Would be glad to help when I can see some pics.

Growing trees in containers can be a haphazard, I hope the gods smile on me sort of endeavor, or you can work toward honing your skills and making the pursuit into something nearer to an art form. The embedded links will provide you with a good deal of general information about tending trees in containers for the long haul, as well as information specific to the genus Ficus.

Al

Sean, I still do not see any photos.

Me neither. Sean, try clicking on the camera icon below the reply box to get options to insert photos from your computer or device, the device's camera, Dropbox, or other locations.

As a former ficus benjamina abuser I sympathize completely. Last September I found this site and learned how to revive my plants, and now the ficuses in particular are thriving. I'm going to take an 'after' photo tomorrow and will try to remember to post it here with the very sad 'before' photo so you can see how well these little monsters can recover from years of neglect and abuse.

I'm going to paste in a thing below that I wrote recently about how to monitor soil moisture and bonus info on draining water retentive soils.

Also, your ficus needs as much sunlight on its little green leaves as you can possibly give it. Mine are outside getting 4-5 hours of direct light and a few more hours of bright indirect light a day, and after a month and a half of this they're all covered with shiny new leaves. If you can put them outside, you'll have to acclimate it by putting it in the sun for an hour a day for a few days, then two hours, and so on. Sun=energy to grow new roots and vegetation, so the more the merrier. My apartment has terrible light in the winter, so I added some bright white LED bulbs in little fixtures to help them get a little more energy, which helped.

Okay, here's my lazy copy-and-paste:

Watering when the plant needs it (and not before) is one of the biggest things you can do to keep any plant healthy. Like most plants, aerated soil is as critical to a ficus's health as sunshine. That's why we check soil moisture.

A sharpened dowel is a simple, fast, and accurate tool for this (5/8" or 1/4" seems best), but any thin piece of unfinished wood, like a wooden skewer or even a cheap chopstick, works fine too.

Stick the dowel through the soil to the very bottom of the pot, leave it for two seconds, and withhold water until the whole dowel comes out completely dry (don't worry, at that point there's still water within the soil particles that the roots can access but we can't feel). Then water slowly but thoroughly, wetting the entire surface of the soil, until water drains freely from the pot, making sure the pot doesn't sit in the drained water.

To get excess water out of the pot so the soil at the bottom doesn't stay completely saturated, prop it up so it's tilted at 45 degrees for 10-15 minutes. If there are drain holes around the edges of the bottom you're done (that's why I love my cheap plastic pots); if the holes or holes aren't at the edges you'll leave the pot upright for 5-10 minutes to let the excess water drain out.

This practice ensures the roots get substantial periods in moist, not wet, soil, when they can get oxygen from the air between soil particles and grow into a healthy system that takes up water and nutrients stores water for dry periods. Watering until water drains freely from the pot prevents the buildup of mineral and fertilizer deposits that can damage the plant and retard growth.

Plants use more water when they're growing and in low humidity, and use less in the winter, so check the moisture every day until you know how your plants behave . If you don't have a pencil sharpener, just scrape off the dirt stains from the last time you checked with a utility or pocket knife or even a razor blade.

Got the photos now, from both times you posted them. Nice tree. You say all the pictures you've seen look better than yours, but I've seen many looking way worse! It's great that you're wanting to help it now, rather than waiting until there's only 3 leaves left :)

Ah, now they're in both posts. This is long, but I hope some of it is helpful. Don't be afraid to ask more questions as they come up.

Your ficus looks a lot better than mine did last September, pre-Gardenweb, which you can see from the photos. Below the pics there's a list of what I did between September and today.

First of all, I'd forget about serious work like pruning or repotting until the plant has recovered some energy reserves to help it recover quickly from the stress, so plan on repotting around father's day 2018 when there's maximum daylight to use for energy, and then pruning once new growth starts. If you compensate for the sub-optimal soil by paying close attention to soil moisture and other factors your ficus will recover energy reserves, will sail through repotting, and come through it strong and beautiful.

After seeing the pictures I'm sure your main problem is overwatering, largely due to a peat based soil which stays saturated for so long after watering that roots suffocate and die, which leaves a smaller root system that can't support as much vegetation, which promotes the plant to drop leaves to save the ones it can maintain. That's why you need to check moisture at the bottom of the pot rather than the first few inches, and not be worried as the soil dries.

This also drains energy reserves because the roots are constantly regrowing when the soil is dry enough to admit air between the particles, then dying back the next time the soil is saturated. Low energy reserves mean poor responses to pruning or any stress and make it more vulnerable to things like mites.

You should also check for spider mites. They're tiny little dark red dots, usually on the undersides of the leaves, and you might also see little bits of webbing on stems or leaves. I suggest a magnifying glass because they're almost invisible to the naked eye. If you find them well tell you how to ride yourself of the pests.

I also wouldn't be surprised if there were mineral deposits in the soil that impair root function, which would be solved by a good flushing.

Use the links Al gave you to learn about the mistakes we all make and how to deal with your plant. I like this one too:

How to deal with sick and dying plants

Before gardenweb:

And today (the white spots on some leaves are sunburn from letting them rest on a railing that gets extremely hot in direct sun):

Here's what I did once I learned from Al and other members how to take care of my little green friends. Progress was slow and steady until spring and their summer vacation on the porch.

1. moved all plants right in front of the windows to get every photon of sunlight available;

2. flushed the soil to dissolve and wash out years of root-choking mineral deposits from poor watering habits;

3. treated a damaging spider mite infestation that killed most new growth

4. supplemented the dim winter light in my apartment with bright white LED and CFL bulbs;

5. fertilized regularly with DynaGrow Foliage Pro, a complete and balanced fertilizer, using a weak solution in winter and a stronger solution once growth picked up in late spring; and

6. moved them to the porch as soon as nighttime temps stayed above 60 so they get between 4 and 6 hours of direct sunlight during the summer and early fall.

Best of luck, though your attitude tells me that you won't need much!

litterbuggy,

Thank you so much for all of that information. From those links and more research I was planning to repot, but I should wait? Even though the soil is likely compacted and saturated from a few years of incorrect watering? I also feel like the pot may be restricting the roots which I planned on slightly potting up while repotting. I guess I may not have the best grasp on all of this.

To be honest, it feels like there is a lack of soil in my pot at the moment, like I can feel the tops of roots and I'm worried about waiting to repot/pot-up. Looking at the undersides of the leaves I don't see any red dots or webbing but I'll look closely tonight to be sure.

So, considering the pot may be small, soil level is low, sunlight levels were below what they should be previously, buildup of salts is likely, and I'm overwatering, I don't know what the best course of action is.

Would you still recommend just flushing the soil as it is and waiting? I just hate to sit and wait until spring time again, it's still August here in Denver with a high of 88 degrees today and mid 70s to 90 for the next week or two. We're only 6 weeks past the summer solstice so the days are still long. Nights here can get cold, though. In the summer they often fall below 60 degrees (temperature swings are very common between night/day here) which is why I haven't left my tree outside at all. Humidity is also an issue in Denver, unless it's rainy or overcast, it's very dry outside.

I was originally planning on getting everything I need this week and doing all the work I need to Friday and this weekend so hopefully I can get a good plan down that will work well, I just hate to wait and leave my tree in limbo until 10 months from now/Father's Day.

I have read up a lot on Al's links with regards to soil and trees in containers, and I hate to ask this, but is the gritty mix sold anywhere? Or is there any comparable product? I'm not confident in finding some of those products, or even what they are.

Sorry, everytime I seem to start typing on this post I end up rambling. I just want to treat the Ficus and get it back to full health. I really appreciate everyone's help so far I'm already a LOT more confident in tending to my tree.

Your container getting way too small for that tree size. In it's habitat, it's root larger than all that appear above the ground. U can even make a bridge using ficus benjamina root. Just give it bigger pot and cut the rot. That tropical tree naturally live in high humidity, can be found easily along rivers. So a good potting soil is fine enough. Just not too give it water too often. Give it just occasionally, and you may have chance nice air root grow in all branches, which will make your tree more interesting to see.

Instead of using a standard potting soil and dealing with too much water retention, the 5:1:1 mix made up of mostly pine bark would be a better choice. Then you can water often, flush with every watering and fertilize often.

also, they are very hard to get to grow aerial roots indoors, especially in the northern states.

Here is my Benjamina and a photo of the 5:1:1 mix. It was the same size (actually maybe smaller) than yours a little over 2 years ago. Now it's 7 feet tall in an 18" pot.

@dave

Aerial root will pop out when the soil dry for some time, even indoor. Ficus benjamina is a die hard plant. Tolerate wet soil and dry soil better then others, just like their habitat in tropic where it have to deal with 6 months dry and 6 months wet. So better water retention soil like compost and watering just occasionally is good for the plant. You can googling, there are plenty ficus that smaller that yours and have pretty aerial root.

I disagree with you. Growing Ficus indoors in a container should not be treated the same as outdoors.

Using compost in not a good idea. It's not all about the tree, it's about how water behaves in a container vs in the earth. Completely different.

A plant that can be watered more often without staying soggy is going to have a far better time than one in a dense heavy soil where you have to wait weeks to be able to water again.

Yes the plant is nearly impossible to kill outside in the ground, but people come here and kill them all the time. Again, container grown Ficus and outdoor Ficus growing in the tropics are not the same.

These links may help you:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1476078/ficus-trees-in-containers-iv?n=223

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/2842847/container-soils-water-movement-and-retention?n=8

I see soil as a living thing. Microbial activities take their part to make dense soil able to perform better than any artificial counterpart. Not only chemically or biologically, but also physically. Worm activity that create amazing mini long cave in soil should be considered. Their activity in soggy part of the soil that improve drainage should not neglected. Dead and alive human have same body properties, but they are totally different. Comparing just in physical properties will lead you to incorect conclusion.

My 'before' picture disappeared, so here's another one to give you an idea of how far my plant came in a pot that's too small and completely rootbound with just a bit of old compacted potting soil in there.

I'd say that flushing, getting control of soil moisture, and giving it good light and fertilizer will strengthen the plant enough that it will really flourish after a June 2018 repot. But if you can find materials quickly, repot, and do your preliminary root pruning in the next little while, and give it tons of outdoor sunlight for a few months, you'll get at least modest improvement this year, though it might not really take off until the spring. Just spend some time looking at enough pictures and stories to avoid mistakes that can trip you up, and post pictures and more questions as you go.

In contrast, although I'm going to be repotting in the next few weeks (health issues got in the way), my plants are going into it bursting with energy, so I'm confident they'll recover enough to be pruned and give me some nice new growth by the time they have to come inside, and will still have plenty of energy reserves to look good all winter.

Someone may sell something like gritty mix online, but if it were affordable and made correctly I think we'd have heard about it by now.

BTW, I have a hard time finding bags of usable bark fines/soil conditioner/whatever that's appropriate for 1:1:1 here in Salt Lake, so I'll be interested to see if you have better luck in Denver. If not, you could always pick up a few six or eight quart bags of small orchid bark from a nursery that you could use for 5:1:1 mix almost straight from the bag, or use for gritty mix after a reasonable amount of screening.

A search for 5:1:1 or 1:1:1 in the box at the top of the page will bring up threads covering details about making the mixes and sourcing the materials. I'm a bit of a nerd, so I can't begin to guess at how many hundreds of posts I've read over the past ten months!

Oh, and I envy you your cool nights. Summer nighttime temps haven't been as low as they used to be, which should let me leave the plants on the porch pretty much all September, unless we get some freaky early cold action.

Gudang, that's great if you're speaking of SOIL IN THE GOUND, outside, not in the house inside a container.

Soil in containers does not behave the same and should not be treated as such.

Worms have no place on container plants. And that has been discussed too many times on this site.

Hey everyone!

Thank you all SO much for the help. I'm STILL opening new tabs and threads learning more and more (currently have 20 tabs still open to read).

Litterbuggy, this Sick or Dying Plants? thread is insanely helpful. I had been searching for better guides on "flushing" the soil and other more in depth walk throughs as that was still confusing to me at the time.

Dave and Litterbuggy, following a lot of your advice and a lot of Al's articles, I think I'm going to wait until June for the repot and until then, flush properly, find it more light in my home, check the BOTTOM of the pot for moisture, and start fertilizing until that time (weak solution). Is there any concern over leaving my ficus (likely) root-bound in the pot until then? That will have made it 3 years since I got it, all in the same 10-12 inch clay pot.

So onto my soil choices. I am certainly moving away from traditional potting soils after reading Al's Container Soils threads and the insane amount of science behind it all (all 22 of them, holy cow, man you do so major work here). So I've also found this link here from a fig forum on potting soil mixes. Is there any concern over the use of the Gritty mix (34-33-33) in my extremely dry weather? I see the 5:1:1 (71.4-14.3-14.3) is actually pine bark, peat, and perlite. Would the combination of the pine bark and small amount of peat HELP in my case? Having some water retentive materials in the soil; however, the soil is still primarily made up of pine bark to ensure airflow? I feel like I've read so much on soils the last few days that I'm mixing information on each in my head and I am not sure if I've missed someone addressing this before.

If I do go with the 5:1:1, would it be a mistake to utilize Miracle Gro (which is 85% peat and 15% perlite) as my peat and some of the perlite? If that is a way to go, would I still need to add lime? Or just get the ratios correct of the MG/Pine Bark/additional perlite?

Thank you all again!

Sean

Sean,

youre going in the right direction! Yes, you can use regular MG soil as your peat portion. I'd still use the full 1 part of perlite too.

Al knows what he is talking about. I've learned all that I know from him and my plants clearly appreciate it.

The differenece in root quaility and volume is amazing once they go into a mix like the 5:1:1.

What part of the world are you in? It might help your tree to put it outside for the rest of summer in open shade.

Dave,

Thank you for the quick response, do you think the MG will cover the lime/gypsum portion of the recipe as well? Or should I still add that to be safe?

Gypsum is for the gritty mix. Lime is what you want for the 5:1:1.

Id still add the lime. That's mainly for the bark anyway.

Thank you so much, Dave! This forum and all of the people here are amazing.

There's even a YouTube video on making 5-1-1 potting mix, by a forum member. Shows the sifting process well. Mentioning it in case you want more homework to do ;)

Hey Robin!

I think I found it: Here

Very helpful to see it done on video! Thank you!

@dave

It's popular here to grow fruit plants in pot and dense living soil give the best result on produce fruits. Once i let my soil in pot drying and break it in 2 part, i see mini cave pattern in there, which mean, the worm did it inside my pot.

Is there any link that worm unable to live in pot? Many tropical plant only able to produce fruits in pot with dense living soil since nutrients uptake is on peak that way.

Sean, I'm glad you like the sick and dying plants thread, despite its morbid title. You've made a great start by digging into the details and coming up with a plan.

As for whether your ficus will be okay if you don't take drastic measures right away, all I can do is repeat my experience, because last September my ficuses were still in five year old peat based potting soil and were so rootbound that it took two or three tries to get my thin dowel past the mass of roots to check the soil moisture, and their mite infestation had weakened them. Things would be different if your ficus were circling the drain, as Al puts it, but it's not even in the drain's neighborhood.

Like you I wanted to repot all of my plants right away once I learned what I'd been doing wrong, but I took the advice to try to build up their energy reserves first even though I wasn't really sure it was even possible. But after doing the stuff on that list they perked up, and within a few months had grown enough roots to put out a slow but steady stream of new leaves. By the time they went outside they had already started backbudding and had maybe twice the leaf area as before in the form of big, shiny, supple leaves that might as well have come from a different plant. In short, I'm really glad I waited.

Aside from giving the ficus a head start before repotting, waiting until June will give you plenty of time to decide which mix to use, find ingredients, and read up on repotting details. Meanwhile you'll spend a few minutes every time you water examining every new shoot and leaf, admiring its progress, and musing about all the different ways you can start to direct its shape when you finally get to prune it next summer.

As for me, I've decided to use a variation on Al's 1:1:1 mix for my trees to make it retain more moisture without reducing aeration and drainage. Summer daytime RH in Salt Lake City is about 15% to 25%, with 90-100 degree highs, constant breezes on my porch, strong high-elevation sunlight, and pretty sparse monsoon action (not that the porch would get much rain during storms). Even the non-rootbound plants in Miracle Gro Moisture Control get bone dry within three days of a good soaking, and the plants in 5:1:1 mix desperately need water every other day, so I believe a straight 1:1:1 mix would put them in danger if I didn't check more than once a day.

I've decided to use an adjusted gritty with a 4:3:2 ratio of turface, bark, and grit that Al recommends in this thread.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/4195423/adjusting-gritty-mix?n=13. 

I don't know if Denver is dry or hot enough to need more water retention than the 1:1:1 mix, and there are other ratios that are less of a departure, but in your elevation and climate I thought you might want to know about the options as you continue to think about all this stuff.

Lenore

Gudang,

I fully disagree with everything you have to say.

Lets leave it at that.

@Dave

Agree. It's already explain alot. Thx.