If you understand what drives water retention, you'll understand this right away. If you're still a little fuzzy, don't be embarrassed to ask questions. Image D is a way to employ ballast to reduce the amount of soil that can hold perched water (PW). When using a given soil that supports PW (the shaded area represents PW) the ht of the perched water table (PWT) will be exactly the same in every conventional container set-up - no matter what it's size, shape, or depth. The images above illustrate that property. If a soil supports 4" of PW, you can eliminate almost ALL of it by using at least 4" of ballast in the bottom; but, to be effective, there must be at least a small amount of soil that forms an unbroken column between the main soil mass above the ballast and the bottom of the pot. If you don't have that unbroken column, (like when using gravel), water simply perches in the soil above the gravel. You end up with a layer of gravel and 4" of PW suspended in the soil above the gravel (see middle image below). Note that the bricks take up space that would otherwise be filled with soil containing PW. You can see the bricks reduce the volume of water that can be held within the PWT. To be perfectly effective, the bricks would be at least as tall as the ht of the PWT, and would completely fill the bottom of the pot ..... EXCEPT for a very small volume of soil between the bricks. Using ballast effectively can make an extreme difference in your ability to maintain a healthy root system. Envision some bricks or blocks of plastic that don't absorb water that almost, but not quite, fill the bottom of the put up to the ht of the PWT your soil supports and you have it. The saving grace will be the small amount of soil between the loosely packed bricks or ballast. That will be the ONLY soil that can hold perched water. This enables you to water correctly w/o much concern about limitations associated with poor root function/health. 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!

I only have a few minutes, so I'm going to cheat and paste in some watering instructions derived from what Al (tapla) had given. Follow them and you'll ensure your plant isn't ever overwatered or underwatered. Watering when the plant needs it (and not before) is one of the biggest things you can do to keep any plant healthy. Like most plants, aerated soil is as critical to a ficus's health as sunshine. That's why we check soil moisture. A sharpened dowel is a simple, fast, and accurate tool for this (5/8" or 1/4") seems best), but any thin piece of unfinished wood, like a wooden skewer or even a cheap chopstick, works fine too. Stick the dowel through the soil to the very bottom of the pot, leave it for two seconds, and withhold water until the whole dowel comes out completely dry (don't worry, at that point there's still water within the soil particles that the roots can access but we can't feel). Then water slowly but thoroughly, wetting the entire surface of the soil, until water drains freely from the pot, making sure the pot doesn't sit in the drained water.** To get excess water out of the pot so the soil at the bottom doesn't stay completely saturated, prop it up so it's tilted at 45 degrees for 10-15 minutes. If there are drain holes around the edges of the bottom you're done (that's why I love my cheap plastic pots); if the holes or holes aren't at the edges you'll leave the pot upright for 5-10 minutes to let the excess water drain out. This practice ensures the roots get substantial periods in moist, not wet, soil, when they can get oxygen from the air between soil particles and grow into a healthy system that takes up water and nutrients stores water for dry periods. Watering until water drains freely from the pot prevents the buildup of mineral and fertilizer deposits that can damage the plant and retard growth. Plants use more water when they're growing and in low humidity, and use less in the winter, so check the moisture every day until you know how your plants behave . If you don't have a pencil sharpener, just scrape off the dirt stains from the last time you checked with a utility or pocket knife or even a razor blade.

The expression of the purple pigment anthocyanin is quite common in new F lyrata leaves. It will go away as the leaf matures, but the spoiled foliage won't. You have some other cultural issues that are limiting enough that the stress is being made manifest in the necrotic spots on leaf margins. Based on nothing but the odds, it's likely to be over-watering and/or a high level of dissolved salts in the soil solution. Let me know if you want to chase that a little farther. Al