Joe, the two most common diseases doing what you are seeing are septoria leaf spot and blackberry rust. My guess would be the former since it is more common. My recollection is dormant lime-sulphur is the best treatment. Lime-sulphur is organic. Since you may be past dormant season you could still spray a less potent strength I expect but look up some guidelines for treatment of the disease with Google to get the details. But, before you do anything search for pictures of various blackberry leaf diseases and figure out which one you have for certain. Then search for treatments for that. If you are not sure, ask more questions here :-) Scott

Since you haven't gotten a response, try posting this in the "discussions" section of the houseplants forum. Good luck. Gabi

The 3 best things you could do for your plant are A) Get it into an appropriate soil at an appropriate time. I don't know where you live, but in the US that would vary from late May to Early July. You can devise a plan based on the plant's natural (seasonal) rhythms, so you'll be working with the plant instead of against it. B) Get the plant outdoors as soon as night temps are reliably above 55*. C) Get started on a nutritional supplementation program, using a good fertilizer with an appropriate NPK ratio. RATIO is different than the NPK %s, and more important. If you remove leaves, remember that you're removing the factories that provide the plants only true food. Plant food is the carbohydrates manufactured during photosynthesis, so reducing its leaf surface area reduces it's food supply. If you're going to partially defoliate, make sure the plant is at least in good health and stable or gaining vitality. Even though the leave's appearance is spoiled, the leaves are still able to carry on photosynthesis. Chemical messengers will tell the plant when the leaves are net USERS of energy instead of net producers. If that occurs, the plant will shed the parts that are taxing the plant. You might find the link below to be of some interest. It will help you avoid almost all the common pitfalls encountered by growers relying mainly on trial and error, or the advertising promises on products aimed at the gardening community. Al Here is a link that might be useful: An overview - if you click me.

Geez, I keep losing the start of this post. I'll try again: It sounds and looks like overwatering, though I'm not really familiar with rubber plants. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm off base. First of all I'm assuming the pot has a drain hole in it. If it doesn't, get it into a pot that does ASAP. The bottom half of the pot can be saturated with water, drowning and killing roots that are starved of oxygen by the lack of air, even when the top few inches of the soil are dry. Roots need soil that's moist, not wet, so you need to water in a way that lets that happen. Here's a quote from a post by Al (tapla) describing the fix, and my summary of other stuff he's written on the forum. Al: You can prevent overwatering by A) testing the soil deep in the container with a wood dowel ... wet & cool - do not water, dry - water. B) feeling the wick & only watering when it's dry C) feel the soil at the drain hole & only water when it feels dry there. Soils feel dry to our touch when they still have 40-45% moisture content. Plants, however, can still extract water from soils until they dry down to about 25-30%, so there is still around a 15% cushion in that plants can still absorb considerable moisture after soils first feel dry to us. Water slowly until the soil is saturated but no water (or very little water) has exited the pot drain. Wait 10-15 minutes and water again so at least 15-20% of the volume of water used ion both applications flushes out the accumulating salts. After the pot stops draining, you can return it to its normal spot and arrangmt. Wait until time to water again & repeat the routine. Me: Watering when the plant needs it (and not before) is one of the biggest things you can do to keep any plant healthy. Like most plants, aerated soil is as critical to a ficus's health as sunshine. That's why we check soil moisture. A sharpened dowel is a simple, fast, and accurate tool for this (5/8" or 1/4" seems best), but any thin piece of unfinished wood, like a wooden skewer or even a cheap chopstick, works fine too. Stick the dowel through the soil to the very bottom of the pot, leave it for two seconds, and withhold water until the whole dowel comes out completely dry (don't worry, at that point there's still water within the soil particles that the roots can access but we can't feel). Then water slowly but thoroughly, wetting the entire surface of the soil, until water drains freely from the pot, making sure the pot doesn't sit in the drained water. To get excess water out of the pot so the soil at the bottom doesn't stay completely saturated, prop it up so it's tilted at 45 degrees for 10-15 minutes. If there are drain holes around the edges of the bottom you're done (that's why I love my cheap plastic pots); if the holes or holes aren't at the edges you'll leave the pot upright for 5-10 minutes to let the excess water drain out. This practice ensures the roots get substantial periods in moist, not wet, soil, when they can get oxygen from the air between soil particles and grow into a healthy system that takes up water and nutrients stores water for dry periods. Watering until water drains freely from the pot prevents the buildup of mineral and fertilizer deposits that can damage the plant and retard growth.