When I repotted it I left the original soil and just added around it so I never looked at the roots.

I know the soil needs to be changed as I just used generic potting soil.

The pot drains, but it's one where it has like the built in tray attached so I can't see when the water comes out the bottom (if it does). In spring, I plan on changing it to better soil and a better pot. I will also investigate pruning too. I have always been intimidated by the process and let my plants grow as they wanted, but they tend to get out of control

For my money tree, I cut back on the watering and got a wooden chopstick to test the soil moisture deeper in the soil before I water. It sounds as though there really isn't anything I can do until spring besides watching the amount of watering. Would the air conditioning in the office also be a potential issue. Im wondering of it may do better in my apartment although light is sometimes an issue. Thanks for your help. It is greatly appreciated

Unless you have your air conditioning set below 65 degrees it shouldn't bother your tree much, atleast it has never bothered mine. From your post it sounds as if you have a long list of problems.

If you left the old soil, without breaking the rootball free, the root ball is most likely compacted. If it is still in the planter from the store, those things are death traps for plants. Money trees are prone to root rot because they love moist soil, but don't like wet soil. If the pot isn't free draining all of the extra water is just sitting in the dirt like a mud puddle. This leads me to wonder if your tree may not be suffering, not only from lack of nutrients, but from root rot as well.

It is only September and I'm not sure where you're located, but with it being an indoor plant I would repot it now. Most likely you'd get a great price on the supplies as those things are on clearance in most places. And if the problem is root rot, your tree may not make it until spring.

I just repotted it using a coarse blend mix. I found a thin broken rubber band when I repotted so I assume it had been bound with it. The roots had a lot of the original potting soil compacted around it and I really was afraid of damaging the roots so I left it and hopefully it won't be an issue. The root ball so to speak seemed rather small and shallow too. I have no idea if that's normal. I'm hoping for the best

I am a bit concerned for the roots I tried to loosen them but was afraid of breaking them because the original soil was so compact. It also seems a bit unstable at the moment

I would strongly suggest removing the compacted soil - the fact its compacted is a sign there is trouble, namely that its become very dense and might hold too much water resulting in root-root. Let the soil dry and gently pull it away from the roots. Losing some roots can be a good thing, like a healthy trimming of an overgrown tree: both promote "branching." What you did is called potting-up rather than re-potting. When potting up, the roots are almost equally as "bound" as they are without re-potting at all: they are confined to the compacts soil and their growth/aeration is stunted. In fact, if you trim the leggy branches at the top at the same time you lose some roots, the plant is still balanced in its root:leaf ratio.

My wife and I often go to home depot (1 mile from our house). She fell in love with a braided pachira just like yours. Its not my thing, personally, so I didn't give it "prime real-estate" on a window sill. It was pretty unhappy and its growth looked quite a bit like the growth your pachira: leggy and anemic. I kept trimming the leggy growth, but it wouldn't ramify (it wouldn't make additional branches). Finally, I repotted using 60% perlite, pruned the leggy growth, and moved it to the TV stand where it gets direct sunlight through the window, but from several feet away. That small change made a big difference: the leaves have richer color, the tree is growing two branches to replace the one I trimmed (ramification). [I also am propagating new plants from the cuttings]. Since I don't really care for the plant, I'm using osmocote CRF (controlled release fertilizer): easier and cheaper than using the dyno-gro mix.

In other words, you might have a combination: lack of nutrients, lack of sunlight, root-rot (a dash of hydrogen peroxide can sometimes fix this), compacted roots... Someone with more experience than me (with pachira or plants in general) might be able to more specifically identify the problem, but my thought is to fix all the issues of which we are aware and then continue to problem-solve if the plant doesn't bounce back in a few weeks.

Thank you. I am now letting the root ball dry out and will see what I can do.

Good luck! Let us know!

I repotted a very sad money tree plant about a month ago. It was still in the original pot from the store (daughter bought sometime last December). Of the 5 stems, 3 were mushy and could not be saved. I was shocked to see the stems rubber-banded together, as I was unaware of this practice. I cut the band off and retained the 2 heathier stems. The rootball was very hard so I soaked it until I was able to free everything. I planted, bare root at that point, the 2 stems in what I think is a high quality mix (Bordine's in MI). The plant has done well for the past month or so but today I noticed one of the stems deteriorating. An entire side branch fell off and the rest of the foliage on that Steen is shriveling. Is this considered a more difficult plant to grow?

(foliage on that stem, not Steen)