Reasons and Solutions for Rubber Plant Leaf Drop

  The rubber plant (Ficus elastica) is an evergreen tree in the Moraceae family. It thrives in hot, humid environments with plenty of sunlight and can also tolerate shade, but it is not cold-hardy. It is extremely well suited for indoor decorative landscaping, often used to beautify living rooms and studies, and is also suitable for placement on both sides of the entrance halls of large buildings and in the center of lobbies, where it looks majestic and impressive. Its thick leaves evoke a tropical feel and can even absorb cigarette smoke, making it an excellent indoor air-purifying green plant.

  The rubber plant has large, glossy green leaves and stays evergreen year-round, making it a famous foliage plant. Many households grow one or two pots and place them in the living room or beside the front door, as it is an excellent decorative material. But if the rubber plant drops its leaves, these functions are greatly diminished, and its appearance suffers too. Sometimes we find that the rubber plant at home has lost all its leaves, yet we don't know how to save it. When a rubber plant drops leaves, showing abnormal, heavy leaf loss, the main cause is water and soil, related to routine care methods. Summing up the causes, as long as you focus on the following four aspects, there shouldn't be much of a problem.

  1. Suitable temperature

  The most common situation in which a rubber plant drops leaves is low temperature, especially in winter. Generally, when the temperature drops below 10°C, the rubber plant will begin to lose leaves. At this point, it needs to be moved indoors or to some other warmer place, though make sure it still gets sunlight.

  The rubber plant likes hot, humid environmental conditions and sunny spots. Its suitable growing temperature is 20-25°C,

  A pot of rubber plant placed at home can effectively absorb exhaust fumes

  2. Plenty of sunlight

  The rubber plant is a sun-loving plant and needs to be placed in a sunny spot with good light. In winter, it is best to give it full sun as well. If it is placed in a dark spot where it cannot get sunlight, that can easily cause the rubber plant to drop leaves.

  This picture shows its strong adaptability

  3. Moderate watering

  During its growing period, the rubber plant must be watered frequently, especially in the hot midsummer season. Because of the high evaporation, it needs not only watering at the roots but also frequent spraying of the leaves. However, if the potting soil is too wet, the roots rot easily, so you must wait until the potting soil is dry before watering again. Watering too frequently or not watering for a long time will both cause the rubber plant to drop leaves.

  4. Deal with pests

  The rubber plant sometimes also suffers from pest problems. Spider mites on the leaves and scale insects on the branches and leaves can both cause leaf drop. So when leaf drop occurs, check to see whether it is a pest problem and deal with it promptly.

  Relatively speaking, the rubber plant is still a fairly easy plant to grow. But quite a few friends complain, asking why it always loves to drop leaves. What was a perfectly good tree starts dropping a leaf on the left, a leaf on the right, from the bottom up, until only a few leaves remain at the top.

  The causes of rubber plant leaf drop are many-sided. Based on my growing experience over these years, I have summarized a few points for friends to refer to:

  1. Poor indoor ventilation leads to excessively high carbon dioxide concentration, which in turn causes yellow leaves that then drop.

  Therefore, the rubber plant should not be kept indoors for long periods. Every so often, move it to a balcony or outdoors to let it breathe fresh air.

  If moving it is inconvenient, open the windows often to exchange the air, keeping the room ventilated and the air fresh.

  2. The rubber plant is a moisture-loving plant. If the indoor air is overly dry, some leaves, especially the older lower leaves, will turn yellow and fall off.

  This point is easy to solve. Just remember to spray water on the branches and leaves several times a day (except on rainy days).

  If you are a bit more diligent, take a cloth, dip it in some beer and wipe the leaves. This removes dust, makes the leaves glossy green, and also increases humidity, which is equivalent to applying fertilizer once, achieving three benefits in one go.

  3. The rubber plant is placed in too shady a spot.

  You should know that the rubber plant is a tropical tree species that loves plenty of sunlight. If it cannot see sunlight for a long time, yellow leaves are unavoidable.

  So, apart from avoiding the fierce midsummer sun, let it get plenty of sun in the other seasons.

  4. Overwatering or underwatering is also a factor causing yellow leaves and leaf drop. If you water too little, the moisture in the potting soil is not enough to supply the leaves' transpiration, so they naturally drop.

  Conversely, if you water too much, especially when the temperature is low, the water in the soil cannot escape, which inevitably causes root rot, and then leaf drop is unavoidable.

  So when watering, you must check the moisture condition of the potting soil and not water blindly.

  5. Fertilizer applied too concentratedly causes root rot, and then leaf drop is certain.

  Therefore, the fertilizer concentration in normal use must not exceed 0.3%, mainly phosphorus and potassium. Better to use a lower concentration and be conservative; apply light fertilizer frequently!

  6. Opposite to the situation above, fertilizing very rarely or not at all.

  The rubber plant is malnourished, so of course it will drop leaves! This is easy to fix: buy some compound fertilizer and apply it once every 10 days, and the situation will change immediately!

  If your rubber plant has already developed yellow leaves and leaf drop, just compare it against the points above, check carefully, find the cause, and treat the root of the problem. It will definitely have an effect.

  Here's another trick: if your rubber plant has dropped leaves severely, with only a few leaves left at the top and the lower part already bare,

  just saw off the upper part. You can leave it as tall as you want (of course, choose early spring as the timing, best before the sap starts flowing).

  Before sawing, prepare a little sulfur powder and a few paper towels. After sawing it off, immediately apply the sulfur powder to the cut surface of the trunk, then wrap it tightly with paper towels. The purpose of doing this is to prevent sap loss and affect survival.

  About a month later, 3-5 new shoots will grow below the cut surface of the trunk. You can choose to keep 3 plump shoots and remove the rest. When the new branches grow to 20 cm long, cut the top again (also called pinching), and the new branches will branch again, eventually growing into a "three-pronged, nine-peaked" tree shape, which is beautiful!

  After the rubber plant has lost all its leaves, we shouldn't panic first, let alone blindly try to save it. We must find the cause of the leaf drop, and then save it with a purpose. Leaf drop in rubber plants is mostly a water and soil issue, and we can use the process of elimination. For example: how long has it been grown? If it has been grown for a long time and leaf drop has appeared recently, then we can rule out soil problems. Has it been watered too much recently? Is the weather humid, causing the water in the pot to be unable to evaporate? Through similar methods, first rule out whether there is a problem in the three areas of water, soil and fertilizer.