Rubber Plant

Question:

I have a problem with my rubber plant or maybe I should say plants. I rooted several starts from a dying plant a few years ago. They all took and were looking healthy all in the same large pot. Now several of them are bending over. I thought they needed support because they were too tall but even a little short guy is falling over. What’s going on with my tipping plants? They don’t seem to be having much root support. Thank you so much for addressing this Question:.

Answer:

One of the many important functions of roots is to support the plant and keep it upright. If the root system is weak or dying, the stems lose their support. Even worse, the roots lose their ability to absorb moisture and nutrients from the soil and ultimately that is fatal to the plant.

You mentioned that the Rubber Plant cuttings are together in a large pot. The preferred method is to root cuttings in individual very small pots. After each has developed a healthy root system, they can then be moved into a pot just large enough for all of them to fit into together.

The difficulty with large pots is that the abundant soil stays moist for too long and causes root systems to slowly rot. I suspect that is why your cuttings are now falling over. If you gently remove them from the pot, you probably find very few healthy roots. If you do, I suggest potting them up individually as I described above.