After spending half an hour on the following post it occurred to me that a houseplant forum search for "nicking" might yield more accurate information. Sure enough, I found several threads containing Al's explanations, but I spent so much time on mine that I refuse to delete it!!!!! Here are a few of the threads. The nicking discussions aren't long but I think Al's post on the first link explains the effects of nicking vs pruning. Use the search box at the top of the page to find even more threads. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1458989/fiddle-leaf-fig-question?n=1 http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1465570/pruning-ficus-lyrata-to-branch?n=24 ******************* My now-superfluous post: Ah, I see; most people seem to call that nicking, not slitting. The reason you haven't found info on it is that few people do it, but Al has gone into it the few times he's been asked. I'll describe it as best I can from what I remember of his posts about it. Anyway, you would use a sharp sterilized (just in case) knife to cut a small horizontal wedge through the cambium (basically the living usually green layer under the bark) right above a leaf node. Nicking (or pruning) above a node stops the inhibitory hormone from the top of the tree from reaching it, letting it respond to hormones that direct it to grow. The same thing happens when you prune. Whether you prune or nick, the amount of back-budding you'll get depends on the plant's condition. IMO, if the stress that caused your ficus to drop leaves still exists, nicking or pruning won't have much (if any) effect so long as the plant is still under the stress that made it drop so many leaves. I'd guess that's because the weakened plant isn't producing the hormones that would stimulate growth above ground. That's been my experience. My ficuses didn't respond at all to tip-pinching last fall when they were still weak, but now after months of proper care and increased spring sunlight they're growing like crazy, including a lot of back-budding far back on its once-bare branches, without any intervention at all from me. I think that's an accurate description of what I've read!

I have a healthy fiddle that I've had to repot twice now. It's now in a mix of roughly half Ocean Forest Fox Farm potting soil and half pine bark fines. If I were to redo it I would do the 3-1-1 that my Japanese Maples are in - 3 parts partially composted pine bark fines (with the sap wood stuff picked out), 1 part Ocean Forest potting soil, and 1 part perlite. Then I add about 1 Tbsp organic garden lime per gallon of finished mix, and Osmocote time release fertilizer per instructions on label. Personally, and I may be wrong here, but if your fiddle is pushing new growth then I would feel perfectly ok with repotting it at that time. I've had that issue before where new leaves seem susceptible to bugs and disease. I drench all the leaves in neem oil when that happens. But I think that leaf being puny indicates something else - maybe that it's time for a repot? Also, and take this with a grain of salt, I hack the roots when I repot. I'm not very judicious about it, taking about 30% to 40%. I use my super sharp garden scissors that I sterilize with Lysol (yes, aerosol Lysol). I cut away a certain amount mass-wise, then take care to also cut any wrap-around roots, "hooked" roots, and portions of thicker roots (to encourage growth of feeder roots). I do try to keep my hose sprayer on mist while I'm working and mist the roots pretty frequently but only to keep them moist. I work fast. Then I put it in the new pot and start filling with my mix. I pull the tree up slightly after every few scoops and try to make sure the root area doesn't have any air pockets. When I'm finished I water to eliminate any pockets I missed. I err on the side of caution and don't put soil around the root crown. Two things: I would take that small tree at the base out if possible. You can plant that in the current pot and see how it grows. If it's attached to the actual root of the larger tree (if it's just another node and not a separate tree) then I don't know, I'd probably keep it attached. Also, I would start pruning the canopy now. You can make more fiddles from the cuttings. I just plop my cuttings (of about two leaves) in moistened peat moss, put them in a well lit but protected shady area, and keep them moist. They will root. I dip them in rooting hormone first to make myself feel better. I usually do cuttings of about two leaves at a time like this. The benefit is that you will get branching from your main tree if you prune it, which is what you want. Mine started off like yours and now I have a real canopy. I'm about to prune at least four or five branches this month when the weather gets more consistently warm. I like to prune fiddle branches when I can leave the branch with two leaves and have two leaves to plant as cuttings. If your fiddle is pushing new growth I wouldn't time my repot by when I fertilized it last. But I wouldn't fertilize again for two weeks after the repot. Let the roots grow first into the new mix. Personally I'd go larger than an eight inch pot for the repot. I've included some pics of mine. It's about four feet tall and, like yours, started out as a single trunk tree. I've also included pics of several of the branches that I intend to prune in the next few weeks. Tomorrow I will post pics of a fiddle I'm trying to save. You'll be surprised. I hacked literally every single leaf off of it to get some back budding. Hopefully in a month I will see some results. It's nerve racking but I thought, why not try it?

The internet is full of misinformation. These plants grow and will do best under the most intense full sun. Sun through a window is filtered and not anywhere near as intense as it would be outside. The only issue you could ever have is the leaf getting too hot if you’re air is stangnent. If there’s a fan, or even a heat/ac vent in the same room, that’ll keep the air moving enough. It’s a bummer to see everyone coming here with the same “bright indirect” light thing. People misunderstand what that means so they stick it in a dark corner and the plant suffers. Bright, meaning right up in front of a window. Indirect means not outdoors in direct sunlight. Glass filters the sun, hence not direct. That’s only because the plants have been grown under a shade cloth. They can easily handle direct sun if acclimated. All Ficus should be in front of the brightest window in your house. whatmay seem bright or plenty of light to a human is nothing for a plant. Dont water in small amounts. Fully drench the soil till is coming out the drain holes so you’re flushing fertilizer and tap water salts from the soil. Don’t water on a a set schedule. Water only as the plant needs it. This is be different in the summer and winter.

"..... 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