It's difficult to determine how appropriate a soil is by how the packager labels the product. What's most important is whats IN the bag, not what's ON the bag. It's primarily the size of the particles the soil is made of and the ratio of those sizes in the mix as a whole that determines how well a soil will perform. You can take 3 ingredients that have the potential to make an excellent soil, and mix them in such a way that the soil ends up being a poor choice. The only soils I've seen that I would use myself are 3 of the Fafard heavyweight mixes. I choose not to because I can easily make a better soil for a fraction of the cost. One of the keys to making any commercial soil you buy into an excellent soil is being able to find pine or fir bark in a size that's appropriate as a primary fraction of the soil. If you can find that, life just got a whole lot easier, insofar as the probability of consistently bringing along healthy plants. I wouldn't panic and start thinking you're doomed if you can't find pine or fir bark - we can work with a water-retentive soil if it's not too bad, but a soil based on particles larger than peat, compost, coir, sand, topsoil .... is a worthy goal. Almost everyone that spends any time on this forum recognizes there are usually inherent limiting factors associated with a very high percentage (almost all) of commercially prepared soils because almost everyone is 'amending' them to increase aeration and reduce water retention. This is certainly a move in the right direction, but if I can take you back to the thought that how you combine the ingredients has a very notable impact on the end product. If you DO find pine bark in a suitable size, making the bark the primary fraction of the soil (75-85%) will yield a product much different than if you added 15-20% pine bark to the soil you bought. We can talk more about soils if you're interested - and I'll give you some additional reading that covers container soils in greater depth. If you read it and understand the concept, you've probably taken the largest step forward a container gardener can take at any one time. While you're mulling that over, you can read about several ways to trick excess water into leaving the pot, which of course means more air in the soil (a good thing) and the ability to water correctly. I'm sure you'll have questions or comments - at least I hope you do. ;-) As far as light goes, your plant will probably tolerate the light load of full sun indoors, but the leaves probably won't tolerate the heat build-up unless you have a fan moving the air, so use your judgment. Outdoors, dappled or open shade with morning or late day sun would be ideal, and your plant will love it outdoors. My #1 choice for a houseplant fertilizer is Foliage-Pro 9-3-6, and the reasons are many. I don't want to get you thinking about too many things at once, so when you're ready to take on fertilizers, we can talk about that. The FP isn't easy to find in stores, but Miracle-Gro 12-4-8 in the yellow jug is, and it's cheap. It doesn't work quite as well as the 9-3-6, but it has the same NPK ratio (3:1:2) so it's about the next best thing. It also has any micronutrients you would have any cause to be concerned about in container media. All it lacks that's of concern is calcium and magnesium, but that will be in your soil, so you're covered for now. Questions? Al

Hi, noticed no one had responded to your question so thought I would try a little research. I think some of the pictures on the link below match your plants problems. Hope this is helpful. Money tree problems

...and while it's rooting, you can educate yourself on how to keep the new plant happy and healthy. If you post pictures of the whole plant before you cut it up and tell us what it's soil was like, how often you watered it, and that kind of thing, there are some pretty experienced people here who could point you in the right direction. Good luck!

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.