What it looks like is that your knife wasn't sharp enough. Also I'd never use a knife to prune. It is hard to get a clean cut (if it's not a clean cut it can take longer for the plant to heal) and can easily introduce disease and infection if the tools are not sterilized beforehand. For such thick stems use a pruner, you can buy them at home depot or lowes. To sterilize your tools, get a blow torch and heat up the blade until it gets red and then let it cool off. It goes without saying that you should choose a pruner with a blade that is pure metal, not the kind of hybrid plastic ones they have nowadays. I wouldn't necessarily prune any more off. The problem is that your ficus began branching too late and now whatever you do the tree is still going to look top heavy indoors since it can't get any taller than that.

This looks like the fungaluglies at work, perhaps anthracnose. I'd remove the affected foliage with a sterile tool and dispose of the leaves in a sealed plastic bag or burn them. I'd also treat with a fungicide - a systemic would be most effective. Bayer's Disease Control for Roses/ Flowers/ Shrubs delivers the systemic 'tebuconazole' which is a very effective fungicide. As always, read/ follow directions and only spray outdoors. Al

Personally, I'd use a soil drench made with 1.47% Imidacloprid at the rate of 1 tsp/ quart (or liter) of water. It should provide immediate 100% knockdown, and will persist in the soil for quite a while. It works systemically in the plant, so should keep your plant free of predators like scale, mealybug, thrips, …………… . If you are unable to maintain your plants' root systems in a state of high vitality (good health), a healthy plant is only something you can wish for. To a large degree, your ability to provide a healthy environment for roots depends on your choice of soil; not to mention that an appropriate soil, one that allows you to water correctly w/o the plant having to pay the price exacted by a soil that remains soggy for extended periods, makes your job as a grower much easier across the board. If you like, I can provide a link to a thread that explains how water behaves in container soils. Gaining an understanding of the concept it outlines is almost certainly the largest step forward a container gardener can take at any one time. Al

This doesn't occur when using the gritty mix unless it's been kept habitually too wet and the surface is covered with algae, which can/does become hydrophobic (water repellent) when it dries down. The 5:1:1 mix will become hydrophobic whenever it's been allowed to drop below about 15% water retention. 15% is approximately the point where the soil appears dry to the eye and touch. When the soil becomes dry to the point where it repels water, it also usually shrinks inward on itself, which leaves a gap between the pot wall and the soil mass, allowing water to flow over the top of the soil (because it's being repelled by the dry soil, and run down through the gap at the walls of the pot. Increasing the % of water in soil particles is the remedy. To achieve that end, you can soak the planting in a tub that's at least as deep as the height of the soil column. Put the plant in the tub and fill it to about 3/4 of the ht of the soil column and wait for a half hour before filling the pot to about 1/2" below the ht of the soil column and waiting another 15 minutes or so; then, remove the pot and allow it to drain. You can also mist the top of the soil thoroughly at intervals short enough that the top of the soil doesn't dry out, or set the pot under a water source/faucet and let it drip on the top of the soil for an hour or so. I only have to confront this issue when using a completely dry 5:1:1 mix when establishing a new planting. To fix tendency toward hydrophobicity in new plantings when the soil is dry, Fill a container with 1/3 of the volume of soil you think you'll ultimately use, then stir in enough water to make it mucky. The last step is to combine enough dry soil with the mucky mix to yield whatever volume of soil you'll need to establish the new planting, mix well, and let it rest for at least 1/2 hr. There will be enough water in the mix to break the hydrophobic tendency of the entire volume. To prevent recurrence in established plantings, water more often or mist the top of the soil well (only the soil) about halfway through whatever the normal watering interval might be. When you mist, the idea is only to moisten the upper part of the soil that has gone dry. You don't want to add enough water to increase the ht of any perched water column that might already exist in the soil. The misting will increase the length of your watering intervals, so keep that in mind. Checking the soil with a tell would be the best bet until you get a good sense of what the new appropriate interval is. You might also keep in mind that perched water tables are easily and very effectively dealt with by using ballast. A clean Cool Whip container (or something similar) turned upside down and resting on the bottom of the pot is as effective as a brick - probably more so if it is only slightly smaller in diameter than the inside OD of the pot. Let me know if you don't understand how ballast works; or, if you'd like more info on using a "tell". Al