A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Rubber Tree Help!!

I have been having this problem with my rubber tree, with a lot of the bottom leaves falling off, and I pulled it out of the planter and the roots are totally growing out of the bottom and winding around the pot! Should I trim the roots, or repot it into a bigger pot. Maybe I over watered it a little, but I will let it dry out a little. What should I do with the roots??? Also, I read that you can cut right above the nodes of the fallen leaves and that will stimulate a new leaf?? Thanks for any help.

it will stimulate branching mandy. your plant needs a bigger pot, or the roots trimmed. too much water/too little water is difficult to prevent when a plant is that root bound.

Should I trim the roots when I repot it? These roots are probably a foot long!!

And by branching do you mean a whole new branch, or just a leaf? (sorry i'm so dumb! HA!)

a whole new branch. and you can take a clean, sharp knife and slice part of the roots off. it won't hurt the plant, as long as you don't do it too often.

and, if you cut the top off the plant, you can plant that, and it will make a baby plant.

Thank you so much for this advice! I really appreciate it!