The soil mix looks good. The fungus could be one of several that help break down soil components. It doesn't seem to be hurting the roots by the look of the photos provided. Going too dry and acclimating to a new environment will precipitate sudden leaf loss. Branching is very problematic indoors. In less that ideal growing conditions, cutting the stem will only result in one branch developing just below the cut.

There's a helpful thread in this forum on that has dozens of posts about ficuses with the same problem though the title talks about pruning them, and I strongly recommend at least scanning it.

Ficuses always want to grow upward, but they will back-bud when pruned IF they're healthy and getting ample light, meaning light falling directly on their leaves. But something is wrong with your ficus, so I wouldn't necessarily expect new growth anywhere until you figure out what's going on.

The roots that do the hard work of taking up water to support the above-ground part of a plant are fine and white, not the lignified brown ones I see in that rootball. The fine white roots need air for oxygen, and most have probably drowned in the saturated soil, causing the plant to shed the leaves its roots could no longer support, starting from the bottom of the plant. Once the plant has regrown those roots it will respond to pruning by back-budding.

You don't want to water until the the whole thing has dried out. Yes, the whole rootball, because even when it seems dry there's some water in the soil particles that the roots can access. Don't water until a sharpened dowel (a wooden skewer or unfinished chopstick comes out clean and dry, then water until 15-20% of the volume of the pot drains out.

Obviously, if the pot doesn't have a drain hole, you need to put the ficus into appt that does.

Finally, ficuses want tons of light falling directly on their leaves, so move it to the sunniest location you have.

if it's the " training/pruning" post, I've already posted on there, but no one seems to be addressing my specific post.

Did I give you what you needed? I know there have been some great recent discussions where Al gave very specific info about how to prune a FLF to get new branches or leaves in specific areas, and I thought that thread contained at least a few different examples of that kind of thing. I assumed those discussions would give you enough specifics about pruning to start with. I've learned a lot about what makes a ficus happy, but I'm not very knowledgeable about pruning yet.

By the way, if the soil is still saturated just take the plant out of the pot and place it on a stack of newspapers, which will wick some excess water out.

Hi litterbuggy,

Your advice was helpful. I heard/read about pruning as a way to encourage new buds, but I was hoping not to cut off anything that was currently there. because I want those branches to still continue to grow.

I read on the training/pruning blog that you could create slits in the branches that disrupt the growth hormone that signals the top of the plant to bud so that it will bud all along the plants branch not just the top, I'm looking for more guidance in terms of doing something like that, but I don't want to inadvertently damage the plant further.

After spending half an hour on the following post it occurred to me that a houseplant forum search for "nicking" might yield more accurate information. Sure enough, I found several threads containing Al's explanations, but I spent so much time on mine that I refuse to delete it!!!!!

Here are a few of the threads. The nicking discussions aren't long but I think Al's post on the first link explains the effects of nicking vs pruning. Use the search box at the top of the page to find even more threads.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1458989/fiddle-leaf-fig-question?n=1

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1465570/pruning-ficus-lyrata-to-branch?n=24

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My now-superfluous post:

Ah, I see; most people seem to call that nicking, not slitting. The reason you haven't found info on it is that few people do it, but Al has gone into it the few times he's been asked. I'll describe it as best I can from what I remember of his posts about it.

Anyway, you would use a sharp sterilized (just in case) knife to cut a small horizontal wedge through the cambium (basically the living usually green layer under the bark) right above a leaf node. Nicking (or pruning) above a node stops the inhibitory hormone from the top of the tree from reaching it, letting it respond to hormones that direct it to grow. The same thing happens when you prune. Whether you prune or nick, the amount of back-budding you'll get depends on the plant's condition.

IMO, if the stress that caused your ficus to drop leaves still exists, nicking or pruning won't have much (if any) effect so long as the plant is still under the stress that made it drop so many leaves. I'd guess that's because the weakened plant isn't producing the hormones that would stimulate growth above ground.

That's been my experience. My ficuses didn't respond at all to tip-pinching last fall when they were still weak, but now after months of proper care and increased spring sunlight they're growing like crazy, including a lot of back-budding far back on its once-bare branches, without any intervention at all from me.

I think that's an accurate description of what I've read!

You may have seen this thread already, but it's a good primer on what goes on when plants aren't doing well.

Sick and dying plants

litterbuggy,

Sorry for the late response,

Thanks so much for looking into this for me! I really appreciate the effort you put into helping me find a solution, or better understand some of the concepts behind the possible solutions to the issues I've been having with my Fiddle Leaf Tree.

Nicking is what I was referring to and now that I know the proper terminology I can do more research into that. But from your advice, others advice, and research I've been doing on my own, I think my fiddle leaf is probably recovering from a lot of different issues and I need to give it time to bounce back by just not doing anything to it but the basics (water, light and the occasional fertilizer) and hope it gets strong enough soon to start regenerating it's own leaves. Hopefully some of those new leaves will be back-budded ones. If not, I can experiment with nicking at that time.
I live in an apartment with a balcony, and it's about to hit high summer temperature where I live, so I've been thinking about moving the Tree out there to get some more sun. That might help as well.

I will check out the other forums you've linked me to and I'll give updates on how my my Fiddle as I try to get it back to good health.

Sounds like you've got a good grip on things. Be sure to acclimate the plant to the sun; start with bright indirect light, then put it in direct sun for an hour a day for a few days, add an hour for another few days...you get the idea.

I have had the exact same situation occur with my own FLF. Only have a few healthy leaves left on the top and wondered if there was any chance of regrowth. Please update with what you found to work for you, would love to know.