A photo would help us help you.

Based on your description, it sounds like lack of light is your issue.

lack of light will cause plants to stretch to try to find more light and also become leggy and unable to stand on their own.

It really gets a ton of light. So I don't think that's it. It's in a space that has morning and afternoon light steaming in, and it's grown a lot since moving to this location. It just seems to grow most from the outside branches versus the center. I took a photo of the base in case that helps problem solve. Is this actually several trees instead of one? They feel attached at the base.

Due to the placement of the plant, I’m still going to say it’s lack of light. There is no light coming from overhead, so the plant has no reason to want to grow straight up.

Lots of light to us doesn’t mean lots of light to a plant.

Which direction does that window face? Do you keep the blinds fully open ever?

propping the plant up on something and putting it right up in front of the window would help.

It's weird. Seems that you have many individual plant that potted together into single pot. 1 single plant will prefer to grow straight up since it easier to distribute photosynthesis result top down.

Dave is right, in that it's not getting nearly enough light.

I don't know where you live, so I can't comment on the timing of an aggressive pruning session, but there is definitely one of those in your planting's future if it's ever going to be under your control. At some point, you'll need to take a set of loppers and use them to do a reboot.

When you do, you can cut the worst offenders off half-way between where the stem exits the soil and half way to an imaginary line that is vertical to the rim of the pot. Yes, that means some short stubs. As the plant comes back online, you can remove buds or branches in awkward places and keep those in places that probe to enhance the appearance of the planting.

Also, if you're not going to give it more light, you'll need to start instituting a series of chops. A 'chop' is a significant shortening of the stem. In this case, it's purpose would be to limit deflection (bending) of overly long stems that are too thin to support ther own weight, because of low light conditions ....... which brings us full circle to my opening comment.

Al

Just to be clear, Dana, which way does the window face, and do you open the blinds? There really aren't any other reasons for branches on such a healthy looking plant that normally grows upright to grow outward. The plant needs as much sunlight shining on its leaves as your can give it, not just placement near a window with half closed blinds that brighten up the room but keep the sunlight from shining on the plant.

Best of luck- it's such a healthy plant that I actually think it looks pretty good already, but it will look even better once it gets growing in the right direction.

Hi! The photo was taken at 6:00 a.m. so it looks dimly lit. But it truly gets a lot of light. There are three windows right near it that I open every day. And then even more windows on that same side of the house that are only a few more feet down. Opposite side of the house gets afternoon light and they are always open too. I’ve had this rubber plant mysteriously bloom on me, so I KNOW it’s happy. And at our last home, with poor light, it barely grew. It just keeps shooting most of the growth out. When I compare the base of it to other rubber plants, it looks like there are lots of “trunks” coming from the base. Not just one trunk. I’m wondering if that’s the problem?

No need to wonder what the 'problem is. It's (and I repeat) not enough light - the plant is not getting the amount of light it needs. This is immediately evident by the length of the internodes and floppy stems. Also, I wonder what the "bloom" looked like; because fig trees don't bloom - at least not in the same sense that most other plants bloom. The inflorescence (bloom) consists of thousands of tiny inverted flowers encased in the fruit, which is called a synconium. You wouldn't SEE a bloom - only the synconium/fig.

Al

I’ll say it again, what may seem like a lot of light to us, may not be a lot of light to a plant.

Yes. The bloom wasn't a flower. It was as you describe, tapla.

Short of putting the plant outside, I don't know how it could receive any more light than it does now. Do you only recommend putting a rubber tree outside? Is it not a plant that is able to thrive indoors?

I will also say that the two propagated trees from this same plant do quite well and grow up. Not out.

Those all non straight up trunks get wider area in soil to grow roots. The straight up one at the middle get limited space to grow root so it grow slower. Next growing season you better split them up. Those stems allready got bigger and need individual pot.

Your plant has issues because of A) light conditions too low to allow the stems/trunks to support their own weight, B) inappropriate pruning that ruined the planting's structure, and C) neglecting to guide new branches into a position that compliments the composition. I described how to bring your plant back under control in my first post. It would take me about 3 minutes to figure out precisely what to do to make sure the plant's structure is something that provides something you can build on, and 2 minutes to make the pruning cuts.

Al