Pictures would help a lot; include the whole plant and one of the pot and soil. What did you do when you put it in the 17 inch pot? Put the existing rootball in the pot and surround it with fresh soil or remove the old soil and replace it? What kind of soil was it in and what kind of fresh soil was it? Was it rootbound? It's possible the new pot is too big, making the soil stay very wet for too long, causing roots to suffocate for lack of air to pull oxygen from. If so, the easiest remedy would be to put it back in the old pot and wait until June to repot in a faster draining highly aerated soil that would be harder to overwater. Meanwhile, check out the posts upthread about watering, using a dowel to check soil moisture, and the kinds of soil and light conditions lyratas do best in, and start to water only when the soil at the bottom is the pot is dry. Lenore

Hi! I've recently purchased a 6 ft tall FLF from an online seller -- see photo with our dog for size reference :D It has a sturdy trunk (no support needed) and I've seen 3 new leaf growth in the past 2 weeks. However, some of the leaves, especially the two bottom and older leaves, are sort of cracking and browning at the edges. The discoloration seems to spread as time goes by. The plant is currently located near east-, north-, and west-facing windows and we live in SoCal (zone 10a). I water approximately once a week, making sure the water flows out of the drainage holes. Though I do not have a prognosis on what causes the cracking and discoloration, I plan to repot (and root-prune, depending on need) this plant soon. I've been browsing and reading a lot about potting mixes and I have decided to use Tapla's 511 potting mix. I have already mixed my own using 5 parts reptibark, 1 part sphagnum peat moss, and 1 part perlite and it is currently "incubating" for the pH adjustment due to addition of lime. The plant is still in its 14" growing pot but I will transfer it to a slightly bigger 15" plastic pot with drainage holes at the bottom. I want to keep it indoors and I have a saucer caddy to aid with the water overflow. Moving forward, I will also use a wooden dowel to check the soil moisture before I water the plant. The current soil has CRF but I bought Dyna-gro foliage pro 9-3-6 for fertilizing after the repotting. Few key questions I have in mind: What could have caused / be causing the cracking and leaf discoloration? Is there a way to solve this? Is it too late to repot the plant given the season? What should be the pH level of the soil? Correct me if I'm wrong but I've read that FLF prefers basic but could also do well in an acidic environment. Should I add like clay pebbles / rocks at the bottom of my pot to make sure that the medium doesn't sit on the water overflow? Am I missing something or am I misinformed in any way? Thank you so much in advance to everyone who replies to my thread! :)

Very unlikely that a FLF will push out leaves lower on stem right now, best bet is to wait till next summer solstice when it’s time to prune back and shell likely push out many branches lower that you’ll decide if you want to keep or not. So Enjoy your trendy top heavy tree look for now as she’s going to try to get out foliage fast now and will continue to thru the winter & needs every leaf she makes right now ( not to mention pruning now would not results is near the same lush results it would in June as she knows the daylight hours are getting shorter and thus is transitioning to protect/ conserve mode. ) glad she’s happy, and she will look great in another month after those leaves grow more she pushes out another group of leaves! Keep fertilizing generously for now and for as long as you see her working to get leaves out really quickly which could still be 7-9 more weeks( sorry forgot where you live). Though even after i bring mine inside in November ish here in Houston they don’t seem to slow down too much!

It’s new, yes. I didn’t know about soaking it beforehand. I soaked the soil, yes. I watered and let it drain then watered and let it drain again. It’s received more water at once than it’s had in years. The soil may look dry in this photo but I assure you it’s only a bit dry on just a portion of about the first half inch (or less) of soil. The rest is heavy and wet. When I try to jostle the soil a bit with my fingers to see if it’s starting to dry up, it doesn’t feel light and airy as dry soil does. Instead, I end up essentially clawing at compacted mud (not soupy by any means... perhaps “mud” isn’t the right term). It should also be noted that I stuck a skewer into the soil and it came up damp with a small bit of soil clinging to it. Suggestions on what I can do to rectify this? Thank you for your response.