Trees circling the drain are either sinking so fast there is no saving them or are hanging on only because they are relying on current production of photosynthate (food). This tree was barely hanging on and is clawing its way back up out of the drain. ;-) Since the plant is essentially devoid of any energy reserves to push new growth, if you prune any foliage off now you remove a notable amount of the plant's ability to make food, which would have a lot of potential to seal the deal (death) or greatly extend the recovery period and leave the plant highly vulnerable to any biotic or abiotic pathogens that might make an appearance. I agree that it's highly desirable to get rid of the legginess, and though we can't make a specific prediction about what would happen if any significant pruning was done now, we know that in general terms the plant hasn't been (and isn't) prepared for it. So for that reason, I wouldn't be tempted in the least to do any unnecessary pruning at this point. I don't agree with the idea that the plant's days are numbered, no matter how leggy it is. Legginess is a symptom of other cultural issues, and as such is entirely correctable - as long as you have a plan in place that takes into consideration the current state of the plant's vitality, and you work WITH the natural ebb/flow of the plant's energy levels. If a plant doesn't respond to pruning in the way we might expect, it's not the plant's fault, it's a judgment error by the grower. If this plant was pruned and didn't respond, it's quite certain that the plant would die, but the cause would be the inappropriate timing of the pruning, rather than the plant's inability to respond for lack of sufficient energy. Bringing trees and other plants back from the brink is sort of a leap frog process that begins with building energy reserves, then working on the plant (roots/pruning) within the limits of what the plant can tolerate, then building energy reserves again before more work is done. There really isn't much guesswork when you are working at either end of the vitality curve. Plants with high energy reserves will tolerate a LOT, are very resilient, and respond well to pruning/pinching; while plants at the low end of the curve tolerate much less, lack the energy required to bounce back, and CAN'T be expected to respond well to pruning because they lack the energy reserves, and almost all of their current energy production is dedicated to the day to day business of keeping their systems orderly. Al

Ficus benjamina normally drop their leaves at any change of physical location, even from room to room indoors. Likely the foliage will all grow back and you will very much come to regret planting it in the ground, as it buckles any pavement within 25 feet and sucks all the water away from any plant growing nearby with its aggressive, invasive surface roots. Here is a link that might be useful: thread on F. benjamina, if that is what you have

The Ilex vomitoria cultivar that stays very upright is called 'Will Flemming' I have never used it but it is an interesting selection. Other options might be Ligustrum texanum (Buy 15 gallon espalier on 5' x 5' trellis) I did this on a project last June planted them 5' OC and the plants are about 7-1/2' tall right now(where untrimmed)and about 1' thick. You could probably get them to grow to 10'maybe more. Eugenia myrtifolia is another option (Australian Brush Cherry) 'Monterey Bay' is a nice clone. Lets see- I have seen Grewia caffra get 12' tall (But it will need some support for a while until the plant gets woody enough to hold its own weight and would need some pinching to get it to be bushy enough. Sometimes you can find Magnolia grandiflora 'Little Gem' or St Mary espaliered as well- Podocarpus henkelii would be OK if you could let it go a bit thicker (like 3-4') Also Calliandra haematocephala espaliered could work. If you have shade maybe a vigorous Camellia like 'Silver Waves' espaliered in 15 gallons could work but it would be a quite a wait to get the height.

If you clean the tip of your moisture meter and dip it in a cup of distilled water, the meter will tell you the water is dry; this because the meter actually measures electrical conductivity. So if you have a given volume of water in a given soil, the higher the TDS (total dissolved solids or roughly - salts) the wetter the moisture meter will tell you the soil is. A wooden dowel, used as a 'tell' is more reliable. If I do heavy root work on tropicals, I habitually reduce the canopy by a very large fraction to keep the plant from A) collapsing, or B) from shedding branches that might be an important part of the composition I'm building. Example: From this root mass to this:You can see the huge roots I severed, and that was only the first rootwork session. Since then, I've pruned the root mass back to just about even with the soil level in the image below. We actually have a tool designed specifically for this chore, called (what else?) a root cutter. The tree is F benjamina. The foliage mass, on the same day, went from this: To this: I'm not sure what this means: There is no other location that's suitable for this big tree. Given this condition, should I supplement the lack of light with the Dyna-Gro in a month or so? You can't counter or remedy a lack of light by supplying fertilizer. In fact, you need to be careful about not over-fertilizing in low light conditions. Dyna-Gro's Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 is a good choice for low light conditions though, because it's nitrogen sources tend to reduce likelihood of the coarse growth that occurs when using fertilizers that get their N from urea. More about using a 'tell' please forgive the weird formatting, which happens on all the word documents I write and save to share): Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support good root health, which is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to a build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al