The bud in the leaf axil first image upthread) is your future tree, so it shouldn't be kept under water where it's likely to rot. If it dies, you might not ever get another break from the leaf axil ..... at best, you'd have to wait for an extremely long time for a new apical meristem to form on the cutting. Al

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!

The browned leaf edges do look like overwatering. Were they there when you bought it? If so, all you have to do is to continue to monitor soil moisture like you did today, and hold off on watering until the dowel is dry. Do be sure to water slowly and thoroughly when you do water. For the rootbound plants I still have in their old soil, I water once until water begins to drain from the pot, making sure to go slowly and wet the whole surface of the soil evenly. Then I come back with my fertilizer solution and water again about 15 minutes later. If the pot was very dry I usually find that the pot takes longer to drain the second time, probably because peat that had become hydrophobic was allowed to slowly moisten a little so it could absorb water again. My pots have holds around the perimeter of the bottom, so tilting after watering works great even without a wick. When I found these forums last September I was ready to repot all my plants, which were weak and rootbound in very old soil. Fortunately I was persuaded to proceed more cautiously and to improve their growing conditions instead, the idea being that it's better to wait until the solstice to repot unless a plant is, as Al says, circling the drain (and I did repot the one schefflera that was doing just that in 5:1:1, with good results). I flushed them thoroughly with room temperature R/O water; bought some 100 watt, 5000k (bright white) LEDs and CFLs, put them in cheap clamp-on fixtures, and mounted them on a shelf above the plants on a timer so they'd get some light; for rid of a spider mite infestation; started fertilizing with a weak solution of Foliage Pro every time I watered; and diligently monitored soil moisture and watered properly when needed. All of my plants responded by perking up, and after a few months they'd gained enough energy and their root systems had recovered enough that they started putting out new growth. I don't have FLFs, but my ficus benjaminas did the best (I listed a few before and after photos in Dave's recent "Then and Now" thread), and they were much improved by the time the weather allowed me to put them outside. Here's where things went sideways, because some nagging health issues prevented me from actually reporting this season. I was really upset when I realized it just was not going to happen, but frankly none of my plants are in better shape than they've ever been, and I've really fallen back in love with the ficuses, which love their half-day of bright high altitudes sunlight so much that they've filled every branch with shiny healthy leaves. I'm sure they'd be even happier with pruned roots in gritty mix (I'll use a modified ratio to compensate for the desert conditions), but I've gotten good enough at compensating for it that they'll keep looking good for another winter, and now that I already have my ingredients and a lot of prepared mix I'll be able to jump into it next June whenever I have a little energy to spare. Al says that if you have two plants in the same condition, repot one in the fall, and repot the other one on Father's Day 2018, the second one will have more growth next fall than the one you repotted now. Some folks will say just go ahead and repot anytime, but your plant looks great despite having a couple of slightly damaged leaves, and they'll respond much better to repotting if you care for them properly and allow them to accumulate the energy they'll need to get through it smoothly. BTW, Cassandra's description of repotting is spot on if you're not going to prune roots. If I had your plant I'd wait until the plant's energy production was at its highest to make sure it will bounce back with some vigor, but Cassandra's method sounds like it would work great. Lenore

Well, I created my batch of Al's 5-1-1 and did the root pruning. The soil that was in the pot to begin with seemed to be made of at least 50% pearlite. It did drain ok, but held the water too long I think. I'm looking forward to the 5-1-1 and using a tell to really know what's going on with my plant. (root ball after completely removing soil) I had just enough of the 5-1-1 for the large pot that my FLF is in, but my poor FLF suffered quite the leaf loss as I had to turn him several times to get the dirt off the root ball. Roots were thick and I'm not sure if they looked good or not, but I followed directions in Al's root pruning discussions as best I could and cut off a bunch of the thick big roots, and pruned probably 1/3-1/2 of them. Then planted in the 5-1-1 and watered. I also put the pot on blocks inside the decorative planter, so that it will never be sitting in the runoff again! That combined with using a tell should fix the problems I was having. (poor guy looks like he got mugged) I have the Foliage Pro 9-3-6 to apply in a few weeks, maybe after the 2nd or 3rd watering. My wife loves the little jug it came in. It's tiny. I now need to make a new batch of 5-1-1. (This is right after watering the first time in the 5-1-1) Al, I have a few questions for you. What should I expect over the next month? Is my tree going to start dropping leaves? (maybe I should say "Trees" as there are 5 of them in the same planter.) I think it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for them to shed some as the root system has just been hacked up a bit. But it's nice to hear from the experts. Attached are pictures of missing leaves at the top of stalks. They broke off during the root cleaning/pruning. Will new growth occur there at the top? or do I need to cut it back to just above the closest attached leaf? (tops of stalks that had leaves break off in the process) How do I force back budding into areas that lost leaves and now look as if they have holes? If this is a process, when is the best time to start it, and what should I expect? (empty holes on stalks that have lost leaves/broke off during the process) Again as always, Thank you anyone for your help and advice. I feel like I've taken a few horticulture classes with all the reading I've been doing on these forums, and especially thank you Al (tapla) for your wisdom and your sharing on these forums. It is truly a blessing to find someone who is so knowledgeable and willing to share that knowledge with complete strangers. Thanks again, Mike