i think plants can recover without leaves too though. trees shed theif leaves in autumn and still grow it back. dont know about ficus elastica, but its a tree too if im right. Not quite. You are right about one thing-plants can come back after a complete defoliation if they have enough energy to do so. Here's the thing-you're comparing deciduous trees with tropical plants. Deciduous trees are made/are used to annually shedding their leaves during the autumn season. They store up tons of energy during the growing season and store it in their branches and trunk before shedding their leaves (I think-I'm not too well versed with this kind of thing) However, tropical plants are a different story entirely. Their natural habitat does not see a proper winter (temps below freezing, snow, etc.). They have more or less consistent warm temperatures all year. They are not designed to annually shed their entire foliage system; nor are they adapted to withstand winter conditions. I believe they do store energy, but not to the same extent as deciduous plants do-tropicals don't worry about the winter season. This means that if something happens which causes all of their leaves to drop, the plant will be stressed. If conditions return to normal, the plant should slowly grow all its leaves again. Too much of this, however, and the plant may run so low on energy reserves that after one final defoliation it will be unable to push a leaf and will die. It's important not to mix deciduous trees and tropical plants-if you put your ficus outside during the winter and treat it like a deciduous tree, it will most likely die and not come back during spring. If exposed to cold temps (below 50*F) cold damage will occur to its leaves and/or branches. If it stays too cold for too long, the roots themselves may freeze-resulting in the death of the plant. Now onto your plant- but i have to worry less about overwatering with perlite anyway, right? Again, not exactly. Perlite helps with a little aeration, but unless the soil mix contains a LOT of perlite overwatering will still be a problem. Keep using the wooden dowel method for the future. How are outdoor temperatures right now in your area? If it's warm enough, perhaps you could put it outdoors and let nature work its magic. I'm honestly unsure whether or not it'll come back, but I do agree with what others have said-if this plant does end up dying, don't feel so bad about it. It'll be important that you understand exactly why it died, so you don't make the same mistake again with future plants.

I live in Arkansas, which isn't that far from you, and the summers here can get up into the scorching hot triple digits, with enough humidity in the air to turn the whole state into one giant sauna, lol. My rubber plant couldn't care less; just as long as I kept it well watered and didn't let it dry out for too long. I tried moving my aloe out into the sunlight, gradually, but it threw a fit, so I moved it back into the shade where it fared much better. My rubber plant, on the other hand, just kept on growing. On top of that, I've also noticed that each trunk has sent out new growths as well. Two on one stem, and one on the other. Not to mention the fact that its leaves are that dark burgundy color that you want for yours. Once your plant has been properly acclimated to direct sunlight, it will easily handle anything that the Sun can dish out, just as long as you keep it well watered.

It looks like residue from insecticide or fungicide applications; or, early on, the plant was in a situation where it was watered from overhead and the water was allowed to repeatedly dry on the foliage, leaving dissolved solids residue on the foliage. It's possible too, that the same chemicals mentioned above were injected into the water used for over-head watering and were left behind on foliage as the water dried. I don't think it's cause for concern. If it interferes with the plant's ability to carry on photo synthesis, chemical messengers will inform plant central the leaves aren't carrying their weight, and the plant will automatically shed them. Too, your plant looks healthy enough that removing the affected leaves shouldn't create a scenario where the plant is using more energy than it's creating by turning the sun's energy into food ..... so you can remove them w/o need to be concerned. Remove them by snipping through the petiole (leaf stem) about half-way between where it's attached to the stem and where it transitions to the leaf blade. The stub you leave will fall off on its own in a week or two. Pulling leaves off can easily damage latent buds resting in leaf axils (angle formed by a leaf and the branch it's attached to). Al

It looks like residue from insecticide or fungicide applications; or, early on, the plant was in a situation where it was watered from overhead and the water was allowed to repeatedly dry on the foliage, leaving dissolved solids residue on the foliage. It's possible too, that the same chemicals mentioned above were injected into the water used for over-head watering and were left behind on foliage as the water dried. I don't think it's cause for concern. If it interferes with the plant's ability to carry on photo synthesis, chemical messengers will inform plant central the leaves aren't carrying their weight, and the plant will automatically shed them. Too, your plant looks healthy enough that removing the affected leaves shouldn't create a scenario where the plant is using more energy than it's creating by turning the sun's energy into food ..... so you can remove them w/o need to be concerned. Remove them by snipping through the petiole (leaf stem) about half-way between where it's attached to the stem and where it transitions to the leaf blade. The stub you leave will fall off on its own in a week or two. Pulling leaves off can easily damage latent buds resting in leaf axils (angle formed by a leaf and the branch it's attached to). Al