Got your message - figured I'd reply here. When a ficus other than one of the vining species gets to the point it can't hold its head up, it's telling you it wants more light. The options are to give it more light, support it mechanically with a stake or some other rigging (yuk), or shorten the plant which effectively stiffens the stem. It doesn't really stiffen the stem, but reducing the ht reduces the amount of deflection and makes it almost like the stem is stiffer. The best choice of the three is to shorten the plant, but that is at odds for your desire for a taller plant .... which means you need to decide how you want to move forward. The stem thickens in a direct relation to how much photosynthesizing surface there plant has and how much light hits that surface. To realize your goals, it's distinctly to your advantage to maximize the number of leaves and give the plant as much light as possible. Low light does cause loss of low leaves and leaves furthest from the growing tips of branches - so does root congestion. If you want a recipe for robust growth, it's this: Use a very large pot and a very fast (draining) soil, like the gritty mix - one you can't over-water unless you work hard at it. Give the plant all the light and air movement it will take (bright light and air movement stimulate back-budding and activation of latent buds), and feed heavily - a full strength dose of a good fertilizer (like MG 12-4-8 or Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 [my favorite]) weekly during strong growth periods. To maximize ramification (leaf and branch density), regularly cutting all branches with 4 or more leaves back to 2 leaves will force the highest number of leaves and branches into the least amount of space. As the plant grows, you can select branches growing toward the vertical as the leader, pruning competing secondary leaders so they don't confuse the eye by making the tree appear to have 2 heads. You can notch above a leaf or tip prune to force back-budding, or start pruning everything but the main leader (unless it's flopping over) back to 2 leaves. Everything is easier if you can keep your plants in good health. Good plant health starts with good root health. As long as you have to fight your soil for control of root health, progress will move ahead much more slowly than if the root system was enjoying good health. If you have both the soil AND insufficient light w2orking to limit your efforts, progress can still be made, but it will be much, much slower than if conditions were ideal. Al

Lift the plant from the pot and set the root/soil mass on a stack of newspapers. The papers will act as a wick and pull the excess water from the soil. Monitor the plant's water needs carefully. While the plant doesn't appreciate being left to go completely dry, a very dry soil is less likely to cause problems than a wet soil, so if you must err, err on the dry side. Keep the plant in the light it's accustomed to. Leaves' ability to acclimate to increases and decreases in photo load have limits, and you don't want to risk the plant shedding the foliage it has because you're pushing the limits. At certain times of the year, with healthy plants, there is little concern if leaves cannot tolerate the increased photo load, but a sick plant going into winter MUST retain as much foliage as possible if it's still to be with you come spring. If you're fairly certain the plant is not going to make it through the winter w/o some significant intervention on your part (repotting), you might want to consider that option if you have a soil you can put the plant in that will allow you to water w/o worry the soil will remain soggy so long you're jumping from the pan to the fire. IOW, it doesn't make a lot of sense to change for the sake of change, but it might make sense if you're sure you can improve the plant's lot. Al

I don't think your plant is dying at all. There is lots of fresh growth on it. What is happening is that the stems are suffering die back because they have been cut off between nodes so there are no leaves to support the end portions of the stems. That's quite common with Scheffleras. I would leave it alone and wait for the new growth to get bigger. Then I'd cut the dead portions of the stems back to a node.

I have great success cutting the pruned limbs into 8 inch lengths leaving a leaf on the end. Then cut half of that leaf off. Place the cutting in damp potting soil and keep it in a shaded area. The green house affect shown in the picture can help, but for figs, I have never had to use it. 90% of my cuttings root. This year I tried a new process; I placed the cuttings in water and they started rooting and then I transferred them to potting soil.