PA - Her plant is healthy enough (at least in the picture) that it would tolerate a repot if it was done now, but the object of suggesting a summer repot has more to do with skirting how much it will tolerate now and planning around the time of year the plant is most able to deal with the stress of a repot, which includes a root-pruning and change of soil. That's best done when A) the plant's energy reserves are highest and B) when the plants current photosynthate (food) output is also at its peak. The effects of a repotting now might linger for 2 or more months after the work, while the same work done in summer might only impact the plant for a couple of weeks. During the time the plant is weakened, it's more susceptible to insects and diseases, so we want to work WITH the plant's natural rhythms instead of against them whenever we can. If the plant was in imminent danger, a repot now would be in its best interest, but it doesn't appear to be, in the picture. Juliande - I would indeed encourage you to either leave or remove the new shoot, and to cut the larger stem back quite a bit next summer. When you cut back, cut back just above a living leaf and make the thicker stem about 2/3 taller than the new shoot - even if that means cutting back the new shoot as well. Your plant won't look natural if the fat trunk ends up being shorter than the thin one. Your eye will tell you something is wrong, even if you can't quite put your finger on just what it is. Let me know if you want/need anything additional in the way of help. Al

It looks like residue from insecticide or fungicide applications; or, early on, the plant was in a situation where it was watered from overhead and the water was allowed to repeatedly dry on the foliage, leaving dissolved solids residue on the foliage. It's possible too, that the same chemicals mentioned above were injected into the water used for over-head watering and were left behind on foliage as the water dried. I don't think it's cause for concern. If it interferes with the plant's ability to carry on photo synthesis, chemical messengers will inform plant central the leaves aren't carrying their weight, and the plant will automatically shed them. Too, your plant looks healthy enough that removing the affected leaves shouldn't create a scenario where the plant is using more energy than it's creating by turning the sun's energy into food ..... so you can remove them w/o need to be concerned. Remove them by snipping through the petiole (leaf stem) about half-way between where it's attached to the stem and where it transitions to the leaf blade. The stub you leave will fall off on its own in a week or two. Pulling leaves off can easily damage latent buds resting in leaf axils (angle formed by a leaf and the branch it's attached to). Al

With the vernal equinox behind you, your Ficus should be losing its tendency toward winter lethargy and starting to 'think' about growing in earnest. That urge will continue to grow as the summer solstice approaches, then start to diminish again as days shorten and temps grow cooler in autumn, until they slow so much in winter one might think they have enter a situational dormancy, but they won't have. Ficus are capable of growing as robustly in winter as in summer. The reason they don't is, indoor conditions (low humidity, often cool temps, low light) aren't in the plant's sweet spot. As a result, the less than ideal cultural conditions are temporarily limiting. IOW, they don't allow the plant to realize as much of its genetic potential when compared to the summer months. Your plant does need regular nutrient supplementation. Nutrients are the building blocks that allow the plant to grow and keep its systems orderly, so I would suggest you start fertilizing with a product the plant will like. In the US, there is a product called Foliage-Pro 9-3-6. It works extremely well for Ficus for a number of reasons. I use it for everything I grow, with only a modification here/there for a very few plants. "I read that variegated plants often need more light then no variegated ones." That is sort of true. Because there is less chlorophyll in the lighter part of the variegated leaf surface, the plant is unable to produce as much food (plants make their own food in the form of sugar) as their all-green counterparts. The problem is, chlorophyll is natures sunscreen for plants - it protects them against the same harmful rays that cause sunburn in humans; so, while the plant would need more light to keep up with other all green plants, it can't tolerate as heavy a photo load as green plants. I have a F benjamina 'Variegata' forest planting I've been working on for a few years. In summer, it's outdoors in full sun with mid-afternoon protection. Yours should be ok and very happy outdoors as long as temps are above 15-16*c. Your plant should actually tolerate full sun indoors (through a window, but you would need to have a fan moving air during the middle of summer days to protect against over-heating - different than sunburn, but still a potential problem. The planting in the image is growing in my basement currently. The cuttings I stared around the perimeter will be tall enough this year so they look natural as a part of the composition, so I expect the next shots I take of it to look much better. Maybe try using a wooden dowel rod sharpened in a pencil sharpener as a 'tell', to 'tell' you when it's time to water - much more effective than a water meter, which doesn't really measure moisture levels. It measures electrical conductivity, so the level of dissolved solids (salts) from tapwater and fertilizer solutions has a big influence on how it reads. I'll leave more about using a tell below. This is about growing Ficus in pots. 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. Al

Unfortunately, the blemishes are a forever thing. Animals/people are different from plants in that animals are regenerating organisms, and as such are able to heal by repairing/replacing cells in their formal spatial position. As generating organisms only, plants are unable to 'heal' the same way animals do. The plant starts life in the understory and spends the early part of that life struggling to reach the upper canopy where it can finally come into it's own. Though some precautions should be taken (in some circumstances) when increasing the photo load significantly, it's good to remember the plant would love summer outdoors in a full sun site when temperatures allow. I have about 30 ficus more than 10 years old and many more which are younger, and all are sited in full sun all summer. As the blemishes are not pathogenic, they won't spread; however, if the cultural cause remains in play, there's a high probability it will continue to happen. While I can't say with specificity why the blemishes appeared, I'm not in doubt it's oedema. It might be worth making a hole through the sidewall of the pot where the wall meets the bottom, and pushing a wick into the hole. Then, after a thorough watering, tip the pot to a 45* angle so the hole with the wick is the lowest point on the pot. Then just let it drain until it stops. That will remove significantly more water after a thorough watering, such that at least 15-25% of the total volume of water applied exits the drain hole. Plants grow by laying down files of cells in the vascular cambium. They do this only when they are producing more food (during photosynthesis) than required to maintain the plant's respiring mass - it's living parts, which is genetically obligatory. It's very common for plants grown indoors to 'stall' when the combination of light, temperature, and/or other cultural conditions, limit the plant's food-making ability during the slow winter months, even to the degree the plant sort of switches temporarily to battery power (stored energy reserves) when ambient photo load is inadequate. If your plant was circling the drain, it would be a concern, but given the condition your plant appears to be in, I wouldn't let it bother me too much. Your plant grows in sort of a hopscotch manner. Root growth always precedes top growth. Only when the volume of roots is large enough to support new top growth will you see new top growth. As soon as roots are taxed by the volume of the top, top growth stops or slows markedly to allow roots to get out in front of top growth. If anything occurs to limit the volume or efficiency of the root system, we can expect the limitations of top growth to be immediate, even if not always immediately conspicuous. Al