The plant thrives in very high light up to full sun outdoors. Not much more to be said on the topic other than it will be able to survive where it's now sited. In order to deal with fact the plant will likely have a predilection for flopping over due to the weak stem seen in plants grown under low light, the plant should be cut back by 1/3 to 1/2 (in ht) from time to time in the spring. I'm sure you've noticed that when you have 2 sticks of the same thickness but different lengths, the shorter will be the stiffer? The same is true of your tree's trunks.

I would chop the top of the longer side back by about 1/4 of it's ht from the soil, then chop back the shorter so it's about 2/3 the ht of what is now the taller. This will force new branching to occur from the axils (crotch formed by the leaf stem and the trunk) of leaves immediately below your pruning cuts. Here's an example of a Ficus retusa cutting from which the growing tip of the cutting has been removed. Notice how that action forced new branches to be stimulated to grow from inactive branch buds located in the leaf axils of all ficus trees.

When the first leaf starts to open on the new branch, remove the mature leaf immediately (almost touching) the new branch by cutting through the leaf stem with a pair of scissors or secateurs. Also, if you decide to move ahead with this strategy, and I think you should because it will benefit the tree in terms of long term eye appeal, I can offer additional tips/instructions - your call.

Al

Al,
is it common to remove the mature leaf where a new branch emerges in its axil? Is this just for aesthetics or some functional reason?

Thanks,

Elena

is it common to remove the mature leaf where a new branch emerges in its axil? Is this just for aesthetics or some functional reason? It's common among more advanced bonsai growers, but, it's not a difficult trick for other hobby growers to learn and and apply to the betterment of their trees. Functionally, it does two things. 1) It reduces the amount of food the tree can make by reducing the o/a photosynthesizing surface of the foliage mass. This does slow growth, but after some thought, most of us would say our goal is a beautiful tree as opposed to growth solely for the sake of growth. If that's the case, sacrificing some growth on the altar of eye appeal should then be a bit more tolerable. 2) The other benefit is, it opens up the interior of the tree's foliage mass to more light and air movement, both of which stimulate back-budding; so in the long run, you would be sacrificing leaves that don't compliment the composition for more interior branches and leaves that do. I worked on trees from about 7am to 3 today. I wired the trunks and a few branches that will end up being a part of the composition on a few (7-8) hackberry seedlings I germinated last year, but the rest of the time was spent selectively defoliating. I probably removed upward of 1,000 leaves on various trees today ....... when I should have been repotting. Defoliating is the primary method of controlling how the energy flows in a tree. In bonsai, it's important to make sure the lowest branch is the heaviest/thickest, and the visual weight of branches decreases in proportion to how high they are on the tree. Most trees are apically dominant, meaning they want to devote 2/3 of their energy to the top 1/3 of the plant, which seriously hampers a grower's ability to get the visual weight of branches right.

Al

It’s easy to overwater a plant that does not have a drainage hole. Personally I would repot in one that has a drainage hole or take your plant out of the current pot it’s in and drill a few holes in the bottom of that one and place it back in the same pot. You have a lot more control with watering that way...

also, I have my ficus elastica in a north facing window and it most certainly doesn’t grow with the vigor it did when it was in a south facing window... however, it is growing. I have it there for aesthetic reasons and bc I have other plants that absolutely must have brighter light. So it will live there as close to the window as possible...

Al,

As always, thank you for your thorough explanation! I’ve learned so much over the last few months in Regards to growing ficus. i think I am becoming smarter in general because if the way you use language and scientific terms 😂. thank you for that as well!