Try picking the pot up to see if it's lightweight or heavy. if its heavy, it's wet. If it's lightweight, its dry. Easy peasy! Good luck with it! It's a great looking plant!

@Dave - I'm using a chopstick at the moment to check but it doesn't really reach the bottom due to its size relative to the pot. I will use a dowel next time. Thank you!

@marcy - right now I water outside so lifting it is inevitable. I will try this as well. Thank you!

Help please :( So I went ahead and repotted my plant and after two days, it is now looking sad and the leaves are drooping :( All the leaves are still intact but I fear that I will lose all the droopy leaves soon. I wasn't able to take a photo of the root ball when I took it out of the pot. It took me more than 2 hours to remove the soil from the root by alternating between a water jet and chopstick, with a bucket of water for occasional soaking.

Here's a photo of the plant immediately after repotting:

Here's how it looks now:

Here's a photo of the potting mix. Tried to follow the 511:

Please let me know :(

I wouldn't worry about the drooping after repotting unless it persists up to a week afterwards! FLFs are notorious for getting "transplant shock" (they really don't like change). Once it gets settled in, if the plant is in good health the leaves will perk back up. It may take a bit longer given that the roots on yours will have to completely readjust, but this is normal. Your tree is beautiful!

@Jesse thank you so much! Hopefully it recovers and perks up as you have explained :) i fell in love with it the moment I saw it :)

With taking 2 hrs to bare root with only “occasional” soaking in bucket I’m guessing you have a lot of fine roots dry out too much during the repot- happened to my first FLF repot 2 yrs ago too... I thought Soaking every 5 minutes was enough but it wasn’t, so since then I basically work right over a water pot and essentially constantly dunk it and haven’t had a problem since. Just don’t stress if the leaves drop ( I suspect many will/ I lost about 80% of leaves from that first repot) anyhow to answer your first question as to what caused the cracks... those definitely look like it was caused by trauma( maybe dog or y’all walking by)... when the leaves get pretty dry to the touch between watering it dosent take much for the leaf to crack and then the edges turn brown like that afterward. Good news is you can now water more frequently without worry about overwatering since your in gritty so should help the leaves not get to that dry brittle state ( which only happens when the soil is extremely dry)

Hi Elissa - the leaves are definitely getting worse everyday so I might have dried out those finer roots... lesson learned for next repotting! I just checked the potting mix with a dowel and I think it is almost dry. Thank you so much for the tip - I will brace myself for the leaves which may drop :')

***

Update on sad leaves drying out:

I would recommend using the jet setting on your hose sprayer and water the potting mix in the container very well. You will notice the potting mix leveling out which means the potting mix is filling into the crevasses of the roots. You'll need to refill the potting mix at the top.

@stuartlawrence - I ended up repotting it in a smaller pot and I used the jet setting as you have recommended. :)

Update as of 7/15, 1 week after repotting:

Already lost 10 leaves and I don't how many more will fall.

I'm not entirely sure about this, but I'm seeing these little nodes above the old leaves' spots:

I wouldn’t worry about the leaf drop since you know the cause... wouldn’t be suprised if a few more of those fall Either but there’s nothing you can do to prevent it so just keep treating it like normal/ ( aka don’t try anything drastic thinking it’s getting worse as it’s still all related to the repot event ). Those are definitely buds your seeing, may be old ones your just noticing that terminated before fully developing but likely they are new/ the tree back budding which means it’s still very much happy and nows wants to push new branches out that will use the new roots it’s made. Nothing changes unless you don’t want a full on branch where you see those buds coming off as they will be branches not just single leaves( if you don’t want branches there like maybe down low you just run them off with your thumb and hopefully if your lucky it will push another bud out somewhere else)

@Elissa - Thank you for your wisdom. I actually stopped worrying about it since reading your first comment, just wanted to document it as well :) Thank you again :)

Update as of 7/22 (2 weeks after repotting):

5 more leaves fell and tree still not pushing new growth :)

Update 6 weeks after repotting. Happy days!!!

No stoping her now!

your dog is so cute

@Elissa I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw those buds! There are two more and a few little pieces. Wow! Thanks again for your wisdom! I just maintained my watering schedule and now this! Happy!!!

Thanks @Mike! ^.^

almost 7 weeks after repotting. 10 new leaves on top!!! I am in awe.

Should I still hope that leaves will frow back in the lower branch? Only 1 old leaf left in this plant since it collapsed after repotting.

Very unlikely that a FLF will push out leaves lower on stem right now, best bet is to wait till next summer solstice when it’s time to prune back and shell likely push out many branches lower that you’ll decide if you want to keep or not. So Enjoy your trendy top heavy tree look for now as she’s going to try to get out foliage fast now and will continue to thru the winter & needs every leaf she makes right now ( not to mention pruning now would not results is near the same lush results it would in June as she knows the daylight hours are getting shorter and thus is transitioning to protect/ conserve mode. ) glad she’s happy, and she will look great in another month after those leaves grow more she pushes out another group of leaves! Keep fertilizing generously for now and for as long as you see her working to get leaves out really quickly which could still be 7-9 more weeks( sorry forgot where you live). Though even after i bring mine inside in November ish here in Houston they don’t seem to slow down too much!

On another note... Anywhere you see those little nubs/buds on the stem having started to push out but stopped before it was made a leaf are still very much in the game to “turn on” again before next spring... i just wouldn’t count on any of the dormant buds that never got activated at this point( as in didn’t pushed out even a tiny nub yet) . When I brought one of mine back indoors and into a room that only got morning sun in November it actually finished pushing out of some of those areas as it was “stressed” from the huge light change but yet very healthy going into that stressful event and thus was able to react in a productive way ( vs drop
Leaves like a unhappy/ already stressed FLF plant would do in the same situation) ... Honestly i saw it as another big win for gritty mix proving its case even after what seems a temporary set back.