If it's a new purchase, I'd return it. If it's not, you can stick it out with the neem oil, maybe alternating with a 50/50 spritz of rubbing alcohol at alternating 1 week intervals (neem 1 week, 50/50 the next. You can also go this route: Neem Oil Insecticide 1 pint very hot water 1 pint rubbing alcohol or ethanol 1 tsp pure, cold-pressed neem oil 1/2 tsp Castile Peppermint Soap, Murphy’s Oil Soap, or insecticidal soap In a 1 qt spritzer, mix the neem with the soap & hot water. Shake well. Add the alcohol & shake again. Shake regularly to keep the mixture emulsified as you spritz the plant, making sure as you spritz that you’re covering all the vegetative surfaces, especially the underside of leaves and leaf/branch crotches. Use all the mix same day or discard. Use only pure, cold-pressed neem oil, such as that packaged by Dyna-Gro. Other methods of oil extraction limit the effectiveness of the active ingredient in neem oil – azadiractin. Al

I can't say whether or not it's mealybugs or fungus, but I did want to chime in. Not all fungi are bad. In fact our rainforests wouldn't be able to exist if it weren't for the fungi that break down dead organic matter and recycle the nutrients back into the ecosystem. That's why archaeologists have discovered entire petrified forests from our ancient past. Because all of these massive trees had no way of decaying back down into reusable nutrients. These ancient trees just lingered there for so long that they eventually petrified into stone. It wasn't until many millions of years later, when fungi were able to evolve and take up their role in recycling dead organic matter back into our environment. For the longest time, orchid growers could never get their orchids' microscopic seeds to germinate. They would just sprinkle the very fine orchid seed "dust" down close to the parent plants' roots and just hope for the best. It wasn't until a botanist figured out that they needed a specific fungus to "infect" the seeds and get them to germinate. After that discovery, orchid growing and hybridization essentially exploded onto the market. Now we have literally hundreds of thousands of hybrids, with ever more newer varieties being introduced all of the time. All thanks to the symbiotic relationship between orchids and their beneficial fungi. I've found fungi growing in many of my plants in the past. And not once do I ever remember any of them being adversely affected from it. In fact, it always seemed to be quite the opposite. My plants were/are doing great. And from what I can tell, your Fiddle Leaf fig seems to be doing great as well, and doesn't seem stressed out at all.

"would you advise to remove a leaf above the buds?" No. One of the best suggestions I can offer growers who wish to take control over how their containerized branching plants grow and look, is to first learn how to sync yourself to your plants' natural rhythms. There is a huge difference in how enthusiastic your plant will be in response to your January ministrations as opposed to its response to what you do in June. Growers should always feel autonomous in their control over their own plants, but prudence isn't included within the mantle of autonomy. Ergo, there are good decisions and not so good decisions when it comes to how growers choose to tend their plants. Save your heavy work like pruning and repotting for the very late spring and early summer based on the calendar and you can be assured of the best results possible, within the in limitations imposed by the cultural conditions with which you provide the plant. Your plants have chemical messengers that keep plant central informed about what is happening in terms of metabolic processes and your plant's physiology. Your plant can even tell the difference between a pinprick and the tiny wounds made by an insect with piercing mouth parts. I already discussed above how you can manipulate the flow of growth regulators (auxin and cytokinin) to achieve the end of awakening a conspicuous but latent bud, but the plant might not be activating the buds you mention because the root system is unable to support the the new branches the latent buds represent. Root growth always precedes top growth. You can witness this in the fact that the first organ to emerge from the seed is the root radicle (taproot). Your plant grows in sort of a leapfrog fashion. First the root mass increases, then the top mass increases. Plants are so thrifty that a hard pruning of the canopy results in death of a fair amount of the root system until the root to shoot ratio is roughly in some semblance of balance. The plant is programmed not to waste time on maintaining roots it doesn't need. As shedding organisms, plants shed roots just as readily as they shed shoots. So, if the root system is pruned hard during a repot, or an in situ tree is damaged by heavy equipment wounding or soil compaction, the tree will, as a normal reaction, shed leaves and branches from the canopy. It's very often better to selectively remove leaves and branches from the canopy to prevent the tree from doing its own balancing act and shedding branches that are essential to your vision of how you want the tree to look. Getting back to the stalled buds - when the vitality of the root system improves or increases appropriately in mass, it's very probable the buds will respond by resuming growth. Because I went through it, I can say that acting before you have enough knowledge to ensure your actions won't be counterproductive will detract from your growing experience; and, it's a slow, painful, and frustrating way to learn. Compounding the issue is the fact that until you are able to act in ways with little to no potential to be limiting to your plants, it's very probable you'll not be able to discern what actually went wrong when things do go south. There's nothing morally wrong with learning from errors of judgement, even when we don't know we're making them, we just kill more plants - not the end of the world, but a frustration, all the same. Al

1. If you had a bush like mine, what would you do? It's the middle of summer (I'm in Toronto) to give you an idea of the weather I am living in. If you want a standard (single trunk), you'll need to remove all but one trunk if there are multiple plants, or, if it's a single plant and the several trunks are actually branches, you'll need to remove all but 1 branch. The best time to do this (for you) is in the weeks that immediately bracket the summer solstice (June 21), so now is a very good time. Plants have rhythms such that they are sometimes robust and growing strongly, or pretty much resting in what appears to be a state of suspended growth. It just makes sense to work WITH the plant instead of against it by doing the heavy work of hard pruning and repotting when they're strongest, and make allowances during months when they're weaker. 2. I know some of these leaves need to go so that it can reserve it's energy for new growth, but which leaves should I trim? Plants make their own food (sugar/ carbohydrate) during photosynthesis, so every green leaf is its own food factory. Removing living leaves always slows growth, development, and o/a vitality (health). I get the sense from your post that things are going to happen quickly. They might ...... in tree time, but not in people time. It takes patience and something of a workable plan to bring your vision for the plant to fruition. Leaving all the leaves on the plant, for now, will make it grow faster and make the trunk thicker/stronger - so I encourage you to do that, excepting what pruning you need to do to get the ball rolling toward what you're looking for from the plant. After that, save your pruning for late spring/early summer (mid-June). 3. I saw a few spider mites - I rinsed it outside but I don't think that was enough. How do I get rid of them? What you did is fine if you do it every 4 days. Be sure to spray (a fine mist is best) into the leav axils (crotch formed by the leaf stem and the branch it attaches to) and on the underside of leaves where they like to hide. If you're indoors, you can mix 1 part of 70% rubbing alcohol to 1 or 2 parts of water and spritz all surfaces, nooks/crannies. That works very well. 4. There is new growth at the bottom. Should I get rid of these?Your wishes trump the plant's wishes, always, but the plant would say, "Not yet" - these leaves are still working hard for me and you can remove them at any future point in time. Al