a larger pot where they continue to impose their limitations. Repotting, which includes bare-rooting, root pruning, and a change of soil, ensures ALL issues related to root congestion go away until the congestion rebuilds to the degree another repot is in the plants best interest. Trees under 25 years old should be repotted every 1-2 or 3 years, depending on their natural genetic vigor, the care they have received, and their actual age. Young trees build mass faster than old trees, so need repotting more often. The weeks surrounding the solstice because that's when recovery is fastest. Stored energy levels will be near peak and current ability to make food (through photosynthesis) is at peak. A plant grows when it's making more food than it's using to maintain it's living parts. A plant that isn't growing is in an unsustainable phase because it's not making more energy than it uses. This is particularly true and a serious problem (for the plant) if growth is stalled any time during mid spring to late fall, which represents the most robust portion of the growth cycle. Whether or not a Ficus tolerates a larger pot well is almost wholly dependent on soil choice. If the soil is too water-retentive, soil saturation will rob the plant of some serious potential. If the soil is highly aerated and drains completely, you could move a tree from a 3" pot to a 55 gallon drum and expect explosive growth as opposed to potting up bumping it up to the next larger pot size and calling it good. For Brandi - if/when you can lift the root/soil mass from the pot, intact, it needs repotting; but, don't rush to repot unless there's a soil emergency (holds too much water and is causing root rot) until late spring.summer 2021. Al