Trim it. Look at it carefully and decide which branches are you going to leave and which you are going to trim.

Omar

Yes, some plants are finicky about being moved.

It doesn't look all that bad to me. In fact it looks pretty good to have been in the house. I'd add some pelleted time release fertilizer and see if it puts on new leaves with more light. If too large for it's spot you could shape it by trimming the tips of the branches.

When on vacation in La Paz, Mexico I was amazed to see what looked to me like huge ficus trees growing in people's yards, some with children's swings hanging from them, while we grow them in pots!

In the Rio Grande valley I've seen them there full size in yards too.

"They" also say if a ficus is happy and you move it, it sometimes goes beyond happy to ebullient or even euphoric. IOW, if you improve the most limiting cultural influence, the plant will always show its appreciation. If you ask the plant to endure conditions at/near the limits it's been genetically programmed to tolerate, it will show it's displeasure.

Hi, Alison (my GD's name, too) Tip pruning the tree is just going to force it to grow more leaves at branch tips, which are already for the most part out of bounds. It badly needs a hard pruning, but no need to take it back to a stump or trunk & stubs. If it was my tree and I was pruning it, about 80% of it's top mass would be lying on the porch deck after the last snip. A hard pruning now will cause a LOT of back-budding. After the new branches get a start, wait for the 3rd leaf to mature, then pinch that branch back to 2 leaves. This is how you maximize ramification (branch and leaf density. More air movement will improve back-budding as well, so a spot out of that corner would be a good idea.

Also, I'd skip the controlled release fertilizer (CRF). Release rate is primarily driven by temperature. When it gets really hot, you're going to want to withhold fertilizer, which will facilitate water uptake. Just as water uptake becomes critical to the plant, CRF's are delivering the most fertilizer, which is counter-productive during hot spells. I have a lot of ficus trees in pots, and I use Foliage-Pro 9-3-6. It has everything your tree needs for normal growth in one bottle, and it closely mimics the ratio at which tour benji actually uses the nutrients, a distinct advantage for several reasons. Also, its Nitrogen is primarily from nitrate and not sourced from urea, like most soluble fertilizers. This helps to keep internodes short and leaves smaller so the tree is easier to keep dense and compact.

Let me know if you want to chase these thoughts a little farther. In the meantime, this should prove to be helpful.

Al

Tapla, it's good to have a voice of wide experience for questions like this. Thank you.

Thanks for the kind words, Roselee.

Al

Thank you so much, everyone! Al, I am going to study your answer and the link you provided before I head to the garden store. I appreciate that everyone was kind to this absolute beginner!

You have to be brave and go further than you want to achieve the results. I know I study Tapla's answers. If he answered a question of mine, I did not always catch what he was saying, he always clarified and was glad to educate. Tapla is a teacher at heart.

Happy Thursday, everyone!

I studied Tapla's answers, and I still have a few questions about my leggy ficus. (Tapla, I also messaged you. Hope that's okay.)

1. Is this what I need to buy?

Slightly larger pot

Equal parts pine or fir bark

Turface

Gran-I-Grit or #2 Cherry Stones

Gypsum

Do I mix those things in equal parts?

Small pruning saw

Pruning clippers

2. Is it okay for me to repot and prune on the same day? I know the ficus is definitely in the wrong kind of soil now.

3. Should I put rocks in the bottom of the pot?

4. To repot —

I spray the roots with the garden hose. I cut off the bottom third of the roots with a pruning saw. Then loosen roots and cut off any that are big or encircling. Put in pot, add dirt, poke dirt around roots with a chopstick. Put in more dirt.

5. To prune —

I take off the top 80%? Should I leave the little limbs at the bottom? I’m not sure of the difference between a hard prune and a regular prune. Is it possible to over-prune?

6. It gets up to the 90’s here. Is it okay for the ficus to be outside in the heat?

7. How long should I wait before I fertilize? Wait until the fall?

Thanks so much! I appreciate your patience with this beginner.

Alison

I studied Tapla's answers, and I still have a few questions about my leggy ficus. (Tapla, I also messaged you. Hope that's okay.) It's fine that you messaged me, but I get 10-20 messages from Houzz/GW members daily, and I'm so far behind (at least 100 messages) I'll likely not catch up any time soon. I've owned a small construction related corporation (glass company) for 40 years now, and I've never seen anything like the business climate I've seen for the last few years, especially the last 2 years. I expected to transfer ownership to a new stockholder on Aug 1, but that's been moved ahead to Sep 1. Hopefully I'll finally get to retire then. Basically, I'm a lot busier than I want to be, and don't have a lot of time to myself.

1. Is this what I need to buy?

Slightly larger pot

Equal parts pine or fir bark

Turface

Gran-I-Grit or #2 Cherry Stones

Gypsum

Do I mix those things in equal parts?

Small pruning saw

Pruning clippers

You'll need all of those things, but don't get your heart set on being able to find all of those ingredients in a weekend. You might, but it's not likely. As a fall-back position, you might want to concentrate on finding some pine bark in an appropriate size and some coarse perlite. The ingredients you listed would be what's required to make the gritty mix, but there is no sense in making it if you're not set up to screen the ingredients. You'll pay a premium for the gritty mix, and made correctly, it's well worth it, but made incorrectly - it's just another middling media that offers nothing you cant get from the 5:1:1 mix. You can use something like the 5:1:1 and do just fine with it, or you can use a bagged medium and eliminate almost all of the perched water by Using Ballast.

5:1:1 mix ^^^

2. Is it okay for me to repot and prune on the same day? I know the ficus is definitely in the wrong kind of soil now. Yes - I do it all the time. There is very little risk if the plant is healthy. You'll need to prune carefully though. I can help more with that later.

3. Should I put rocks in the bottom of the pot? That depends. Rocks can be effective if they're used as ballast, but they can be ineffective, or worse, counterproductive if used as a "drainage layer".

4. To repot —

I spray the roots with the garden hose. I cut off the bottom third of the roots with a pruning saw. Then loosen roots and cut off any that are big or encircling. Put in pot, add dirt, poke dirt around roots with a chopstick. Put in more dirt. Cut the bottom off first, then remove the soil, then prune problem roots. Do Not prune off roots attached to the bole of the tree. That's the part where the trunk transitions to roots. You want horizontal roots radiating outward from the trunk. Problem roots are those growing straight up, straight down, crossing roots, circling roots, girdling roots, roots growing back toward the center of the root mass, and j-hooked roots. While working the roots, it's important that you NEVER let the roots get dry. Work inside of a large tub if you need to and keep those roots wet!

5. To prune —

I take off the top 80%? The goal isn't to remove just any 80% of the top. I'm guessing that to bring the tree back to a point where you can start rebuilding, that's about what you'll end up removing, but the selection should be judicious rather than random or haphazard. Maybe I can cut a branch off of a tree with the same leaf arrangement as ficus and give you some guidance. In all honesty, it will be very difficult and time consuming to try to teach you how to prune in a forum setting, but I'll try. It look like you'll need to take of the horizontal branch about half-way up the tree moving to the left in the image. Then, you'll pretty much be pruning back to roughly the outline of peck or half bushel basket from where that branch is removed upward. Should I leave the little limbs at the bottom? I would. First, you can always remove them at any time. Second - when you prune hard, you'll be left with a large root system telling (by way of chemical messengers) the top to hurry up and replace the growth you removed. The lower branches will siphon off some of that extra energy and help prevent the top from putting on coarse growth - large leaves and long internodes. You want your tree to be as compact as possible. This is a F benjamina:

This used to be the tree above:

This is what it looked like about 15 years ago ^^^

After defoliation:

After pruning and some wiring:

I’m not sure of the difference between a hard prune and a regular prune. Is it possible to over-prune? A hard prune is one where a large % of the top is removed to reveal a basic framework it makes sense to build on. For the average growing, a 'regular' pruning would be the one you do every June to remove all of the lanky growth and long internodes the tree put on during the dark days of winter. Prune in June, pinch for the rest of the summer, give the tree it's head (don't prune) from Sep thru May.

6. It gets up to the 90’s here. Is it okay for the ficus to be outside in the heat? 80* is fine for Ficus, but you should shade the container if in full sun to keep soil temps from getting so high it kills roots. If it's really hot and sun is intense, your tree will appreciate some shade during midday, especially if you're at high elevation.

7. How long should I wait before I fertilize? Wait until the fall? You can fertilize as soon as you're sure the tree is pushing new growth. I use Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 for all my plants but for a couple. Even then I still use it, but add some extra K for plants with an affection for it, like hibiscus.

Thanks so much! I appreciate your patience with this beginner. No problem. I enjoy helping.

Al

Thank you so much, Al Tapla! You've been incredibly generous with your time and expertise. I am very grateful!

My pleasure.

Al

One revelation I have had: just because someone has a gardening video on Youtube doesn't mean they know what they're talking about!

Good observation! When someone links to a plant related 'how to do' or 'how it is' video or blog, I usually go have a look to see what I can learn. More often than not, there is more misinformation and reinforcement of commonly extolled myth than anything usable. I think it a disservice to the gardening community when someone lacks enough self restraint to stay oneself from operating beyond limits of their knowledge. Operating beyond those limits is a surefire way to destroy credibility, yet many are perfectly willing to habitually sacrifice their credibility on the altar of a fleeting moment of notoriety. If you truly wish to help, credibility is all and notoriety but a vapor.

Al