Hi!

I live in New York City. 4 years ago, I bought a beautiful, thick 6 foot tall fiddle leaf fig tree before I knew anything about gardening, repotting, or fertilizing. Now, I am kicking myself with having done basically no research beyond "don't water too much" and to make sure and give the tree ample light. I basically water it every Sunday, and rotate it from time to time in front of a South facing window. It does get some direct sun, but only for a short time everyday (already ordered a sheer curtain to filter the light more). The tree is a trooper, but it is definitely paying the price for my naïveté. I waited through the winter, and now that it's almost April, I'm hoping to do a repot ASAP. It has that dreaded poodle look (leaves towards ends, empty in the middle).

Several mistakes I have made:

1. The plant has NEVER been repotted. There are no roots emerging from the soil on top.

2. The plant is in a pot with no drainage hole! Crazy, I know!

3. I have never fertilized the plant. Even crazier!

4. Last summer, I placed the tree in front of an air conditioner unit for a week. I lost....so many leaves. Immediately placed it back where it wanted to be, but the damage was done and it lost that fullness.

Somehow, this tree is still alive. It hasn't lost a leaf in about 2 months. Because I live so far north, I know that a June repotting would be ideal - however, I'm nervous that my tree is circling the drain and that I should just repot immediately. My urge is to take it out, cut back the roots, repot in Al's 5-1-1 mix or his gritty mix (though finding those ingredients in NYC is proving to be hard), prune the top branches to encourage backbudding and fill out the center again, and then...eventually give it some dyna-gro foliage pro fertilizer (9-3-6).

I'd love to repot this week, but do you think my tree is too weak or that it's just too early in the spring to do this? Help!

Thanks,

Maria