A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2003 Pruning Rubber Plants

I have a healthy rubber plant over 5 feet tall. It currently sits on my desk at work and is almost at the ceiling. Can I stop the plant growing up and encourage it to grow out, making it into more of a bush and less of a long stick with leaves?

i kinda have the same problem i put my rubber tree outside for the summer and now it is too tall to get through the door, i know you can cut the top off and root it as i have done that before but the thing grows so fast that i have to do it all the time.

Sometimes continually pinching out new growth as it emerges will cause branches to form further down on the stem. However, that is unusual. Pruning off excess growth is about all you can do to control growth.

when i first cut the top off it 'bled' so bad that i just felt awful i put a papertowel on the 'wound' is that ok or is there something else i should use?

Members of the Ficus family all bleed white sap that is very noticeable when cut. It will stop all by itself. A paper towel, dry dirt, and sawdust all work fine to staunch the flow.

Iowadahlia, I'm wondering if I can pick your brains for some advice. When you pruned the top of the Rubber plant and rooted it, how did you go about it? I have a much beloved specimen that's touching the ceiling, and I'd love to grow on a few 'babies'. Thanks, Claire

i just sniped the top off and put it in water, and let me tell you it takes forever to root, in fact before the baby rooted it was time to do it again, it will bleed when you do it i felt terrible i wrapped a paper towel around it until it stopped. i have to cut the top off again to bring it in the house for the winter, and then i might just let it grow and touch the celing to see if it might just bend and start branching out.

That's great. One of my books suggested making diagonal cuts into the branch, attatching spaghnum moss and waiting for new roots to grow into the moss before cutting it off. Was it plain old tap water, or did you use liquid food/ rooting hormone etc? I'm a big fan of lopping the top off something, sticking it in a milk bottle on a window sill and waiting for nature to take it's course. It amazes me every time to see how determined plants are to keep living!
I completely agree with what you said about feeling bad about cutting though. The damn things bleed on you! Makes you feel like a monster. Cane stemmed Begonias I hate to take cuttings from. It feels and sounds as though you're breaking limbs.
Well I'm off now to take scissors to my beloved ficus.....Thanks again for your advice and prompt reply, Claire

i just used plain old farm water, no rooting hormone or any thing,i might try using some next time because as i said it takes a REALLY long time to root, i should keep track of how long some time. i have heard of just making a little cut and waiting for roots but when i need to make a cutting i can't wait that long, i have cut the top off of mine three times and it has worked every time, the babies are doing just fine.