WHOOPS! HOLD THE PRESSES! Didn't have enough coffee before my last post. I was thinking Dracaena marginata tricolor, totally different plant!! Cancel my advice and change to the following. Give it as much sun as possible. Mine is in a very bright west window. They get much nicer coloration with lots of light. People say rubber plants are good for low light, but I find they get really spindly then. They can handle a fair amount of cold compared to most houseplants because their leaves are so thick. If you have serious drafts coming through the window, say below 45 or 50 degrees F indoors, you might want to move it back until the weather breaks.

The primary claim to fame for 'Smart Pots', 'Root Trapper Pots', and other similar pots is that they offer some degree of air pruning of roots that would otherwise turn into encircling or girdling roots, and force root division in much the same way that pinching causes fuller plants. As roots reach the pot wall, they meet with dry conditions that kill the root tips. The theory is that once truncated, the roots cannot grow long enough to cause problems related to circling/girdling. In many cases, the less lauded benefit comes in the form of the fact that these pots tend to expose more soil to air, which means much more water loss due to evaporation - a decidedly GOOD thing if using water retentive soils. Also, if you site these pots on soils that drains freely, the earth acts as a giant wick, and can eliminate perched water entirely. This can be a VERY significant advantage for those using very water retentive soils. The most significant disadvantages are probably what you have to go through to get as much from them as they an offer, and dealing with their appearance - they usually aren't pretty, and using them in cache pots CAN reduce their effectiveness considerably. **************************************************** Jrob - you're most welcome. The ODDS are, your plant problem stems directly from an overly water retentive soil and a too heavy hand on the watering can; BUT, the facts are, several conditions related to an inadequate water supply to the canopy cause the same symptoms. The odds DO favor it being a soggy soil as causal, but before you play the odds, it's a good idea to consider that under-watering and a high level of salts in the soil cause the same symptoms, and to eliminate them as probable/possible causes. To me, it makes little sense to continually try to deal with the effects of overly water retentive soils when you don't have to. My suggestion to anyone who will listen is to rid yourself of the limitations imposed by water retentive soils entirely. Simply adopt a soil that allows you to water properly without fear of root impairment or worse. This leaves you free of most of the problems people come here seeking resolution for, and gives you the opportunity to focus on other issues, like light/nutrition/temperatures, knowing any issues you DO face aren't likely to be soil-related. Learning how to make your soil work FOR you, instead of AGAINST you, is probably the largest single step forward a container gardener can make. F elastica is a pretty forgiving plant. I think your plan to get the tree through the winter and plan around an early summer repot is a good one. How are you using the smart pot? What are you doing to ensure you can water properly until repotting time rolls around? What are you doing as far as nutrition - have a plan? Al

i think plants can recover without leaves too though. trees shed theif leaves in autumn and still grow it back. dont know about ficus elastica, but its a tree too if im right. Not quite. You are right about one thing-plants can come back after a complete defoliation if they have enough energy to do so. Here's the thing-you're comparing deciduous trees with tropical plants. Deciduous trees are made/are used to annually shedding their leaves during the autumn season. They store up tons of energy during the growing season and store it in their branches and trunk before shedding their leaves (I think-I'm not too well versed with this kind of thing) However, tropical plants are a different story entirely. Their natural habitat does not see a proper winter (temps below freezing, snow, etc.). They have more or less consistent warm temperatures all year. They are not designed to annually shed their entire foliage system; nor are they adapted to withstand winter conditions. I believe they do store energy, but not to the same extent as deciduous plants do-tropicals don't worry about the winter season. This means that if something happens which causes all of their leaves to drop, the plant will be stressed. If conditions return to normal, the plant should slowly grow all its leaves again. Too much of this, however, and the plant may run so low on energy reserves that after one final defoliation it will be unable to push a leaf and will die. It's important not to mix deciduous trees and tropical plants-if you put your ficus outside during the winter and treat it like a deciduous tree, it will most likely die and not come back during spring. If exposed to cold temps (below 50*F) cold damage will occur to its leaves and/or branches. If it stays too cold for too long, the roots themselves may freeze-resulting in the death of the plant. Now onto your plant- but i have to worry less about overwatering with perlite anyway, right? Again, not exactly. Perlite helps with a little aeration, but unless the soil mix contains a LOT of perlite overwatering will still be a problem. Keep using the wooden dowel method for the future. How are outdoor temperatures right now in your area? If it's warm enough, perhaps you could put it outdoors and let nature work its magic. I'm honestly unsure whether or not it'll come back, but I do agree with what others have said-if this plant does end up dying, don't feel so bad about it. It'll be important that you understand exactly why it died, so you don't make the same mistake again with future plants.

Hi again @tropicofcancer (6b SW-PA) ! I cut a square of mesh from an onion bag I had, worked great, thanks! You were right, not much root development, so I made sure to trim only a little bit and was able to repot late Friday night. I waited until Saturday morning to flush with water and then set it outside on my fire escape. Unfortunately, the fire escape is the only place I could leave my plants outside. A couple of further questions: When will it be okay for this guy to get direct sun again? I haven't watered it since Saturday. When should I water next? Or better yet, does it need to stay moist while it is getting acclimated? 2/3 stems are slanted. Should I stake them straight up? In one of the pics below, I circled the "wrinkling" that appeared on 2 of the stems while in the previous soil mix. Is this due to salt pulling water from the stems? How could I help the 2 stems recover from the trauma? Does this mean the roots will no longer take up water? Does this mean the roots are vulnerable to sunburn? Hypothetically, if I would have removed the bottom leaves, which were the first to show signs of salt/mineral trauma, would that have slowed down the traveling of the salt/minerals upwards? I am asking this because 1 of the 3 stems does not show any signs of wrinkling on its' stem. This stem also had a combo of more root development and fewer leaves. Not sure if there is a correlation there but I found it interesting and wanted to see if anyone could chime in with the science behind what is going on there. In another picture below I circled I think is called the apical meristem (PLEASE correct me if I am wrong). This stem in particular is in the worst shape of the 3. I noticed the shealth was extremely crunchy and hard - - Is this also a result of the salt/mineral build-up? Or a nutrient deficiency perhaps? Or is it the surrounding environment that causes this in plants? The plant doesn't have any signs of shock from the repot (yet). I am holding my breath but so far, so good. I apologize for all of the questions - - I am just very curious! Thanks for reading all this if you have made it this far lol roots: roots cont'd: my outside oasis aka fire escape: close up after the repot: What does the shriveling circled below mean? too much of a slant here? Should I stake it straight up? Crunchy apical meristem(?) :