Hi everyone,

I've read through a lot of material here regarding fiddle leaf which has been very useful - thank you - and now have a few specific questions that I'm hoping to get help with.

--- Background ---
Tree purchased in October 2017 in Vancouver, BC. it was the perfect tree shape and had lots of leaves close together. The tree was kept in it's original container and soil and in front of the full length north facing window. Between October and April the tree has lost a lot of leaves in different spurs. In April (exactly one week ago), I repotted it in Al's gritty mix (1:1:1 pine bark, perlite, turface) and moved it to a west facing full length window. The tree seems to have stabilized now and is looking much more perky.

--- Photos ---
I don't have a photo handy that shows just how full the tree was in October. The attached 'full' photo is from January and at that point the tree had already lost quite a few leaves. Please ignore the fact that the tree is out of the container, I had it out just for a second to inspect and try to determine what the heck was going on (root situation, was I overwatering, underwatering?!)
The 'sparse' photo is from last week, 2 days after repotting.

--- Questions ---
1. Is there anything at all that I can do now to encourage new leaf growth in the middle of the tree, from that one lonely leaf on the bottom to where the rest of the remaining leaves start? I scratched the branches, the smallest bare branch is brown underneath, the other bigger fully bare one was green last week but I tried it again just now and it's turning brown too (ugh).

2. This was my first time to repot.. I got rid of about 2 inches of old soil/roots around from the sides (so 4 in total) and about 4 inches from the bottom. I cut some very tough looking roots and roughed remaining root ball gently. I did not get rid of the remaining soil. In the end it looked like I was planting a much smaller root/soil ball inside the bigger 1:1:1 mix. It occurred to me layer when I was watering that this might not be ideal since the water will drain and dry out at different rates from the soil surrounding the roots vs the gritty mix around it. is this significant enough of a concern that should warrant another reporting, or shall I leave it as is?

3. How much of a role do you think the north facing window played in the plants decline? I already have another tree on the west facing window so would love to be able to move the ficus back to the north window but obviously don't want to do that if it's going to jeopardise the plant.

Thank you!