Hi, Gina - thank you for the kind words. I now have it in a south facing window, that is mostly covered by a light filtering shade, 4 feet from a west facing window in a fairly bright room, and next to a humidifier. So it's sort of between a S and W window? I wondered if I did a full repot and root trim if I could possibly put it in a slightly smaller pot? I plan to use a mixture of 1:1:1 potting soil, perlite, and repti-bark, and possible put some empty bottles in the bottom as ballast. Yes, you'll be able to put it in a smaller pot after the root reduction, but do make sure you don't cut yourself short insofar as space for roots to run, given you'll be adding ballast. I also hoped to turn it into a standard or “mother/daughter”. It has 6 stems that all seem to be from the same plant and I wonder what the best way to convert it would be? A mother/daughter arrangement would look like the larger tree hovers protectively over the daughter tree. When you select the two trees, be sure the larger doesn't dirsctly overhang the smaller and shade it out. The two should be offset a bit. This can usually be accomplished best by allowing the two trunk lines to be directly above each other for a distance before the daughter's trunk turns toward you. This arrangement has a front and a back for viewing purposes, but it should be rotated regularly so all sides get their share of light. Remove the surplus stems.branches unnecessary to the composition by pruning them back to the trunk. Start them as cuttings if you like. I read about removing stems to accomplish this but also about leaving stems, because those leaves have value to the plant, while you focus on strengthening one stem or binding a few together? Honestly, I just read so much information at once in the past couple days that I am a little overwhelmed :) Not pertinent at this point - save that for later. I would like to give it the correct soil and conditions for it to thrive. I think you can expect good results with what you proposed above, and the ballast will definitely work in your favor. Is it too late for a repot and root pruning in zone 7b? If there was no pressure to get the plant out of the pot/soil it's in now, I'd probably wait. If you think the combination has potential to dump a serious problem before next spring, go ahead and repot. It would be best if, after the repot, the plant could be sited outdoors in dappled or open shade and out of wind while it recovers. You have a longer growing season than I do and I set Aug 1 as my last repot date for Ficus ..... but all my trees are outdoors, which makes a very significant difference. Start fertilizing when you're seeing new growth. Make sure you keep the roots WET for the entire duration of the repotting session. Have everything ready to go before you start. Add a wick to the pot too, if you like. Questions? Al

Hi, Gilbert. The best way to get branches to form is: make sure the roots are healthy - get the plant outdoors where light is very bright and there is plenty of air movement ...... but there are other ways, too like judiciously defoliating (more on that below) or notching. Dividing your Ficus isn't all that traumatic for the plant. In fact, you can actually "divide" large ficus with an axe if necessary, not that I'm recommending that practice; but, you can actually hack the plants apart so each half has an appropriate volume of roots attached, dividing them is no more dangerous than repotting. How about sharing a few pictures of your tree from different angles. Often, if there are ACTUALLY 2 or more individual plants in a pot, you can actually separate them by pulling them apart after removing most of the soil with little force. Your tree produces a growth regulator (hormone) called auxin in all it's dynamic tissues. One of its functions is suppression of lateral growth, which would be new branches. Most auxin is produced in apical meristems, which are the active growth regions near branch tips, but auxin is also produced in leaves. Removing leaves reduces the polar flow of auxin - "polar" because it only moves downward. This means there may not be enough auxin flowing downward to inhibit growth from latent (like dormant) buds, which allows another growth regulator (cytokinin) to activate buds proximal (closer to the roots) to the leaves removed. The result of the newly activated bud is a new branch. In many cases, the outcome is very predictable, in other cases, the result is quite predictable, but the pattern random. IOW, given any healthy ficus with a branch that has 100 leaves on it, all of which are removed in summer, you can bet as much as you like on the fact that significant back-budding will occur on that branch as it pushes a new flush of growth, and the number of leaves that emerge after defoliation will be much higher than the 100 you started with. It's also very likely there will be additional back-budding on other branches close to the trunk or off the trunk itself below the defoliated branch. I'm not sure where you live, but the month of June in the N hemisphere is a very good time to do any serious work on your trees. Potting up isn't serious work, but repotting is. Repotting (includes root pruning and a change of soil) ensures your plant will not be limited by root congestion until about the time the root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact. Potting up ensures the limitations imposed by root congestion and soil compaction will continue until the plant dies or the grower intervenes and eliminates the congestion by repotting. You might find value in the info this link will take you to. If you like that thread, I can link you to another that discusses caring for trees in containers for the long term. It goes into considerable detail about root work and other tips to keep trees happy in containers. There is no reason a well-tended tree in a container can't outlive both of us and be kept healthy and compact, with proper care. Trees in pots have far more potential to outlive their counterparts growing in situ (where they naturally occur). Al

I haven't repotted, no. It's still in the pot from the nursery, which has drain holes. The surrounding grey pot in the picture is just a pot cover.

The best way to encourage branching is to get your plant outdoors when temps allow. It should have plenty of sun and air movement. Air movement increases the rate of the nutrient stream's flow, which increases the amount of nutrients available to viable tissues. Root congestion discourages back-budding and encourages loss of older leaves and leaves close to the trunk on extending branches, so make sure you know how to repot and do it regularly. Every 3 years is about right for a plant your size, but it's growth rate and level of vitality plays into what an appropriate interval between repots might be. For a very healthy tree, every other year might be better. Low fertility also causes loss of older leaves and a reduction in enthusiasm about back-budding. so make sure you're fertilizing at luxury levels when the plant is growing strong. When you prune also has an impact on the level of lateral breaks (back-budding). You'll see best results if you prune a healthy tree in the summer when it's energy reserves are very high and its food-making ability (photosynthetic potential) is at or near its peak. Al