Hi all!

Brand new ficus owner here! I bought my FLF in October of 2013 and aside from dropping a few lower leaves that winter, it seems very healthy and so far this year has sprouted 11 new leaves.

I've been reading a lot of the posts on here and have loved reading all the tips. I've bookmarked the particularly in depth post by Tapla about repotting (vs potting up) and while a terrifying concept I know it has to be done sometime!

Is it the right time for me to attempt such a thing now or should I wait until next year? It's still in the original container that it came in and only a month ago I would have said it seemed cozy, but lately I've noticed some roots coming up through the top of the soil. I took it out of the container today before watering it and while it doesn't look matted (especially compared to a lot of the photos I've seen) it does look like some of the larger roots have begun to wrap around, conforming to the shape of the container.

I also wonder about the growth of new leaves vs. the growth of the stem itself. It's a nice thick, solid trunk but it hasn't seemed to grow much vertically this season, despite all of the new leaves that have come in. Is this normal? I'm not expecting it to shoot up overnight by any means (tree-time vs people-time and all that :)) but I'm just not sure what to expect.

Any guidance would be appreciated!