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Please help me with my rubber plant!

seahorsecaptain

8 years ago

Hi everyone!

I have a small rubber plant, maybe 18" tall. It looks great, aside from the fact that many of the leaves seem to be bending downward. It's on a sill if a south facing window with a semi sheer curtain. The soil felt very dry, so I thought that was the culprit, but it seems that same, or possibly worse a few days after watering. Any ideas? Or is this just normal?

Thanks so much!

Featured Answer

zzackey

8 years ago

How long have you had the plant? Did the leaves always do that? The leaves seem quite large for the size of your plant. Is it in a clay pot?

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Comments (9)

seahorsecaptain
Original Author
8 years ago
@zzackey I've had it just a few months from a local greenhouse. I transplanted it to a terra cotta pot after I brought it home.
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welcome ... its been thru a lot of stress ... grower to seller.. to your place.. then the watering ... why dont you leave it alone for while.. and let it settle down and see what develops ... repotting it.. or worse.. dividing the plants out will just be one more giant stress .... lets let it settle down before we contemplate that ... on some level.. you are loving it to death .... lets try to back off that ... let it near dry before you water again... you should be able to tell by the pot weight when that is ... if not sticking your finger in the media ... i would probably look into propagating cuttings before i would tear it apart ... from the pix.. i dont understand if its by a window.. or in the middle of the room .. maybe you moved it for the pic ... but im not sure it will get enough light through the shear drapes ... give us some more info on that ... ken
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lmontestella
8 years ago
Why? Plastic would have been a better pot for this plant. It'd help retain moisture just a bit (clay will help dry it out maybe a bit too fast).
0
Dave
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Nothing wrong with terra cotta unless you were using a mix that holds very little perched water (gritty, 5:1:1) That pot is actually great for soils that are heavy in peat, which I'm guessing this is. The pot will help wick away moisture.
Mentha (East TN, Zone 6B-7A)
8 years ago
I agree with Dave. I grow almost everything in clay. I prefer clay if I can find it, because it lets air in to the roots and dries out the soil much faster. You can also tell where the water is in the soil because it will be darker where the soil is moist. Sure you may need to water more often, but it helps prevent root rot which most ficus are prone to this time of year when people water too much.
Dave
8 years ago
^absolutely.

soil that dries faster and needs more frequent watering is much better for the plant then something that retains water for a longer period.
tete_a_tete
8 years ago
I love terracotta pots - the unglazed ones. They breath.

As to what's causing the rubber plant to droop, I would guess either over-watering or under-watering. We need a bit more info and I think you need to look into the soil and see and feel what's going on.
christine 5b
8 years ago
I too love the terracotta pots, and I agree with tete_a_tete about the watering
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Plants prefer clay over plastic, no matter what the grower might prefer for whatever reason. That the grower needs to water more frequently is also, from the plant's perspective, a good thing.

The attitude of the leaf may have been set during a previous bout of wilt, which might have occurred from either over or under-watering. Unfortunately, leaves of F elastica and lyrata often don't fully recover to their previous spatial position after suffering a significant loss of turgidity.

Do make sure you're moistening the entire soil mass when you water. Dry spots can cause loss of roots of significant size, which makes for a lot of unnecessary stress.

Al

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