Hello! I'm quite the newbie for the most part when it comes to houseplants and found my way here after several google searches. I have two houseplants that I love but just aren't "happy". I have a feeling it's due to the soil and light but was wondering if there is anything else that might be an issue. First up is my monstera, Meg. I bought her in March and she was doing ok. I lost a leaf or two so potted up in some basic potting mix. After reading through the forums for the last few days at various points, I realise that that was quite a rookie thing to do. Now she looks like this. Here are a couple of incredibly sad leaves, do these need pruning? And if so where on earth do you prune Monstera as they seem to be the newest leaves? Is is she beyond saving? There hasn't been any new growth since I potted up so I've moved her from the room she was in to a slightly brighter ne facing room. I'm considering repotting using gritty mix but I'm unsure if it's too late in the year? And then there is Arabella Fiddle Leaf Fig. She was a housewarming present from last year. She's been potted up twice (seriously, I regret these actions ) and the top two leaves are new growth. The three slightly below I'm sure are mechanical damage. She currently lives in front of a SE facing window, or at least within 1m with moderate direct sunlight for part of the morning. I moved her recently as I don't think she was getting enough light where she was, especially considering my husbands propensity to not bothering opening the curtains of a morning. There are a few crispy leaves and I'm uncertain if there is any new growth at the top as I'm watching her like the proverbial boiling pot. There are a couple of buds that are peeking out that seem to be getting more pronounced. So my vague plan with Arabella is to repot into gritty mix and potentially chop off the top third just above the bud that is pictured. Hopefully that would encourage branching and strengthening of lower tree? I might be able to propagate the cut off top and start from scratch on a second plant if I do. I love these plants and don't want them to die, Meg hasn't even reached a level of maturity where her leaves have split yet! Basically any advice or opinions on pruning in the case of Meg, repotting of both of them using gritty mix and my general plans for Arabella will be more than welcome! My main concern is I've left it too late to fix any of these problems this year and I'm unsure if they'll last the winter. Side note, I didn't realise you could see my sad succulent Florain the background of my pictures of Arabella! I may attempt to propogate more succulents from her as she seems less than happy too.

"..... my main question or concern is that it seems as though someone had tried to ”notch” the plant, and I am wondering if it may have been done prematurely, and if it will cause significant harm to the plant since it was cut from the top of one of the two main stems of the plant." There is no evidence of attempted notching in the images you provided, but perhaps we just can't see the notch. You already asked about the trunk being chopped, and I explained what to expect as a result of that recent action and assured you no harm will result. You will soon see several branches occurring in the crotch (axil) of leaves immediately below the point where the trunk was chopped. Note the chopped trunk and new branches growing in axils of 2 leaves. Your plant will do the same as the result of the trunk(s) being severed. There is a growth regulator synthesized at the tip of every branch where the extension (lengthening) growth occurs. Auxin, the growth regulator suppresses growth of side/lateral branching. When the branch tip is removed, the reduction in the amount of that growth regulator flowing toward only the roots eliminates the chemical's ability to suppress growth of side branches. One of the new side branches will serve as the new leader/ upper part of the trunk. This maple clearly shows the scar where I chopped the trunk, which was about 8 feet tall when I chopped it back. The new trunk, above the chop, is a branch that I wired into place. See the same tree about 2 years later. You cannot even tell it was chopped, but in fact it was chopped 4 times. Bonsai practitioners chop their trees back because trees that taper radically, a thick base and thin/twiggy top makes them look old and more natural. Here is another tree ^^^ that has been chopped once just below the thin branch with the wire on it. The next chop will be immediately above the thin branch, but for the time being the part above the thin branch is serving as a sacrifice branch. It is helping to thicken the trunk to provide more taper, only to be removed later, thus the term 'sacrifice'. There is also slight browning on some leaves which i figured were due to underwstering but i think i figured out the watering so far. I see no damage that definitively says 'over-watering. What damage I see appears to be primarily mechanical injury (think 'bruising'), and maybe just a little bit of sunburn. Al

It’s up to you. You can remove them or leave them. They may continue to grow in their broken condition or they may die. But they won’t repair themselves and there’s nothing you can do to mend them,

I can try to relocate it to be right in front of the window if that might help? That would be helpful and help the plant move closer to natural back-budding as opposed to forced back-budding by pruning. Can also limit leaf loss if it is currently being driven by low light conditions. More on back-budding later. Just fertilized the other day after not having done so for a while. I used the Parkwood All Purpose Plant Food, 20-20-20. Watered with a 2L dilution of the mixture. Again - helpful. I noticed the slightly chlorotic (yellow-green) coloring and thought if probably was suffering from low fertility, particularly nitrogen. The 20-20-20 is a 1:1:1 ratio fertilizer, same as 10-20-10 and 14-14-14. Your plant uses about 6X as much N as P, and about 3/5 as much K as N, so 1:1:1 ratio fertilizers aren't the best choice, for two reasons. One is they force you to use more P and K than necessary to meet the plants N needs. 'Unnecessary' fertilizer in the soil solution makes it more difficult for the plant to take up water and nutrients. Also, if you're not flushing thoroughly, using fertilizers that don't closely match the ratio at which the plant is actually using nutrients can quickly cause skewing of the ratio actually in the soil. Think of a car assembly line. If in the supply chain they could only get parts in packages of 20 engines, 20 wheels, and 20 headlights, they will soon be driven out of the factory because of all the stored parts. Better if the packages container 80 wheels, 40 headlights, and 20 engines. Fertilizers with a 3:1:2 NPK ratio come closest to providing nutrients at the exact ratio your plant uses them, and Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 is the best 3:1:2 ratio fertilizer I've found to date. It also contains ALL nutrients essential to normal growth (yours probably lacks Ca, Mg, and several micronutrients) and it doesn't derive it's N from urea, as your fertilizer does, so it's easier on plants and you don't get the coarse growth you get with ureic forms of N. I let the moisture meter get to dry” in the soil all around. Moisture meters don't read moisture levels - they read electrical conductivity. Clean the probe and dip it in a cup of distilled (deionized) water and you'll note it reads "DRY". Sprinkle some table salt into the water (add some ions for electrical conductivity) and watch the needle go to "WET". It's better to use a tell so we know what moisture conditions are at the bottom of the pot. The commonly parroted advice that you should "water when the top inch or two of soil is dry" or "when the soil feels dry to the second knuckle of your index finger" are perfect examples of poor advice because the ensure you'll be over-watering if your pot is more than about 5" deep. More on a "tell" below. I try my best to let the entire soil mass is soaked and allow the water to exit the drain hole. Good, it's critical to keeping the TDS (salt) level in the soil from getting too high, and it keeps the ratio of nutrients in the soil from becoming skewed. Skewed fertilizer ratioos commonly cause antagonistic deficiencies - an excess of nutrient A makes it difficult for the plant to take up enough of nutrient B. All excess water drains out of the pot - it does not sit in the water. Good. Improving cultural conditions will make the plant less reluctant to back-bud naturally. If you put itr outdopors in dappled or open shade, it would likely back-bud somewhat w/o pruning. The added light, air movement, and appropriate fertility are the biggest contributors to natural back-budding. The relatively higher N level of FP 9-3-6 fertilizer would also be helpful. Your plant needs a pruning anyway, and a hard pruning will definitely force back-budding, but you need to be willing to prune it hard. It's not the risk you think it is; so, if you're concerned, ask for pictures of some of the work I've done on ficus trees to force back-budding. I'll wait until I hear back from you before I go any further. This might also be helpful. 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 plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions, 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