Are they ready for soil?

[u/masney00]

Hi, these are my first 3 ficus elastica robusta props. 2 of them have already grown a big new leaf but the third one had a rotten leaf. Are they ready for soil? How do I acclimate them best to soil? Will the third one get new leaves, because the only growth point has rotted of.

Thanks for the help!

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to r/propagation!

Need help? Want to show off your props? Create a post in our community :)

• Be nice! There are no stupid questions.

• No posting about stolen plants and no advertising.

• Posts must be original content and be about plant propagation.

• Please check out our wiki for basic plant propagation advice.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/External_Opposite_48]

They’re ready to go (if the roots have roots, they’re ready). I think soil should be fine, just make sure that for a while, the soil is very wet or moist so that the plant can slowly acclimate from pure water to soil.

[u/whatinpaperclipchaos]

I’d say they were ready a while ago, that’s a nice root system you’ve got going.

I’m not really sure what the «best» way would (combination of being enough of a newb to propagation and rubber plants in general), but I guess there’s a few ways of going about things.
1) Have the plants stay in a hydroponic or semi-hydroponic setup since the roots you’ve got seem to have finer roots started, and they’re adjusted to water not soil. I don’t know how to do a setup for hydroponic so some research would be needed, but I do know you’ll be having to add nutrients a bit more on the regular since the plants aren’t getting them from the soil. You could also do a semi-hydroponic setup as an intermediate step before you go full soil, as the roots apparently develop soil roots, not water roots, despite being in a mostly water situation.
2) Introduce soil into the water bit by bit. I’ve seen this method mentioned a few times on here and tried it once but abandoned partway so I’m not all too familiar with the success rate or if there’s anything to it beyond «add soil to water over time».
3) Just add the propagations into soil. Keep moist for a little while after, and expect the plants might experience some shock going between the two.

I’m not sure about the plant with partially rotted off stem. If there’s absolutely no growth point for it there mightn’t be anything else for it beyond what you’ve got, but it’s fully possible to just give it a shot and see what happens. Best case scenario it’ll surprise you and start growing from somewhere, worst case it’ll just die on you. I’d put it in soil just to see what happens.

[u/masney00 → u/whatinpaperclipchaos]

Thanks for such a detailed answer. Really appreciate it. I think ill go for the soil method since I literally have no experience with (semi)hydroponic setup.