Fiddy looks lovely! I have an FLF and it hasn't grown at all yet and he's in the best spot in the house. Very frustrating. I was glad to find out from your post that you too experienced no growth for a while. That gives me hope.

Since my experience with FLFs is limited to the one, I can't speak specifically. Generally, what I do know about house plants is that when they start to have a growth spurt like that, they are happy and it's best to just let them be to do their thing for a while. Even though a few of the roots are showing under the pot, I think it's fine. I replanted a Monstera that was completely root bound with thick roots wrapped around the holes. I had to scissor it out. I think it would have been fine for a while longer...I just wanted to put it in a terracotta pot.

I hope your FLF grows into a giant tree! Good luck.

I don’t have a ton of experience with these plants, but I did buy one a few years ago, a tiny plant with 3 leaves in a 4” pot. It grew fast, and I potted up to 6”, where it stayed until it was almost 4 feet tall. The plant looked fine - the biggest problem is that it wasn’t standing up straight and it kept blowing over. I staked it, which helped, but after about 6 months, I thought the plant was looking a little blah. I decided to pot up again, and since I didn’t have any 8 or 10“ pots handy, I took the risk of throwing it into a 12”. I was a little nervous about going so big, always concerned about the roots staying too wet and root rot setting in....so I filled the bottom third of the pot with orchid bark for extra drainage. This was in June. I parked it under a shady tree on my patio and it has grown like crazy this summer. Soooo....my point is, I think these plants are very tolerant of too big or too small pots, and mine has not been fussy at all with changes. Seems to just roll with whatever I do. I also think yours looks great, and you should probably leave it alone. Maybe repot next spring, if it seems like it needs it.

Based on what's been written so far, there's a lot to talk about.

First, unless the cultural conditions are near or beyond the limits the plant is genetically programmed to tolerate, the idea that a plant needs to adjust to its surroundings before you make any cultural changes is a myth. If the timing is right and you know a particular cultural change represents an improvement - do it. It makes no sense to wait to improve a plants cultural lot, with a couple of exceptions. 1) A new fertilizer regimen for new plants which have been fertilized with controlled release fertilizer should begin with a bit of caution to ensure you don't at first over-fertilize by adding to the residual charge already in the soil. If no CRF in the soil, start your own fertilizing regimen within a week or two. 2) It's not a life/death call if you discover your Ficus needs repotting. Your tree has a natural rhythms (the main one being the annual growth cycle) during which its strength will vary gradually from it's strongest to weakest. It will be strongest sometime around the Summer Solstice (Jun 21 in N Hemisphere). Remembering to repot almost all houseplants at that time by associating repotting time with the Solstice or Father's Day is an easy way to keep track of when to repot.

There is a huge difference between potting up and repotting. Potting up means you move all the root problems to a larger pot where they continue to impose their limitations. Repotting, which includes bare-rooting, root pruning, and a change of soil, ensures ALL issues related to root congestion go away until the congestion rebuilds to the degree another repot is in the plants best interest. Trees under 25 years old should be repotted every 1-2 or 3 years, depending on their natural genetic vigor, the care they have received, and their actual age. Young trees build mass faster than old trees, so need repotting more often. The weeks surrounding the solstice because that's when recovery is fastest. Stored energy levels will be near peak and current ability to make food (through photosynthesis) is at peak.

A plant grows when it's making more food than it's using to maintain it's living parts. A plant that isn't growing is in an unsustainable phase because it's not making more energy than it uses. This is particularly true and a serious problem (for the plant) if growth is stalled any time during mid spring to late fall, which represents the most robust portion of the growth cycle.

Whether or not a Ficus tolerates a larger pot well is almost wholly dependent on soil choice. If the soil is too water-retentive, soil saturation will rob the plant of some serious potential. If the soil is highly aerated and drains completely, you could move a tree from a 3" pot to a 55 gallon drum and expect explosive growth as opposed to potting up bumping it up to the next larger pot size and calling it good.

For Brandi - if/when you can lift the root/soil mass from the pot, intact, it needs repotting; but, don't rush to repot unless there's a soil emergency (holds too much water and is causing root rot) until late spring.summer 2021.

Al

Al, Geslina and Catherine - thanks for much for all your comments. I decided to not repot or pot up and just see how he did in his current pot - and he's thriving. I have had 3 - 4 new leaves on each of 3 stalks and they are all pretty and green. He has floor to ceiling windows (south facing) in Southern CA and he seems happy - so I left him alone and just stuck to my regular watering. But - really good to know about the environment changes - that it's a myth - everyone says to leave them alone....His soil drains so fast (IMO) that I wondered if he gets enough water, but apparently he does...

And Al - thanks for the tip about lifting the root/soil out intact - which I can't do at this point - so that helped me also..

Thanks everyone - photos from today v. 8 days ago - huge leaves - it's amazing.

Generally, the more often a medium needs watering, the better the opportunity it offers plants to realize as much of the potential with which the plant is endowed by Mother Nature. The only thing that stands between a sick/scraggly plant and perfection is the cultural hand its dealt. Soil saturation, even intermittent, and root congestion are both stresses that can/do impose extreme loss of potential, even when the plant seems to be performing passably. That "growth spurt" we often see mentioned is clear evidence of elimination or partial elimination of a stress that has been limiting potential. IOW, it's not a spurt, it's illustration of how the plant would have been growing all along if not for the stress.

More About Trees in Containers

Al