No pics - just rec'd the info from a professor of horticulture at MSU/bonsai friend. Our conversations center primarily on soils and bonsai back and forth stuff, but she knows I have an interest in Ficus that goes beyond bonsai & thought I'd be interested. Because of the remarkable increase in popularity of F lyrata over the last 5 years or so, I figured some you would be interested as well. I don't think I've ever seen a plant gain so much popularity in so little time. Al

Tessa I don't know what the best interval would be. It needs time to regrow the fine roots and then time to replace the energy that was diverted to that. I don't know how long that would take. Maybe someone else will. On the plus side, because it came through its first repot so well, that whole process will be faster than if it had struggled to recover. So you want to have given it enough time to recover, but not so long that you're past the growing season. Check the soil to help you decide : if it's still wet deep in the pot (use a dowel) more than a week after watering, then that's no good. You'll end up watching it go downhill from root rot over the next few months (and your chances are worse repotting a sick tree in winter). If the soil is drying out well, then I'd be tempted to leave repotting until next season... Rock and a hard place! Hopefully someone who has been in the same position can help more specifically. Good luck and keep us posted!

Given the compound problems that you listed — no drainage, never fertilized — I’d be inclined to repot immediately. Then again, I tend to repot whenever since I live on the west coast. I’d suggest just fertilizing for now, but without a drainage hole, that doesn’t sound wise either. It’s not ideal to repot now but at this point, status quo is not ideal either. Of course, there is nothing that says your plant would be totally dead by June, whereas a bad repot could potentially kill your plant (though rare...so rare I don’t think it’s ever happened to me). If it were mine and I lived in your climate, I would get a similarly sized pot with drainage, pull the plant out, slice off the bottom and sides of the root ball minimally for now (say, 1-1.5 inches off the bottom, an inch or less off the sides, making a square?), and pot with fresh potting mix all around it. Then, you can flush the soil profusely, and just see what it does. When it’s warmer, you can proceed with a full repot into 5-1-1, along with a total root pruning assuming the plant improves between now and then. Just my two cents.

The contrast between "people time" and "plant time" can cause the grower some anxiety and frustration until the grower realizes there's a distinct difference and makes the adjustment by giving in to the idea that a plant has its own ideas about how long it should take to bounce back from adversity. Fortunately, the best form of resolution is usually no more complicated than procuring a few more plants so they can work as a team to satisfy your need to nurture. SOIL: I have perlite so I will add in more of that. Not sure if this is a bad idea, but I do have gravel I could mix in If you decide to include some gravel, use it in the bottom 6" of soil where it will displace the organic fraction of your medium that would normally be filled with water. This is a form of ballast. Don't use it as a layer, just mix it half and half with the bottom 6" of soil where the perched water table (excess water) resides. This in itself will reduce the amount of perched water your soil will hold by 1/2), and my neighbor has bark in her backyard that she said I could have some of to mix in if that's a good option for now? Depends ..... all bark is not created equal. Size and type of bark is very important. BALLAST/WICK: In reading through your posts I understand there are several ways to set these up, but I have an extra terra cotta and plastic pot so I figure this might be easiest? You mentioned covering the drainage hole in this post That reference was to the overturned pot you would be using as a form of ballast such that the rim of the pot would be down and the drain hole would face up. You don't want soil to drop through the drain hole in the ballast pot, so cover it. , but I also noticed [here[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/dealing-with-water-retentive-soils-dsvw-vd~1415041) you said another option would be to leave the hole open and put soil underneath so that it acts as a wick. That is the pot-in-pot technique where the main pot is nested into another pot and rests on top of the soil in the lower pot. This soil acts as a wick. If the soil in the lower pot is deeper than the ht of the perched water table, ALL perched water should move from the upper pot into the lower pot. For this application, there should be nothing over the drain hole(s) in the upper pot - the one the plant is in. Would you suggest one over another in my situation? I would go for the pot as ballast + the gravel in the bottom 6" of soil as added ballast, and even a wick if you like (in the lower pot). I have two options for pots to put inside as ballasts, but I'm not sure which would be the best option. The terra cotta pot looks like it may not take up enough room to help with limiting PWT, but the plastic one may be too large? The plastic one is great - cover the drain hole in it. Ideally, there would be an inch or so of soil above the ballast pot. Fill in the sides with the 50/50 gravel soil mixture up to the top (former bottom) of the overturned pot - cover it with an inch of soil with no gravel - set the plant on the soil - fill in around the edges. As long as you're taking steps to eliminate perched water, it doesn't matter how large your pot is. You can put your plant in a 55 gallon drum if you like, w/o concern you'll be over-potting. ...... once I repot the plant into the better mixture and add the ballast, should I water the plant again or hold off given the amount of moisture already present in the soil? Plants do best when the soil is evenly damp/moist - never wet/soggy. Skip watering if your entire soil mass is moist. Keep in mind, with the steps you will have taken to eliminate perched water, over-watering shouldn't be a problem, as long as you're reasonable. You're making a soil serviceable that otherwise wouldn't be considered as such by a very large fraction of effectual growers, so it's best to try to minimize potential limitations. Use a 'tell'. If possible - site your plant away from heat sources, but in a warm spot with plenty of light. If possible, use a room humidifier and keep humidity in the 45-55% range. I keep my basement grow room at 55% by using a combination of home-made passive evaporative set-ups and 2 ultrasonic humidifiers. I have a R/O water system, so almost never have to clean the humidifiers. To eliminate potential for bacterial issues, I add an ounce of H202 (hydrogen peroxide) every time I refill the reservoirs. Al