PS I haven't fertilized this plant yet and don't know what plant food to give it.

The soil looks very wet and moisture retentive. How often do you water and how do you tell it’s time to water?

Sheffs like high light. They grow in direct sun outdoors.

Move it in front of your sunniest window. It will not so well where it currently is.

I had one that grew to be over 6’ in the two years I had it. Sold it as I ran out of space.

It looks like it has or had spider mites.

@Dave, I water it once a week. I'd read that the top inch of soil should be dry before watering it again. So that's my routine. That's amazing that it grew to be 6'. Did you have it in a large pot for it to grow like that?

@Tiffany Thanks, I'll look into how to treat that. Sounds scary. Any tips specific for a Schefflerra?

Happy to suggest.

If you see any spider webbing, the situation is probably ongoing at this time and treatment is probably worthwhile. You can rinse them off with water, &/or with cotton balls damp with rubbing alcohol. The wiping might be easier since they are going to congregate on the bottoms of the leaves. Turning a plant of this size upside-down to rinse the bottoms of leaves looks more difficult to me.

The collection of white spots (called stippling) that they cause can't be removed from the leaves, so that is why one can't tell just by seeing the stippling if there are mites now, or if they were there before but are now gone. If you are able to put your plant outside for a summer vacation, there is no need to worry about them during that time unless you live in a place with very low humidity. I only ever get SM's on plants when they are inside for winter. Whenever moving a plant from inside to outside, be careful about letting the leaves get sunburned. This can be avoided by starting the plant in the first or last couple hours of direct sun of the day, with shade for the rest of the time. As far as plant pests go, I don't consider SM's scary because they're so easy to thwart & seasonal in their appearance/behavior in my climate. If left unchecked, they can eventually kill a plant, so I inspect for the spider webbing periodically & take action against them when needed. These tips aren't specific to Scheff, and should work well for any plant that does not have fuzzy leaves. I've never put alcohol on any kind of fuzzy leaf.

If your plant gets too tall, it can be trimmed. At this point, you could nip the newest leaf that is forming, and this could cause it to start making side branches, which could drastically slow its' upward mobility.