Hi Dave, I actually tried the moisture meter with tap water, and it gave me a 10. I read somewhere that the metal probe must be cleaned thoroughly (e.g., using steel wool) if the meter gives drastically incorrect readings. But in any case, I did try the finger test, and the top inch felt dry, but the inch below felt damp -- when I took out my finger, some dirt was stuck on my finger. I checked for pests, but didn't see any. But I will probably give it another look later.

Plants have their own sense of time that isn't measured by the hour hand on a clock, rather, day length (technically it's the length of the dark period) is what the plant pays attention too. When the day length signals the plant to grow, and other cultural conditions allow it to grow normally, your plant should from that point forward start producing healthy growth. It can't 'repair' the damaged growth, though that will eventually be shed and forgotten as the plant grows. What you're seeing is probably the result of an ongoing shedding process that may well have been instigated by conditions that affected the plant even before you acquired it. Your very best coursed of action is to make a good plan that A) ensures good root health B) takes advantages the plants more robust periods and makes allowances for when the plant would be better off without extra human generated stress C) has you ensuring cultural conditions in the area of light, temperature, and nutrition that subject the plant to the lowest level of stress you can comfortably manage. Fortunately, these things are much easier than they sound, but it's not realistic to expect to see the results of your efforts in a month or two. Choose a course, stick by it, be patient. If the course is a good one, your plant will cooperate. If it's not, it will let you know. Al

Hello, I need help to save my FLF tree. Al (Tapla) helped me last year with saving my plant (my nickname was Planning Department), and I thought since then I had it under control - the issue was related to watering methods. But after a year, recently I noticed my plant has a lot of brown dots and black specks on its top leaves. I read most of Houzz discussions, especially Al's comments, about FLF brown spots to diagnose the issue myself. I think it's related to fungus but not sure. Some of them also seem to have oedena. Could you please review the photos I attached here and help me with this? I moved to a new apt 4 months ago so now my plant gets more light (mostly indirect). I water it every 3-4 weeks - I poke my fingers about 1-2 inches to ensure the soil is dry. I mist it with water spray maybe once a week or less. (I am now thinking the water left on the leaves from misting might have caused this brown spot problem.) As shown in the photos, the bottom leaves look okay. The top leaves have brown spots near the stems. A few of them after a week dried out and fell off. The plant didn't lose many leaves until this week. Initially I thought brown spots were due to the shock from the recent move. But only top leaves are infected so it may not be related to the move. I just hope the brown spots do not spread anymore. I am wondering if I need to cut out these infected leaves or spray with insecticidal soap. I am also wondering if I need to prune the plants or re-pot them, including pruning roots. Do you think I am underwatering it? Any advice? Thanks a ton!

Root congestion becomes a significant negative about the time the root/soil mass has reached the point it can be lifted from the soil intact. Once the plant has reached this state at any time in its life, the root issues must be corrected, or the grower should be ready to accept the limitations that accompany root congestion. Your plant is already at or beyond that stage, and I suspect you'll find severe congestion at the center of the root/soil mass. It's always your call insofar as what you'd like to do, but it sounds like your efforts were much closer to potting up than a repot. Potting up isn't very stressful, so I wouldn't be too concerned about piling stress on stress. It's a certainty that as the congestion increases over the next year, the limitations will also increase in intensity. On the other hand, if you wait until summer '19, your plant won't have suffered severely. The entire mulberry family, of which Ficus is a member, all handle root congestion better than most trees in pots, but they're not immune to its effects. Al