Andrew, I have to ask - where are you located in S. Florida? If it's Coral Springs, go ahead and prune now. Code enforcement there is really fierce. And dumb. And your hedge will be fine. Fawnridge is right. I was fined for cutting down a tree without a permit. I fought it (and won!) because it was blown down by a storm and blocking both directions of the street. City couldn't get to it so I took care of it. Silly me! They told me I had to plant a new tree and I said I would as soon as I could get the stump ground. 2 days later they came and planted a live oak in my yard - and charged me for it. It was not the tree I wanted and they put it in a stupid place. Oh - and don't ever let them catch you with a dirty roof! The roof police are worse than the tree police! LOL

You should put the tree right in front of the large southern facing window. Light coming through the window, even a few feet away is much less intense than right in front of it. I'd place the tree right next to that wooden chair so the leaves are a few inches from that window. Rotate the tree 1/4 turns weekly. as far as pruning, all you're doing here is cutting off the dead parts. scratch a small amount of bark, if it's dead, follow the branch back and keep scratching every inch or so till you see green. Cut the obvious dead branches off. roots should be firm and white to tan. If they are dark and mushy, they've rotted. Bottom line, three tree has been over watered. It may be in too large of a pot so that the soil doesn't dry enough. Remove it from the pot and check to see how wet the soil is at the bottom. Ficus seem to be able to handle drought much better then being over watered. this may give you an idea about their light requirements. Mine, pictured below, is right in front of a southern window with the addition of five 250w lights above and it still could use much more light. I place mine outside in full direct sun from Memorial Day until mid September when temps start to drop. That's the only time it thrives. The rest of the year is just tolerates. I've cut it back pretty heavily since September when it came inside. Outside last summer it was MUCH fuller: the tree above was not much larger than yours prior to being placed outside for the summer. It literally grew a few feet in every direction and produced probably 1000 extra leaves.

If the plant has been with you for 4 years + whatever time it was in the pot before you acquired it, it would normally be badly root bound; if it isn't, the soil is inappropriate and it needs repotting for that reason. I'd start by sawing off the bottom 1/3 of the root mass, then bare root the plant, being certain all roots remain wet during the process. After that I would correct problem roots, concentrating on the larger roots and roots growing straight up or down. Also remove crossing, girdling, encircling, and any j-hooked roots before repotting into an appropriate medium. After a few repots, you want to end up with a nice flat disc-shaped root mass that you trim around the edges and remove roots growing down from the 'disc'. This is one of my F benjaminas that went from this to this without complaint: I'm not suggesting you should be that severe, your plant isn't healthy enough to tolerate that much stress, but it gives you an idea of how much the plant can deal with. More about woody plants in containers for the long term if you click me. I'd also sort of temporarily forget about the plant's appearance and not remove anything until it's well on the way to recovery, which shouldn't take long where you live and with the plant in an appropriate medium. I'd also like to suggest you buy some Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 fertilizer. It has ALL the nutrients essential to normal growth (something very few fertilizers can boast) and it doesn't get its N from urea (which helps to keep plants compact & full). I use it for almost everything I grow. Al

Where to start? I wish I had that stump! ;-) Have you fertilized? If yes, with what and how much - please provide the fertilizer's NPK %s. Misting entirely unnecessary for this plant, though you can spray it down from time to time to rinse dust off the leaves. Your plant was likely over-potted/over-watered. I can't say if it's salvable or not, I'd guess yes, but if the root damage is bad, one side of the tree might die - not the end of the world. I'd depot it, inspect the roots, and put it in a much smaller pot with a very fast-draining soil. Soil choice is extremely important in determining what kind of opportunity you'll be able to offer your plant to realize as much of its genetic potential as possible. I have at least 15 F benjaminas in pots, some having been in my care for 30 years or more, so I'm very familiar with their needs and tendencies. A progression of one of my trees from needing a pruning to after-styling: 1) should I repot it on arrival to a big one? I did with the above. I'd say no, even though I would. The tree will likely arrive with a very congested root mass that potting up won't fix, Repotting involves bare-rooting and root pruning, which will almost certainly need to be done asap, but you should first learn how to repot and what to avoid. Potting up ENSURES limitations associated with that practice UNTIL you repot and correct the problem roots. More on that later if you're interested in what I'm sharing. 2) when everyone say bright indirect sunlight, does that mean somewhere light falls, but not all the time? I am clueless,planning to keep this new one near the patio door where the old one is placed. It will be autumn in two months (in UK)and soon radiators will be ON and no sunlight, to come through. but other than this place, I have windowsills all of which is really bright and sunny, my peace Lilly went brown placed on on of it. Any suggestions welcome. Ficus B will withstand the photo load (light level) coming through any windows, but it may not be able to withstand the passive heat build-up in leaves in a room without a fan to move the air and cool leaves down. At a minimum, it should be very near a very large window on the W or S elevation. We can worry more about siting the plant in the future, but it shouldn't be near a heat source. Ask if you wish to know why. 3) how often do I water, "only when the soil goes dry " does means watering only once in three weeks with the old one. Is that enough? it always look really black and wet. "Always black and wet" means your definitely over-watering. Use a "tell" to determine when it's time to water. More about that below. 4) This is the one I have now, first week pic and today's pic , what should I do to keep it alive please? I'll link you to 2 threads I wrote that will provide you with a general idea of how to avoid common problems hobby growers all encounter at one time or another. One thread is specifically written about Ficus b. But first, you'll see info on using a tell. The links will be at the bottom of this reply. 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 air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support good root health, which is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to a build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil, 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. An Overview of Good Growing Practices Ficus Care in Containers Al