when your plant appears to be 10 to 20 times taller than the pot.. it is probably a good idea to repot it ...

if you are having watering problems due to old media.. and there isnt enough of it.. then it might not live long enough to worry about it in spring.. especially with winter coming along ... especially if you have forced air heating ... the watering problems are just going to get worse .... but i dont really know how that translates across the pond .... and where you might be in the UK ... i presume its a houseplant

ken

I am probably in a completely different gardening zone (Mediterranean climate), but if it were mine, I would tip it out of the pot to inspect the roots and be sure when you water the entire root ball is getting wet. If it runs through quickly, it's possible the center plant or some layers aren't getting water. You don't want it to overwater, but when it needs water it's good to have it throughout the pot.

If you do repot, you might want to go a little larger, but not much. You could use fresh potting mix too.

Even tho' it's fall, I've repotted a couple things, but in my zone we'll have warm weather through October. You've got a pretty plant there.

The plant almost certainly needs repotting, but it doesn't need repotting so badly it should be done now. I would depot the tree, use a root pick (dowel rod sharpened in a pencil sharpener) to tease apart the compacted/ encircling roots you'll likely find at the bottom of the pot, and pot up to a pot slightly larger part. Based on the size of that part and what I can see of the plant's top mass, you should be able to accomplish the session in only a few minutes, using maybe a liter of grow medium - just enough to get you through to next June around the summer solstice, which is the best time to repot all Ficus other than the hardy fig, F carica.

How tall a tree is has little bearing on whether or not it needs repotting. If the root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact, repotting would be beneficial, but again, unless it's a true emergency (this isn't), it's best to wait until a time that better favors the plant, June.

I would remove the adventitious roots as they occur unless you like them. They will likely stop growing as you start using heat and indoor humidity drops. Humidity is a key factor in the formation of adventitious roots on Ficus.

The loss of lower leaves and leaves close to the trunk on plants with branching is likely due to root congestion, but it can also be from poor nutrition (are you fertilizing regularly?). low light levels, sudden chill, or over/ under-watering.

Potting up is safe at virtually any time during the growth cycle, but it's a half measure that ensures the stress caused by root congestion in the center of the root mass remains as a limiting factor until someone's hands get into the center of the root mass to relieve the congestion via judicious root pruning. Repotting, which includes bare-rooting, root pruning, and a change of grow medium, relieves all stress associated with root congestion until the point in time when the root/soil mass can again be lifted from the pot intact.

Al

Hi All,

Thank you for your help.

@tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a) What's the difference between repotting and 'potting up'?

The root ball doesn't look too congested to me but the bottom leaves are drooping a lot so I need to make a decision today whether to water or repot.

Thanks for your help.

As it is now, your plant would benefit somewhat from a repotting, but the degree of root congestion is nowhere near being a threat to the plant's viability, nor is it seriously limiting your plant's growth potential or threatening its vitality (health). If it was my plant, I probably wouldn't bother potting it up; instead, I would make a mental note to set aside an hour or so next June just before the summer solstice, and use the time between now and then to make sure you know how to prepare foe a repot and what to do once you arrive at the appropriate time. If you're serious about wanting the best for your tree, you should be considering what you want to do about a grow medium, as it's likely the most important consideration you'll make insofar as it affects your ability to provide the best opportunity for your plant to realize as much of its genetic potential as possible.

Addressing your concern about the interval between waterings being too short; generally, the more often you're required to water, the better opportunity you're providing your plant to flourish. The convenience of extended intervals between waterings usually comes at a price. The perfect state of soil moisture levels would be when all soil particles are holding water in internal pores (if they have them), in a microscopically thin film of water on the surface of all soil particles, and at the interface where soil particles contact each other. There would be NO water in the spaces between soil particles. Water held there is called 'perched water' (PW) because it 'perches' above the pot bottom where it defies the force of gravity. That type of water can be very seriously limiting, so it's best to know how to avoid it. Because of its potential to be limiting, relying on that type of water to increase watering intervals is the equivalent of sacrificing some fraction of a plant's vitality on the altar of convenience. No one should think less of growers who choose that route because we all order our priorities differently, but it's best to understand what's in play when making care decisions.

From my reply above: Potting up is safe at virtually any time during the growth cycle, but it's a half measure that ensures the stress caused by root congestion in the center of the root mass remains as a limiting factor until someone's hands get into the center of the root mass to relieve the congestion via judicious root pruning. Repotting, which includes bare-rooting, root pruning, and a change of grow medium, relieves all stress associated with root congestion until the point in time when the root/soil mass can again be lifted from the pot intact.

So, during a repot you depot the plant, usually saw off or remove with scissors the bottom 1/3 of the root mass:

then the plant gets bare-rooted and the larger, unnecessary roots not attached to the base of the trunk removed. The tree below was layered off of its old roots which I cut off after the new set of roots seen in the image were mature enough to support the top. You can see the tourniquet wire, a part of this layering process, still attached.

Finally, the plant is situated in the pot with fresh grow medium and stabilized so it can't move in relation to the pot. This part is important because it speeds up reestablishment of the tree in its new pot by preventing the newly forming roots of freshly repotted trees from being broken whenever the tree moves relative to the pot. At this point, all limitations associated with root congestion are alleviated until the plant needs repotting again, usually in 1-3 years.

Potting up, on the other hand, consists of removing a rootbound tree from it's pot, putting it in a larger pot, and filling in the space between the pot bottom/ walls with fresh medium. Hobby growers almost universally consider the increased growth after potting up to be a "

growth spurt", but the increased growth is only representative of a partial return to NORMAL growth; whereas, a full repot fully returns the plant to its normal growth potential (within the limits of other existing factors which affect growth rate).

Al