No it’s not scale. The marks on the stems are normal lenticels and the small ones on the leaves are physical damage. The large brown patches might be something to do with watering. If you have trouble recognising scale try scraping it off with a finger nail. Scale comes off easily and you’ll see some gooy gloop under it.

Perhaps Al could hopefully weigh in then, since I’ve had my fiddle in the 5-1-1 mix which is so good about draining, but he knows more about it than I.

I did uncover some soil to see the roots have grown SO well in this, they’ve started to wrap around the sides of the container. I worry though that they are brown- a month ago when I checked there was white growth.

It’s also crazy how many fine root hairs have become established in the past few months. There seem to be so many that even if I tried to uncover some soil i’d Rip out dozens

To add more info-

in the summer I watered roughly once every two weeks (usually to the day that’s when i’d stick a skewer in and the soil would be dry all the way through) then when he started to put out new growth and used up more energy that turned to about a week.

Once October hit, we started easing him away from our southwest facing kitchen to adjust him to less light levels each week. Once daylight savings time hit, we moved him back to our room (

to put him in from of one big south facing window. Water decreasing to about once every 16 days.

After about a month, I noticed him get a little less perky and growth slowed. I figured it was due to winter. Just watered him yesterday when soil was completely dry, then moved him back to our kitchen when I saw the yellowing leaves.

When I water, I run a watering can through till a ton drains out the bottom and sides, wait a few mins, then I tip 45 degrees to drain perched water out the sides. I’ll check the top of soil and see a few inches down that some soil didn’t get permeated through, and will usually run another can or two through likethus, making sure there is no more perched water before I put him back.

Anything im doing wrong that could lend to overwatering even with 5-1-1? Is he just not going to be able to make it in our room perhaps?

kitchen spot where he was all summer, gaining strength after oedema out break/two repots

Oh, and I’ve been fertilizing about once a month with miracle gro (al’s recommended ratio)

Seems like it's combination of too dry and too wet. Dry environment and watering too often. No soil is best for every situation. It's depend on plant and environment. If the plant need medium humidity longer, you need kind of soil that retain humidity longer without sacrifice drainage. Your medium now is drain well, but dry too fast.