recently moved to your house ..... its stressed .. give it 6 months to settle down ... just water properly ...

most houseplants slow down in winter as light gets dimmer and dimmer.. its normal.. and usual ...

in spring.. we can give it some fert if you wish.. perhaps it can outside in full shade for summer...

if you want to discuss the vigor of the plant.. we need to actually see the plant.. and the pot.. and its setting.. no harm in discussing and learning about it...even if we arent going to do much before spring....

ken

When i moved it, it got sunburnt, dropped four or five leaves and then grew two new ones right away, and then no more growth. i have not done anything with the pot or soil. This is not my plant orginally. it was going to be thrown out and so i took it home.

There is nothing conspicuous to make us think think the plant is suffering from a scale infestation. The little bumps oriented primarily horizontally are indeed lenticels, which consist of an opening with spongy/porous cells which collectively act as a pore through which the plant's internal waste gasses are exchanged for the fresh air that surrounds the plant and the oxygen it contains. They are a normal part of plant morphology. Leaves have similar openings (stomata) which serve a similar function, opening and closing with the plant's natural transition from the light to dark cycle and back again.

* Does the pot have a drain hole? If 'yes', is there a collection saucer to hold waste water that exits the drain hole?

* Do you allow the plant to reabsorb any water that gathers in the collection saucer?

* What are you doing insofar as supplemental nutrition (fertilizing)?

* How do you determine when it's time to water the plant?

An understanding of what a plant's LCP (light compensation point) is, is important. Simply put, it is the point where the plant is creating exactly as much food/energy during photosynthesis as it uses during respiration. A plant creating less food/energy than it burns during respiration is on its way to dying unless the trend can be reversed. When the trend IS reversed, so the plant is making more food/energy than it burns during respiration, the plant grows new cells in which to store the surplus energy. This causes both primary growth (branch/root extension + more leaves, branches, roots) as well as secondary growth (thickening of roots, trunk, branches.

Winter brings with it lower humidity as well as less light in terms of both intensity and duration. Low humidity increases the rate of respiration (burns more food/energy) while the reduced light load decreases production of food/energy, so it's common to have plants that aren't conspicuously growing. The combination makes it extra important to ensure other stress factors (over/under-watering, low fertility, soil compaction, root congestion, unfavorable temperatures ....) do not take an undo toll on the plant's reserves. The plant has hundreds of processes and cycles, all of which depend on energy and appropriate nutrition, so it is not just growth that is affected by nutritional imbalances. Poor nutrition and additional stress factors can affect the balance and synchronization of the plant's systemic interactions and cause the systems to falter, much like an unbalanced top or dreidel that wobbles and quickly spins out of control.

I maintain 45-50 ficus of at least a dozen species in containers. Some of the trees I care for were started from cuttings in the 1980s and are still exceptionally healthy, so I've become intimately familiar with the plant's needs. I'll link you to several threads I started to serve as a primers for care of plants in containers. If you apply what you learn, it will help you avoid all the most common problems growers inevitably run up against on the path toward achieving their green thumb.

An Overview of Good Growing Practices

Long Term Care of Trees in Containers

Long Term Care of Ficus Trees in Containers

Al

No drainage in this pot.

I use HappyHappyHousePlant plant food every time I water.

I water by sight or by feeling the soil.

No drainage in this pot. This arrangement doesn't necessarily preclude you from maintaining your plant in a high state of vitality (health), but it does make that end extremely difficult to achieve, especially if you allow the main pot to sit in water that collects in the cache pot. The reasons why this arrangement is less than ideal: 1) Excess water retention limits the oxygen supply essential to normal root function. If roots cannot function normally, it becomes increasingly difficult for the plant to move water efficiently to it's most distal parts. This results in necrotic (dead) areas in the tree's foliage, most commonly at leaf tips and margins. 2) The arrangement doesn't allow you to flush accumulating dissolved solids (salts) out of the soil. As the level of dissolved solids in the soil/ soil solution increases, 2 problems arise. A) The added salt makes it more and more difficult for the plant to absorb water and nutrients. B) It promotes imbalances in the ratio of nutrients, each to the others. When this occurs, an excess of one nutrient limits uptake of one or more other nutrients essential to normal growth (search 'antagonistic deficiency' for a full explanation.

I use HappyHappyHousePlant plant food every time I water. When I started to look into the fertilizer you used, it was with the idea I would discover another grower had fallen for yet another scan; however, I was surprised to discover that the product is very likely Dyna-Gro's Foliage-Pro 9-3-6, a superb choice as your 'go to' fertilizer for plants in containers. The conspicuous downside to using that product doesn't lie in the product's efficacy, but in its price. While an 8 oz refill of the product you buy costs $26.50, you can purchase 8 oz of Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 for less than half that price. Compare the products' analysis:

HappyHappy:

Nitrogen (N).........................................9%
2.80% Ammoniacal Nitrogen
6.20% Nitrate Nitrogen
Potassium (K2O)................................3%
Phosphorus (P2O5)...........................6%
Calcium (Ca)........................................2%
Magnesium (Mg).............................0.5%
Iron (Fe).............................................0.1%
0.1% Chelated Iron (Fe)
Copper (Cu)....................................0.05%
0.05% Chelated Copper (Cu)
Manganese (Mn)...........................0.05%
0.05% Chelated Manganese (Mn)
Zinc (Zn)..........................................0.05%
0.05% Chelated Zinc (Zn)
Derived from: Ammonium Nitrate, Potassium Nitrate, Calcium Nitrate, Magnesium Nitrate, Monoammonium Phosphate, Monopotassium Phosphate, Iron EDTA, Manganese EDTA, Copper EDTA, Zinc EDTA

Full Analysis
Nitrogen (N).........................................9%
2.80% Ammoniacal Nitrogen
6.20% Nitrate Nitrogen
Potassium (K2O)................................3%
Phosphorus (P2O5)...........................6%
Calcium (Ca)........................................2%
Magnesium (Mg).............................0.5%
Iron (Fe).............................................0.1%
0.1% Chelated Iron (Fe)
Copper (Cu)....................................0.05%
0.05% Chelated Copper (Cu)
Manganese (Mn)...........................0.05%
0.05% Chelated Manganese (Mn)
Zinc (Zn)..........................................0.05%
0.05% Chelated Zinc (Zn)
Boron (B)........................................0.01%
Sulfur (S)....................................... 0.04%
Nickel (Ni)................................... 0.0001%
Molybdenum (Mo) ..................... 0.0009%

Derived from: Ammonium Nitrate, Potassium Nitrate, Calcium Nitrate, Magnesium Nitrate, Monoammonium Phosphate, Monopotassium Phosphate, Iron EDTA, Manganese EDTA, Copper EDTA, Zinc EDTA

NOTE: I believe that The HappyHappy product unintentionally misreports the levels of potassium and phosphorous. It should read that 3% of the product is phosphorous and 6% potassium. They simply have the % of those 2 ingredients reversed. That is not a major issue - just something I noticed. You can see by the analysis that what you're using is indeed repackaged Foliage-Pro 9-3-6.

If you are flushing the soil when you water, you can continue to fertilize as you are, or you can change to a 'production level dose' applied about every 3rd or 4th time you water (in summer) and every 4th or 5th time you water in winter. It makes far more sense to tie your fertilizer application intervals to the number of times you have watered as opposed to the calendar.

I water by sight or by feeling the soil. I suggest you change that strategy. Reason: If your pot is 10" deep, the top 2 inches can feel completely dry while the bottom 6" of the soil column is 100% saturated. What's important is how wet/moist the soil is at the BOTTOM of the pot. Roots in the top few inches of the soil column serve primarily as plumbing and anchorage, while roots deeper in the pot have hundreds if not thousands of the fine roots that do all the plants heavy lifting in terms of ensuring adequate water/nutrient uptake. This piece I wrote about "Using a Tell" will provide more info:

Using a 'tell'

Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant.

Watering in small sips in order to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions - which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma and creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor.

In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water.

Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'.

One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell' (more reliable than a 'moisture meter'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) works better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half or in several pieces, depending on how deep your pots are. Sharpen both ends of each tell in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell's tip comes out nearly dry. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue.

Al

Thank you very much!!