Hi Kimmq! Yes it's the Ficus lyrata. Thank you for your advice! I guess it's back to the repotting board and the headache of what to do with a 50L bag of compost. Can we mix just a little into the potting soil though? Or is that not advisable at all?

alohomora8 - you might want to ask about your Ficus lyrata over on the Houseplants Forum where you will find lots of people with experience of growing it and repotting it in suitable mixes.

Ahh thank you! There were so many options to choose from i didn't know where to go. I'll repost the question there! I appreciate the tip!

Alohomora,

Are you by any chance in the UK? Because if you bought something labeled "potting compost" and it came in a 50 L bag, chances are you are speaking British English, in which "compost" often means "planting mix", not just "compost" as in "composted organic material", like the end product from your compost bin.

http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/miracle-gro-all-purpose-compost---50l-554282

There's no such thing as "potting compost" in the US.

We also don't speak "liters", except for a few specialized applications like soda bottles. :-)

If you are searching around on the Internet and are looking at American sites, no wonder you're confused. We only use "compost" to refer to what comes out of a compost bin, which IS too rich for planting in straight. On the other hand, we often call a potting mix "potting soil" when it isn't really soil either, just to keep everyone on all sides of the Atlantic perplexed. But on the actual bag or container of what we buy, the manufacturers are generally obliged to say "potting mix" or "potting blend" rather than using the word "soil."

Maybe someone over on the container gardening or houseplant boards has already helped you with this, but, to clarify: if you buy a product labeled for "potting" or "containers," it does not have ANY "soil" in it - that is, the mineral component of the stuff in the ground in your garden. It will be a mix of different ingredients designed to be of lighter weight and to have better draining properties than if you just dug up some soil out of your garden. "Compost," to Americans, might be one component of a potting mix, along with other materials, but you wouldn't use pure compost to plant in.

Confused yet?? I sure am.

As for Miracle-Gro products in a bag, they are all right but not ideal. If what you used is labeled for potting or containers rather than to go straight into the garden, then it should be basically all right. Many around here prefer a more organic product but those are generally local, not national or international brands.

Singapore! Well, that explains the confusion. What you've bought as "potting compost" would be labeled as "potting mix" or "potting blend" in the US. Same thing. No from-the-ground garden soil is involved, and none is required for a potted plant. Generally the Miracle-Gro potting product is a mix of peat moss, perlite, and some kind of composted lightweight organic material such as "bark fines" along with plant food pellets. I assume it's much the same in your market as it is here.

The Miracle-Gro brand is kind of a lowest common denominator of mass-marketed gardening stuff. I actually didn't realize it was an international brand. It's not what the real container plant aficionados would recommend but if you're new to gardening and repotting just one plant, it's going to be perfectly fine.

Oh that does clear things up!! So just to clarify (in case i'm misunderstanding), that mean we can actually go ahead and stick with the Miracle Gro for the fiddle leaf? I did read on that packaging that:

"When re-potting rootbound patio pots or houseplants choose a slightly larger container and fill around the existing root ball with Miracle-Gro All Purpose Growing Compost taken directly from the bag."

Which is what we did! Thank you SO SO much for your input and for actually pointing out the difference in the US/UK interpretation of compost!!

You know what they say about the Americans and the British - two nations, divided by a common language. :-) Start to throw the Commonwealth nations in there, and confusion becomes universal!

Yes, I think you should be fine repotting that plant with the bagged "potting compost" product. It is designed for potting and repotting plants right out of the bag, and you do not need to add anything else.

People on the container growing and house plant forums here often like to make their own "custom" mixes that are better in various ways, but that's really not necessary for just repotting one plant. If you decide to become more of a plant hobbyist then you can get more involved in "optimizing" your potting mixes.

Compost really isn't "too rich" to pot plants in directly. In fact, compost isn't very rich (in nutrients) at all. What it IS, is very water-retentive, prohibitively so (if you polled the more knowledgeable growers). Media based on a high % of fine materials often support 6" or more of perched water. Perched water is water that defies gravity, remaining in the soil because the small size of the particles ensures the sum of water's tendency to stick to itself (cohesion) + it's tendency to stick to other particles and the pot walls (adhesion) is greater than the force of gravity. If you're using a Miracle-Gro product that supports 6" of perched water in an 8" deep pot, after the soil has been saturated and stopped draining, 75% of the soil will be 100% saturated. Using the same soil in a 6" deep pot would find you trying to grow in soil that is 100% saturated. As one might expect, that's not easy ....... or fun.

You'll find that more often than not, the products you're tempted to buy because of the promises made on the packaging to be much longer on promise than delivery. Learn how to keep your plants' root systems happy, because w/o happy roots, a healthy plant is but a dream.

To my way of thinking, what makes a plant appropriate as a potting medium isn't that it self-describes itself on the packaging as appropriate, or that another grower assumes that all potting media are cut from different ends of the same cloth and since they're 'designed' to be used as potting media, makes the leap that it must then be appropriate. What makes good sense to me is establishing the minimum requirement of any medium to be used as a container soil to be that you can water plants in the medium properly (so you're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids when you water) w/o the soil remaining saturated for periods so extended that root function/health are limited, forcing the plant to pay the toll exacted by a soil working against plant and planter instead of in harmony with same.

Al