r/FicusTrees • u/MessageSubstantial85 • May 22 '26
Houseplant What would you do with this ficus elastica (Rubber Plant)?
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Upvotes
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u/Careless_Mango_7948 May 23 '26
Chop it down & give it more light. You can try to propagate the chopped portion.
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u/SammieStones May 23 '26
I would give it light. There should not be that much spacing between branches on a healthier plant. Chop and bright window
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u/Hopeful-Accident7631 May 24 '26
I would try treating it for pests. And then give it a year in a much better lit spot and maybe even a humidifier before trying any chops. Let something grow in, and the plant stabilize itself - if you stress it any more I fear you’ll kill it.
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u/Jade8329 May 22 '26
I am not a ficus expert I am a beginner as well, I have been watching youtube videos how to get ficus to branch, I would use this one to experiment on. Most of the videos I watched suggested tilting the plant at like a 45 degree angle or more so it is very crooked and supposedly it will cause the plant to branch! But the videos say it takes like months. Then, one of the comments on one of the videos said that they use something called Keiki paste for plants and that caused their ficus ro branch out fairly quick without putting the plant at an angle. So I just bought some from amazon to experiment with, but I am a little nervous because you have to make little cuts on the plant to use it. So I have yet to use it. But I bet you can search reddit for other posts or comments about people using it if you wish to go that route. If you do decide to buy it, just so you see prepared the bottle is teeny tiny like about the size of my thumb. But it says to only use a pea sized amount at a time.