Is there any light 'down the hall'? Windows? Plus the mix looks dry as a bone. If there is no saucer under the pot and yet it is not making a mark on the carpet I can only assume it is very dry. Also there seems to be far too little mix for the size of the pot.

Is there a hole in the bottom of the pot? I agree that the soil level looks rather low in the pot.

How long since that mix has been changed, any idea?

There is light down the hall but its about 100ft away. The plant receives artificial light pretty much 24/7 as the lights in the hallways never turn off and i understand that might not be enough as it was receiving plenty of natural light before. So maybe that's what shook up the plant? Where the tree use to be before, it had in direct light coming from the north from about 30-40ft and i never had any problems with it being there. For the pot, it does not have any type of drainage holes, as well as all the other plants i have here, but this is the only one giving me problems. As floral_uk mentioned about the mix, ill be changing it for sure once spring is around the corner and topping it off higher than it currently is.

Not having a drainage hole is part of the problem, the plant will NOT do well unless or until that is resolved. If you change the mix w/out using a pot w/a hole you will have wasted the effort.

Without a drainage hole the plant will simply not do well, only a matter of time 'til it declines & ultimately fails.

Not wishing it harm, but that's how it's likely to go, just so you know.

Looks like ill be shopping for some new indoor pots for sure. Should i wait until spring or do this ASAP? Or does it really matter?

You could just get a cheap plastic pot which will fit inside the original red pot. You must have drainage holes in the main container. Yes, it really matters.

That's a great idea thank you!

UPDATE: I put the tree into a smaller plastic pot (about 2inch in diameter less than the red pot which is about 19in width x 16in height), with plenty of drainage holes, along with fresh new potting mix. Watered it thoroughly and let it drain a little before putting the new black pot with the tree back inside the big red pot. To my surprise, the root structure is pretty basic and not as intricate as i imagined. Is this common in all money trees or just mine? Like i mentioned before, this plant wasn't always taken proper care of and that might have damaged some of the roots. Hopefully it is still able to thrive and keep growing, i would really hate to lose this plant.

As the others said, serious lack of light, inadequate drainage, and probably starving for nutrients. If it had a small root system, that is entirely because of the neglect it experienced. Pachira are incredibly vigorous plants and should have a considerable root mass when grown adequately.

Josh

@greenman28 yeah my roots looked nothing like that. I really hope the damage to my plant is reversible. Hopefully with the fresh well draining soil and a pot with drainage, this will promote new and healthier roots, if not i don't know. But like i said before, i would hate to throw it away.

Thank you all for the help, i really appreciate it and learned a lot more about this particular plant.

I will cross my fingers and hope the best for this plant. Sadly it's been through worse conditions and still came out with amazing growth during the spring/summertime. Keep in mind, it was trimmed about 2-3 times during last summer because i wanted to have it shaped like a tree and not a "wild bush". I will keep you guys updated with pictures. I have a good feeling about this tree and its recovery :)

Dmitriy, the most important thing right now will be light.
Even in a sunny window, my plant will lean heavily, seeking light - and it will also shed a lower leaf or two. I keep turning it so that the growth will be more balanced.

Josh

Most plants will grow new roots once their pots can drain. That will use a lot of energy, so although it should stop declining, don't be surprised if it takes a while before the the plant starts to look a lot better.

My guess is that you weren't checking the soil at the bottom of the pot, which stayed wet enough to kill roots that tried to grow. In the future, break a 3/8" (or thereabouts) dowel in half and sharpen all four ends in a pencil sharpener or with a utility knife. Push the dowel through the soil all the way to the bottom of the pot, wait a few seconds, and don't water until it is completely dry and unstained by soil, at which point there's still plenty of moisture inside the soil particles available to the roots even though it feels dry.

Watering without drainage can leave harmful mineral deposits in the soil. Get rid of them by flushing the pot with 10 times its capacity of room temperature R/O water (sold cheaply from supermarket machines). Then fertilize with a solution of something like like Miracle Grow 3:1:2 General Purpose granules until 10-15% of the solution drains from the pot. When I did this to my mineral-strangled ficuses I could almost hear them sign with relief.

By covering over the whole surface of the planting with mix you have made it messy and difficult to remove the inner pot for thorough watering. Can you clear the top off so the inner pot is easy to take in and out and carry to a sink?

@floral_uk if you look at the first picture of the update, you can see towards the right middle side a piece of the pot peaking out, the soil hiding the pot is literally like 1/8 of an inch deep and can easily be brushed off with my fingers. I tried to hide it on purpose so you wouldn't see a protruding black ring inside the pot and i wanted it to look nice and uniform.

It's been about a month since my money tree went into shock and started losing leaves left and right. However, it's still alive and doing fine. I trimmed a lot of the leaves off and shaped it to my liking. I shaped it this way before and it ended up growing like crazy and looked great! I'll provide pics below. Note: although the soil looks completely dry, i can assure you that using the dowel method, the soil is moist. The tree is also experiencing, slowly but surely, new growth and i cant wait for spring time to see it grow even faster.

I also wanted to know what kind of fertilizer do you guys recommend for this tree, and any indoor plants in general. I used Schultz 10-15-10 plant food all of last summer and spring and my indoor plants seemed to really like it, but i wouldn't mind a better alternative.

Thanks Dave, ill definitely give that a try.

Now that it's spring, this plant is growing very rapidly. I'm happy to inform that it is very much alive and very healthy. Here are some progress pics. Notice how much it grew in just a little over a week!