Come to think about it, yes it has been in that pot for all these years. Add to that, I have never changed the soil either. It is certainly not distressed though... Why sell it? I simply have too many large plants. Maybe I will consider keeping this one and selling the 2 potted 6' tall Yucca trees ( 3' pots and 3 trees each). Here is a pic of one of them from a few years back. They are now about 1/3 larger and much more full at the base.

I wrote this as a reply to something over on the botany forum and figured I'd be able to use it from time to time, so saved it. Let me know if you want anything explained a different way: A higher degree of expression of the pigment anthocyanin (which expresses the color red or purple) in juvenile foliage is very common throughout the plant kingdom for a couple of reasons. First, even though the pigment absorbs light w/o being a part of the photosynthetic process, it plays a photoprotective role for new leaves that emerge under high light conditions ...... when they are in an ontogenetic stage that make them more sensitive/vulnerable to light over-saturation. If you were able to quantify it at home ..... the reduction in anthocyanin's expression would be seen to correspond with a decreased need for photoprotection, this, because photosynthetic maturation allows leaves to utilize higher light intensities. A major consideration (that occurs during photosynthetic maturation) is an increase in chlorophyll, the pigment often referred to as 'nature's sunscreen for plants'. In short, the red coloration disappears as photopigment concentrations and leaf cuticle thickness increases, both of which would be occurring as mesophyll underlying the leaf cuticle differentiates into separate layers (pallisade and spongy). Second (but probably not a consideration in F benjamina), the red coloration is also very often associated with an increase in phenolic compounds that serve as defense against insect predation or herbivory by making leaves unpalatable. It's also thought in many circles that the red coloration may make leaves more difficult for some insects and herbivores to see, and may signal insects that the affected leaves are a less nutritional food source than bright green foliage elsewhere, or that it would make a poor receptacle for ovaposition (egg-laying). Al

Hi, Jay. Sorry for the lack of reply, but my business has been requiring an inordinate amount of time, which means that I have much less time for the fun stuff, like spending time here. The clump consists of 7 trees and then there's the 8th tree off to the side (which you advised I eliminate - do you mean take this one out from the pot entirely?) Yes, but you don't have to do it immediately. You can leave it grow or cut it back, then remove it the next time you repot and can get a look at the underground connections. If you can separate it from the rest of the clump with some roots attached, the odds of survival are extremly high. Within the clump, the thickest 2 trees are the tallest and both somewhat in the center, but they lean outwards. These two also lost the most amount of leaves. I am thinking one of these should be the main/leader. How much should I prune the leader back? If you want the planting to be taller, don't prune the stem you choose as dominant. If it's as tall as or taller than you want it to be, cut it back to about 2/3 as tall as you want it to be, which leaves 1/3 of the finished ht for the developing canopy. If you can envision a more attractive arrangement if you removed 2 or 4 of the 7 trees, you can do that, too. Odd numbers look best in grove/clump arrangements. I will prune other trees at different heights, shorter than the leader, as you suggested. What is the minimum number of leaves I should leave on a tree for it to photosynthesize to have enough strength to back bud? Your tree looks very healthy, so you could cut back far enough that there is no foliage on any given stem and it will still back-bud - especially if you can get it outdoors in bright light & air movement. Elastica is a reliable back-budder, like most Ficus. Benjamina is somewhat iffy unless it's a very healthy tree and/or you live in the fairly deep south - Fl, GA, MS, TX, SoCal, AL, AZ, etc. Will secondary branches form from all the nodes (where leaves fell from)? Possibly. It depends on a number of factors, the most important of which are when you cut it back, how much reserve energy the plant(s) has/have, nutrition (make sure it's being fertilized in the luxury range. You might flush the soil and fertilize immediately after with an appropriate fertilizer. Trees need to be well fertilized if you want to maximize the back-budding response. What's the best way to minimize/control bleeding (the white liquid that seeps out from the tree)? It's of no concern insofar as the tree's physiology is concerned. Fill a spritzer with tap water and spray the sap after you make the cuts. Wait 2 days and then seal the wounds with a waterproof wood glue. The stubs will die back to the leaf immediately proximal to the pruning cut. After several months or a year, you'll see that the live/growing tissues will start to form a collar around the dead stub. When you can see the collar, cut back to the collar and seal. Should I put the pot outside so it gets maximum sun? I live in zone 7A so it's warm enough outside until probably early October or at least mid September. If the tree could vote, it would definitely be a yea, and w/o question it will demonstrate it's appreciation. It would even be helpful if you held off pruning for a couple of weeks after moving it outdoors. Sorry to bombard you with questions. I don't mind. I enjoy both the back & forth between 'plant people', and the feeling that I might be helping someone increase the personal satisfaction they get from growing; so, not an imposition. Al

Mike - pinch the top branches, let the lower ones grow. When to repot and when the plant needs a repot can vary by more than 6 months. E.g., if I had a F elastica with roots congested to the degree it needs repotting now, I wouldn't repot now. I might consider potting up to a slightly larger pot now if the root congestion was really really bad, but probably wouldn't even do that. While no plant likes being root bound, Ficus tolerates it reasonably well, so waiting until the summer after you discover your tree could do with a repot wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen to it. If for some reason you don't want to wait to repot, potting up can be done almost any time, but I'd still wait to pot up until summer. If you pot up in the months when the tree is just sitting there with a blank look on its face, you'll have a lot of soil that will only be very slowly colonized by roots, which increases the potential for root issues related to an over-potted plant. It's just not worth it from my perspective, and I think I've done more than 500 repots of Ficus covering somewhere between 12-20 species. Also, I don't buy into the idea a plant needs to acclimate to its surroundings before you make changes. If I buy a temperate plant in the spring while it's dormant, I repot right away, before the buds break. If I buy it in summer or fall, I wait until the most appropriate time to repot, which is almost always spring. Tropical trees and houseplants get repotted (usually) in June, when they are most robust - no matter if I bought them in June or the December previous. I used to plant about 30 large mixed containers to place throughout the gardens and decks, all from scratch. My habit would be to bring the plants home, leave them in the shade for a few days, then move the sun lovers to sun for a few days, then combine them in combinations I thought might look good, after ripping the bottom 1/2-3/4 of the root mass off every plant. Plants so treated actually establish faster than plants combined w/o having their roots disturbed. Stress only occurs when the plant is asked to tolerate conditions at or beyond the limits it's genetically programmed to tolerate; and, if the grower is proficient it will be short lived. Also, there is a night/day difference between spring and early spring in a large part of the world. In the deep south (of the US), it might not matter much if you repot Ficus (houseplants) in March, but early spring repots are better avoided in the rest of the US because houseplants energy reserves are generally at the lowest point in the growth cycle in early spring after a long and dark (low light) winter. The tree will recover far faster if your repotting and hard pruning are done in mid to late June. Father's Day is a good reference point and easy to remember. Al