Hi Jon,

I'm by no means an expert but I wanted to give you any insight I can based on what I just went through.

I acquired a fiddle leaf from a friend and it sounds like it was in be same health as yours, only it had a few new leaves since being in my care and it is much larger than yours. It was completely root bound as well as in some terrible soil (looked very similar to yours) about 3 weeks ago I repotted it in a pot the tiniest bit larger in the 5:1:1 mix. When I repotted it I did not do any trimming to any roots (mostly because I was afraid it was so late in the season and there was no really damaged roots that needed immediate attention.

I waited for a morning that was relatively cool (we've had some really hot days here in Portland) and I spent about 40 min with a hose and my hands cleaning off all of the old dirt from the rootball and very gently agitating the roots to make sure I cleaned all of it off even in between all of the roots. Meanwhile, I kept the roots moist and made sure at no point were they drying out. As soon as that was done I put it in its new pot with the 5:1:1 mix (including the dolomite lime) and gave it a good thorough water. Next time I watered I used the dynagro fertilizer everyone on here recommends. My fiddle leaf appears to be in perfect condition. There was no leaf loss, browning of any leaves, not even any limpness. It didn't get "shocked" at all.

Like I said, I'm not an expert by any means, and unfortunately when I asked my questions on the forum I didn't get a response from the two gentlemen on here that seem to be the go to experts (Al and Dave). I did however receive some tips from Robin in NZ and she was very helpful in my opinion with her two cents. I was very grateful for her response. I'm not sure if what I did was "right" or "recommended" but it seemed to work for my tree, it's happy, so maybe it might work for you?

That all being said, to answer some of your questions, I would go with the 5:1:1 mix over the gritty. And make sure if your fiddle leaf is in a western facing window it is not directly in the window. Mine seems to prefer southern or Western but they can definitely burn from direct sun on their leaves especially if they haven't been exposed to much light previously. They do however like bright light, so perhaps a little further from the window in a bright room and it will be happy. To my knowledge, USUALLY, but not always, the brown spots are an overwatering problem. My tree gets watered about once a week (it's been hot) and I soak the tree until water runs through and then use the tipping method. I know as the weather changes it will be less, but you will just have to test your soil like you have been. I can't seem to find the article thread on here but I read a really lengthy thread on here about perched water tables and honestly, I'm not sure you should pot up. It's not going to change the soil you haves ability to release the perched water and even the cactus mix and perlite are only adding more space for the perched water to have to run through. I'm not sure if my assumptions are right.. perhaps someone else will chime in. But I feel like you can take a risk and do nothing, or take a risk and do it right.

I hope I helped at least a little. If nothing else perhaps I've bumped the thread and someone with more expertise will chime in!

The browned leaf edges do look like overwatering. Were they there when you bought it? If so, all you have to do is to continue to monitor soil moisture like you did today, and hold off on watering until the dowel is dry. Do be sure to water slowly and thoroughly when you do water. For the rootbound plants I still have in their old soil, I water once until water begins to drain from the pot, making sure to go slowly and wet the whole surface of the soil evenly. Then I come back with my fertilizer solution and water again about 15 minutes later. If the pot was very dry I usually find that the pot takes longer to drain the second time, probably because peat that had become hydrophobic was allowed to slowly moisten a little so it could absorb water again. My pots have holds around the perimeter of the bottom, so tilting after watering works great even without a wick.

When I found these forums last September I was ready to repot all my plants, which were weak and rootbound in very old soil. Fortunately I was persuaded to proceed more cautiously and to improve their growing conditions instead, the idea being that it's better to wait until the solstice to repot unless a plant is, as Al says, circling the drain (and I did repot the one schefflera that was doing just that in 5:1:1, with good results). I flushed them thoroughly with room temperature R/O water; bought some 100 watt, 5000k (bright white) LEDs and CFLs, put them in cheap clamp-on fixtures, and mounted them on a shelf above the plants on a timer so they'd get some light; for rid of a spider mite infestation; started fertilizing with a weak solution of Foliage Pro every time I watered; and diligently monitored soil moisture and watered properly when needed.

All of my plants responded by perking up, and after a few months they'd gained enough energy and their root systems had recovered enough that they started putting out new growth. I don't have FLFs, but my ficus benjaminas did the best (I listed a few before and after photos in Dave's recent "Then and Now" thread), and they were much improved by the time the weather allowed me to put them outside.

Here's where things went sideways, because some nagging health issues prevented me from actually reporting this season. I was really upset when I realized it just was not going to happen, but frankly none of my plants are in better shape than they've ever been, and I've really fallen back in love with the ficuses, which love their half-day of bright high altitudes sunlight so much that they've filled every branch with shiny healthy leaves. I'm sure they'd be even happier with pruned roots in gritty mix (I'll use a modified ratio to compensate for the desert conditions), but I've gotten good enough at compensating for it that they'll keep looking good for another winter, and now that I already have my ingredients and a lot of prepared mix I'll be able to jump into it next June whenever I have a little energy to spare.

Al says that if you have two plants in the same condition, repot one in the fall, and repot the other one on Father's Day 2018, the second one will have more growth next fall than the one you repotted now. Some folks will say just go ahead and repot anytime, but your plant looks great despite having a couple of slightly damaged leaves, and they'll respond much better to repotting if you care for them properly and allow them to accumulate the energy they'll need to get through it smoothly.

BTW, Cassandra's description of repotting is spot on if you're not going to prune roots. If I had your plant I'd wait until the plant's energy production was at its highest to make sure it will bounce back with some vigor, but Cassandra's method sounds like it would work great.

Lenore

See! I knew more people would chime in that have a little more experience than I. Lenore is right also, your plant appears very healthy with the exception of some brown spots. You can always trim those off if you wanted, it doesn't ruin the whole leaf.

Jon,

These are the two lovelies that helped me, so I'm glad they commented on your thread. Please if I have given you any advice that contradicts the two of them, feel free to disregard. Haha. I'm rather new to the Fiddle leaf club anyway.

That being said, a few of my leaves did get a little burned in the western window on a very particularly hot summer day (must be the heat build up Robin speaks of) so just be careful to pay attention to that. The days are beginning to shorten so you might not need to really worry about that until next year anyway (?)

Good luck!

Cassandra, was just about to post to say how pleased I was to hear of your success! If you can repot a large fiddle leaf without a hitch then your advice should definately not be disregarded - nothing quite like real life experiences, especially when you can say "this is what I did in my circumstances and this is what happened". Then others can take what's relevant to them.

Your leaves burning is interesting, I didn't get the impression they'd be blasted in that spot in your photo. Not that I know your climate of course! Maybe keep it back a bit from the window in summer, and move it closer in winter? I think of sunlight as food for them, more so than fertiliser - was a bit hard to get my head around that concept - but evidently some caution is still needed. Those particular leaves may have grown in low light before you got it too, new ones from now should be fully on board for more light which equals more photosynthesis which equals more growth and energy and health.

A photo update on your original post would be great, I think hearing from less experienced people (myself included) can be helpful, as well as reading posts from the experts. And I am puzzled as to the drastic post-repot wilting many seem to have, so details of more positive outcomes may help explain that. Is it just overhandling the roots? That's my suspicion. BTW I think the more experienced members keep an eye on these posts and will step in if advice is going the wrong way, but they can't always answer everyone (I can't either)

litterbuggy - I'm sorry to hear your plans went sideways, you've been such an inspiration here, always kind and taking the time to help people, full credit to you. I'd come and help you if I was on your side of the world!

I'm also interested in how you get your plants through for some time without repotting, as that is a common question here, recommending people to wait. I've had to repot at less than ideal times when it's been a do-or-die situation, usually to do with rotting, but have wondered how long it is wise to wait for the best time otherwise. I'm not sure what your signs would be with small leaf ficus benjamina, but I think the larger leaved ones like elastica & lyrata start growing smaller leaves no matter how perfect everything else is, when they're overdue repotting.

Which of course shows up long term on large leafed plants. Big leaves then smaller then bigger again when finally repotted. Not so pretty! I'm completely on board with picking the most vigorous time to repot generally, but is it ever a compromise? I take full responsibility for all the compromises I make, but don't want to steer others wrong. Overanalysing, sure, but that's what this site is for, yes?

Robin, that's so sweet of you. Thank you for the kind words.

Re: the burned leaves, Al has said that when the air is still the heat from the sun creates a sort of layer of very hot air right at the leaf's surface. The remedy is simple: put a fan nearby that's just big enough to lightly circulate the air around the plant. That will prevent the layer of hot air from developing while letting the plant get all that yummy sunshine. I wouldn't move the plant away from the windows because the light drops exponentially as you get further from the glass, and that ficus wants as much light as you can give it.

I'm really not sure has let me get away with putting off my repotting, tho I might get burned if this summer's growth causes some kind of crisis if they can't maintain their leaves, for example, without access to our intense high-elevation sunshine. All I can say is that I've watched them like a hawk, done whatever I can to minimize any potential perched water table, and fertilized pretty heavily (I keep it dilute in winter), and generally hovered while not letting myself interfere too much. In a way it seems like although the ficuses and dracaena are rootbound, they've recovered enough from my attempts to murder them (pre-gardenweb) that have developed enough roots to dry their pots quickly anyway. Don't follow my example of dancing with the devil, though, because there may be some factor I'm missing.

Leaf size is a mystery to me. I think Al mentioned something about it but have no idea where I saw it. I'm looking at my ficus cuttings right now, and the leaves that have grown since they started getting artificial light are about twice the size of the old ones, as well as being thicker and shinier, so maybe a plant doesn't put out big leaves if it can't get enough light to support them. It seems to me that Al had another explanation; maybe I'll post about it sometime when he's not as busy as he has been lately.

Haha, yes I generally hover too. Have to sit on my hands sometimes to not interfere. Doesn't always work ;)