Hi guys, Thank you for all of the responses. I will do my best to answer your questions. I looked today and there are MANY more bugs in the soil. I did not notice these before I repotted the plant, and the plant was looking on the small side even before I repotted. They look very small and white/translucent. They may have wings, and I saw a full-sized gnat in the pot with them today. In short, I think this bug issue came along with the new potting soil I used. If this is the case, I am not sure why the plant was looking bad before I repotted, but I have to admit since repotting it has gotten worse. I see the time-released fertilizer and these bugs are much, much smaller than those and they do indeed move. I am thinking perhaps these are possibly early stage fungus gnats? I usually do not overwater, but out of fear of it dying I think I might have overdone it. Oh, the irony! As far as the roots go... It looked like the person who repotted it into the pot I have now (this was maybe 5 years ago) transferred all of the old soil directly into the new and larger pot, so everything was still pretty contained in the shape of the old pot. This soil was different than the potting soil around it, seemed more like the dirt I could find in my yard here. I didn't break it up too much in fear of hurting the plant. The bulk of the roots were still contained in soil when I repotted it. I am happy to take it out again and remove the oldest dirt if I need to, I just don't want to hurt it. Since I can't water it (with dish soap to help remove the bugs), I might run to the store to purchase new potting soil and maybe a mixture of orchid bark, like dellis326 suggested. If anyone else has any other mixture suggestions, I'd be happy to consider that too. Thank you so much! I will be checking back and I will update on what I come home with. I will also look for Neem Insecticide.. thoughts on sand?

Gardenfanatic, IMO your philodendron is beyond the point of making it attractive again by propping vines up or repotting. I think you should limp this philo thru the winter as it is and not repot it at this time. In late spring, I would take 6 inch tip cuttings and pot them on their own or put several in a single pot. I'm assuming there is more than one growing point on the plant. Most philos of this type will have aerial roots along the stem, and these make for easy rooting of cuttings. Regarding the base of the plant in the pot... I would cut the stems at a point 4 to 6 inches from the soil line of the pot. You're forcing the philo start over with new growth. The plant is likely rootbound, you could fertilize it and wait for new growth or unpot and root prune it. This is basically cutting several inches from the perimeter and bottom of the root ball and repotting into the same pot or a new one of the same size with fresh potting soil. You could also wash all the old soil off the root ball with a hard spray from the garden hose, trim the roots back and repot it into a smaller pot, one that fits the size of the roots. From the looks of your plant you might only have a single stem to repot, it doesn't look like it's branched from the base. So now you have all those vines between the base and the tip cuttings to deal with. Obviously you could just toss them, or if you want more plants you could cut the vines into 6 inch pieces, take off the leaves except 1 or 2 at the top, and pot them. After rooting, new growth will break from the nodes along the sides of the stems. Be sure to keep track of which end is up, planting upside down won't work. Let me know if you need more info. By the way, who's that cutie at the window trying to see what's going on? Russ

It looks like all the overwatered FLFs I've read about on the houseplants forum, and all of them have turned out to be caused by overwatering. 'Overwatering' happens when the soil stays saturated for long periods of time, preventing air from prejudicing oxygen to the roots, leading to dead and rotting roots and a plant that starts to kill and drop leaves its reduced root system can no longer support. You might want to scan the first page or two on that forum for FLF threads, but meanwhile I'll ask a few questions: Does the pot have a drain hole? How do your water--on a schedule, when the top of the soil is dry, or when the soil at the bottom of the pot is dry? Do you give it a fixed volume of water, or water until it drains freely from the pot? Does the pot ever sit in standing water? What kind of soil are you using? Have you potted up (put the plant in a bigger pot with new soil around the existing rootball) or repotted it (removed all old soil from the roots, pruned errant roots, and replaced the soil with all new mix)?

Anytime a plant wilts while the grower can still detect moisture in the grow medium, odds are extremely high that the plant has been over-watered or the soil is made of materials too fine to support a healthy root system because the soil has become compacted. Excess water and/or soil compaction robs roots of their ability to access the oxygen essential to normal root function. While generally frowned upon, watering on a schedule can be used as a viable strategy when using highly aerated and fast-draining grow media. I water on a schedule and there is ample evidence of the elevated vitality levels of my plants in the countless images I've posted at this site. The lion's share of the credit goes to the grow media I use, not to anything special I do other than provide a healthy home for roots. Water when the top inch or two of the soil feels dry to the touch? Most growers unfamiliar with how water behaves in container media are prone to repeating the title mantra. But let's look at some facts. A saturated or partially saturated medium is limiting in a number of ways. Roots need an ample supply of oxygen in order that roots can function normally. Saturated soil surrounding roots limits oxygen required to drive root function, thereby impairing root efficiency and possibly setting the stage for any of a number of fungal pathogens that thrive in anaerobic (airless) conditions. Soil saturation limits gas exchange, so waste gases like methane and CO2 in the root zone are less able to leave the soil, also limiting root function Soil saturation kills the fine roots that do the lion's share of work involving water uptake and nutrient distribution. When this occurs, chemical messengers tell plant central injury to the root system has occurred. Top growth stops immediately, because root growth always precedes top growth – the top will not grow if the roots cannot support the growth with water/nutrients. The plant is then forced to regenerate dead roots, using energy which otherwise would have been devoted to additional top growth, keeping the plant's systems orderly, keeping the plant wearing a 'healthy glow', and improving the plant's ability to defend itself. In short, the wasted energy would have kept the plant looking/ growing better, and healthier. If a pot is 10” deep, the top 2” can feel completely dry to the touch, even while the bottom 6” is 100 saturated. That means 60% of the medium would be fighting you tooth and nail for control over the plant's vitality …… and this is the point at which you should water again? Does that sound reasonable? We don't care even a whit if the top 2" of the soil are dry. Roots there are largely plumbing and anchorage, with essentially none of the fine almost microscopic roots that do the lion's share of the plant's heavy lifting. Ficus species are all good at retaining water in their roots in case of drought. That doesn't mean you should test them to see what they'll tolerate, but it does mean you can and should let the soil dry down so you can only detect moisture (by using a 'tell') in the bottom inch or two of soil. Let me know if you're unfamiliar with the term 'tell'. If we want to take advantage of conditions offered by a well-aerated media, it's essential to base the medium on a very large fraction of coarse material (80-95%). You cannot expect to add a few handfuls of bark or perlite to a grow medium you feel is unsuitable due to excess water retention, and expect the coarse material to make a difference. In fact, coarse material added to fine material DECREASES o/a aeration, and continues to decrease aeration until a threshold proportion is reached, at which there is no longer enough fine material to fill the larger spaces between the coarse material(s). You can see this at work in the mind's eye if you imagine what little air porosity a jar filled with fine sand has. Start adding marbles to the sand - what happens? The marbles displace sand that does have some aeration. The result is, the actual amount of air porosity in the jar DECREASES and continues to decrease until so many marbles have been added that there is no longer enough sand to fill spaces between marbles. This is "the threshold proportion", after which, as we add additional marbles, air porosity quickly increases. 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. Al