Ficus binnendijkii 'Alii' prefers bright, indirect sun; moist, but not soaked soil; extra humidity can be provided by a humidifier or a tray of pebbles beneath the pot, but don't let the pot sit in the water as the soil will wick the water and root rot is fatal. The dark patches may be "sunburn" from getting too bright sun or from lack of extra humidity or a combination of the two. Keep spraying those stinking spider mites! Those stinkin' bugs...I too have an infestation now. Good luck!

If the shop owner holds tight to the idea that his instructions were on target, I have to seriously question his expertise/judgment, regardless of his credentials or how long he has been selling plants. This is stuff that every hobby grower learns in Ficus 101, and he should know better. Scoot on over to the Houseplant Forum and ask about a watering regimen if you have reservations about accepting one person's (that would be me) ;o) assessment of your plight. I won't be offended. "Is root rot reversible?" I want to remain technically correct, so I have to say NO. Dead, rotted tissue is just that - DEAD. You cannot bring it back to life. Trees are not like people, in that they do not form new cells in old places - they are not regenerative. Trees are generative, which means that as they grow, they form new cells in new places. In order to correct the root rot, you'll need to depot the tree, remove the soil, and prune rotted tissues back to beyond the point where they are viable. Alternately, if you're not up to the root work, you can try depotting the plant & leaving it set on newspapers over night. This should dry the soil out & you can then return the plant to its container and begin watering appropriately as required, and hope. "Is it necessary to mist the plant daily?" NO There is plenty of scientific evidence to support the idea that misting is more apt to be harmful than beneficial (see my post) and refute the idea that it is necessary or even marginally effective. "The owner of the shop keeps all of his Ficus trees outside in full sun during the day. So, when I received my ficus, the lighting conditions drastically changed. The owner of the shop stated that my leaf loss was due to the fact that my ficus was adjusting to my new environment and lighting conditions. It can take at least 4 to 6 weeks (or longer) for it to acclimate and I should not worry. Is this true?" While it's true, as noted above, that a reduction in light levels between the outdoor conditions at the plant store and your home can cause the leaf abscission, it's NOT true that it's no cause for concern. Your plant should have more stored energy now than at any other point in the growth cycle. Instead, the tree's food-making ability has vanished with the leaves (so the tree is operating on stored energy), PLUS, the tree will have to expend nearly ALL of its energy reserves to push a new flush of growth. Your tree is much closer to needing intensive care than it is to a worry-free winter vacation. I'm not going to go into the insect/disease thing, other than to say that the leaf 'disease' is likely a product of oedema due to over-watering. Of course he's "surprised" your plant has an insect infestation. Based on his reluctance to step up to the plate so far, I wouldn't expect any other reaction, unless it was to blame the bugs on you. ;o) Forget the water meter. They don't measure moisture - they measure EC (electrical conductivity). To test this idea - stick the probe in a cup of distilled water and notice that it reads 'DRY'. Dissolve a tsp of salt in the water and it becomes 'WET'. It is better at measuring fertility levels (the level of dissolved solids [salts] in the soil solution) than moisture levels. Al

Roots were kept moist throughout. Cleared off every bit of soil we could and untangled roots, then removed lower portion. I did recognize that it was more like regular soil and have been letting it dry fully (2.5 weeks before 2nd watering). I check by digging my finger in as low as I can. For the first year I was watering every 2-3 weeks. I would not be surprised to hear that I overpotted. The pot used to contain the plastic one that the tree came in for the first year, and I moved into the containing pot instead when repotting since the plastic one was a mess and cracking.

Unless something really bad happened during the repot - like the roots dried out badly, I expect the plant to make a quick recovery, I have a F diversifolia I moved directly into full sun a couple of weeks ago. All it's leaves are going yellow and falling off. I'm not concerned a bit about it. Unless there's something seriously wrong with your medium or how you're watering, your tree should be fine. I'm not saying that to make you feel good - I'm saying that because that's what usually happens more than 9 of 10 times. Also, my diversifolia puts out figs non stop. If yours has figs, remove them. They are a strong energy sink and the tree will expend too much energy on maturing the fruit as opposed to growing new roots. Al