Hello! I'm a beginner, this is my first houseplant!

While flipping through an old houseplant guide that my mother had given me, I saw the ficus lyrata in the "showy foliage plants" section. I thought it was lovely and after reading a bit I decided I just had to have one. I did some research before purchasing, although now that I have read through a good portion of the FLF threads on this forum I am worried I only scratched the surface.

I'll admit, I probably didn't buy the healthiest plant but it was the only one that I found! It was already almost 4 feet tall. I live in Tehachapi, California at around 4000ft hot/dry in the summer and cold in the winter where nighttime temps can drop to freezing. I knew it would need to be kept inside.

I purchased my plant in early July and refrained from watering for about a week. When I did water, it seemed to go strait through the bottom of the pot. I pulled it out of the pot, there seemed to be more roots than soil! It looked like the roots had grown around the bottom of the pot. (Plastic pot it came in) I had not planned on repotting so soon but it seemed necessary.

I loosened the roots as best I could but I did not cut them. I then potted in a plastic pot (a few inches bigger) with drainage holes and a tray, put about an inch of rock at the bottom and used standard all purpose potting soil. Then I took it to the bathtub and flushed it, mostly because I wanted to make sure it drained well and I didn't have pockets in the soil. I then stuck in in a bright window.

(Keep in mind I did this all BEFORE reading this communities knowledgeable threads.)

I did this mid July and a couple weeks ago I was rewarded with new growth! There are two leaves at the bottom that don't look too healthy, a couple black spots on each. One of the upper leaves has a hole on it. The plant was like this when I purchased it. All the other leaves are the usual dark green and seem healthy and firm as far as I can tell with my experience. The trunk is much stronger than when I first brought it home. Another concern is that there is something that looks like mold to me on the surface of the soil...is it mold? Weird. :(

As we are approaching fall I'm thinking to next spring/summer and I definitely want to try to cut for propogation and future branching.

I'm am eager student so if you have advice, bring it on!

sorry for the novel :) also for the lighting in my photos.