You ask some very good questions, for which I have no answers, just more questions. How big do you want it to get eventually? Do you have goals for this plant? It sounds like you want it to be bushy, not a lollipop/tree form - is that right? (Ime, people don't generally prune rubber ficus into tree form anyway, but that doesn't mean you couldn't, I guess.)

If it were me, I'd just enjoy the plant. With the seasonal changes in light in New Jersey, I am not sure it will keep growing at this rate. (Unless you added a grow light?) I'd leave it alone, personally. I think you only need to worry about a thick trunk if you want it to get tall. But really these are Al/Tapla questions. Once you decide what you want it to look like, he can tell you exactly what to do. For myself, I get stuck deciding what shape I want.

I would not prune it right now since we’re heading into fall and winter. Plants can and will continue to grow indoors under the right continues but it’s slower in the fall/winter months. I wouldn’t prune this plant later either unless it gets too tall to fit where you want it. When you cut it at a node it will branch out and you can eventually get a tree like look removing the lower stems. That’s not going to work well until the plant is much taller.

not affiliated

https://www.joyusgarden.com/how-to-make-a-rubber-tree-branch-out/

How wonderful to get such a prompt response! Well, let me show you my “goal” which is probably way too advanced for a beginner but we can dream, right!? Here is a beautiful one I found online, and would love to get such results!

My effort to encourage this has been repotting (yes, I had to truly agitate the roots until they were devoid of soil as I suspected I saw a worm* in there, and recruited my husband to get it out). I used orchid bark, perlite, and miracle grow for houseplants which drains super well. This was about a month ago or so. I had no choice but to do it in the fall because of the worm.

I would love it to be as big and sturdy as possible considering I am growing it inside! And I did get some grow lights, and before I moved it by the window, it was about five feet from the window but directly under a grow light for a few days. I became impatient and moved it by the window because my ficus fiddle leaf seems to love that spot and put out five new leaves in that spot.

Would love to hear what tapla has to say, as I have read many of the discussions on here, and I enjoy reading his explanations (reminiscent of good professors - consider writing a plant bible!). Thanks to everyone contributing to my growing knowledge base!

*worm appeared to be a tiny, beige, parasitic thing I would say- reminded me of med school lectures on parasites. It was not an earth worm type of thing from appearances. (I’m not 100% sure what it was, but it gave me major palpitations!) The plant was showing increasing damage until my husband removed it, and the damage stopped progressing. I can post pictures of the damage if anyone might know what that worm was (ordered the plant online), and is curious. I certainly am!

Hello, Onini. It sounds like you've been doing some research on your own. If not kept in a warm and very bright environment (as with supplemental lighting) the Ficus we grow as houseplants tend to hover near or beyond their LCP for the darker months Oct through April. The LCP (light compensation point) is the point at which the plant is making as much food/energy as it's using to keep it's living parts orderly. One side of the LCP is a sustainable condition, the other side, using more energy than is being created via photosynthesis, is not, so you can imagine it being a condition that warrants some degree of special consideration from growers. It's best to avoid heavy work like repotting and hard pruning during the low light months.

Too, there are considerations other than light which enter into the equation. Most stress factors will have an impact on how efficiently a plant is able to create energy from sunlight via photosynthesis; and, even if your plant is currently pushing, growth will soon likely slow to something much closer to an inconspicuous rate.

The enthusiasm with which you can depend on your plant to response to hard pruning depends on where the plant is in the growth cycle, i.e., it's level of stored energy and it's current ability to create energy via photosynthesis. Both of those factors are currently ebbing, so it's not a good time to prune. It's not that you can't, or it will cause irreversible harm to your tree; rather, it just means the response will be anemic and the recovery unnecessarily long. There is considerable benefit to the plant and a heightened sense of being a good nurturer if you plan around your plants' weaknesses and leverage their strengths by working with their natural rhythms instead of at cross-purposes to them.

"My question is...should I just let the apical meristem keep growing and produce the leaf and prune back in spring 2021, or should I cut it off now? Will it be a small and sad looking leaf that there is no point on the plant expending energy on?" It looks like your plant has more than one apex, like there are at least 2 stems/branches which have an apex. If you have branches aside from the branch/stem you want to retain as a central leader, you might want to pinch only the branches you want to be insubordinate back to 2 leaves in order to stop them from competing for your attention as co-leaders. IOW, you want to be able to look at your tree and immediately recognize 1 branch/stem as the one that is going to be the tree's top.

As far as the leaf being small and not worthy of it's fair share of energy, that won't happen. Chemicals/growth regulators in the plant decide which leaves and branches get the greater share of energy/food. To a very large degree, the grower can regulate that energy flow and redirect energy by way of full or partial defoliation of branches, but that's outside the scope of what we're talking about.

Ficus and other trees in the mulberry family are genetically programmed such that in the succession of leaves, the next leaf to emerge along any given branch or stem will be larger than the previous leaf. That tendency can be trumped by light levels and other cultural influences, but generally leaves are smaller close to the trunk and increase in size as they are added to the branch.

"I think my lack of knowledge stems (no pun intended) from not understanding what the dormancy period contributes to plant growth. As your tree moves into the winter months, it will enter more of a quiescent period. Unlike a dormant phase, your tree will be fully CAPABLE of normal growth, but growth will be limited by the plant's inability to make food. If the plant has started growing on its own despite it being Oct, is it not a signal that the plant has energy stores available for new growth already? Growth is a measure of the increase in the plant's dry mass. Even if a plant is extending (branches growing longer) and new leaves are being added, it might not actually be growing. In fact, even an extending plant can be decreasing in mass if, at the same time it's extending and adding leaves, it's shedding its parts. Trees are shedding organisms in that they have a mechanism by which they reduce their mass when the amount of energy they can create is inadequate to allow maintenance of the whole of the plant's living mass. I did not fertilize it, and am wondering now that it’s growing on its own, should I fertilize to encourage the leaf growth?" Oh - yes! Nutritional supplementation is a key element of the care regimen. Your plant needs an adequate supply and full compliment of nutrients in the soil at all times if normal growth is to be expected, even in winter when the growth rate is inconspicuous. Plants don't need nutrients solely for growth, they need them in order to keep their systems orderly, so the idea you should withhold fertilizer in the winter is just another myth. Mother Nature doesn't remove all nutrients from the soil when winter comes.

Fertilizing efficiently is inextricable linked to your soil choice and your watering habits. When using a highly aerated grow medium which allows you to water appropriately, fertilizing is monkey easy. Using poor soils that over-retain water makes fertilizing an entirely different matter during which control over what the plant actually gets in terms of nutrition becomes considerably more complicated and unreliable. My go-to fertilizer for the past decade or more has been Dyna-Gro's Foliage-Pro 9-3-6. It has everything needed for normal growth and boasts several other advantages that set it apart from more than 99%+ of the soluble synthetics commonly available.

This is my first post here, and I thank you all in advance for your efforts to help a beginner find her way! Welcome! ...... and thanks for the questions. I hope you found the replies you receive helpful.

Al

i think al nailed this one.. lol ...

all i wanted to add was.. with those blinds as they are .. on a nw facing window.. it will probably not get enough light ...

so note the supplemental light comments ... and note that that would be light to all leaves ...not just from the top..

also .. if and when you ever do cut off the leader ... figure out.. before hand.. how to propagate it ... why waste it ...

finally.. as to your goal pic... do you really have space for such a monster,.. including the light requirements ... whenever i see what look like plants from an art or interior design catalog.. my usual first thought is.. i wonder where the greenhouse they grew it in is located ... lol ... i presume most are hoiked in just for the photo shoot.. and otherwise grown somewhere else with prime cultural conditions ...

good luck.. and have fun ...

ken

btw: if you propagate whatever you cut off.. grow roots on it.. then no matter what happens to momma... you still have a new momma... for your next evil plan ...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ruby+ficus+elastica+propagation&t=ffcm&iax=videos&ia=videos

Hello, all!

Thank you for your helpful responses. I think based on them, I have decided not to prune back at this point. I will continue to fertilize as suggested.

I do have a follow up question. Regarding the picture I posted and the comments about the apical meristem...how did this grower accomplish such enormous branches (I think I spot three) out of which I cannot even tell which branch is the main or dominant branch/trunk? It appears to be one trunk that became three branches to me. (Please correct my terminology as necessary.) How can I replicate this growth pattern?

And for clarification, does apical meristem refer to the top of only the main trunk, or the top of each branch at which there is growth?

Thanks for taking the time to reply, everyone! And when I do cut it back, I will make sure to try my hand at propagation! (Have only attempted tradescantia nanouk, but I read it’s ridiculously easy compared to ficus elastica.)

-Monica

"Regarding the picture I posted and the comments about the apical meristem...how did this grower accomplish such enormous branches (I think I spot three) out of which I cannot even tell which branch is the main or dominant branch/trunk? It appears to be one trunk that became three branches to me. (Please correct my terminology as necessary.) How can I replicate this growth pattern?" Re the image you asked about. The trees progress is written in its structure. As a younger tree, it was a single stemmed plant which was allowed to grow fairly tall. At some point after it had gained some considerable ht, the single stem was truncated (chopped off) immediately distal to (above) the upper of the 3 large branches. These 3 branches, then, were simply allowed to grow w/o any intervention by the grower.

Whenever you remove the apical meristem from a ficus trunk/branch, it forever stops extension of the trunk/branch and forces new branching to occur from dormant buds in leaf axils or above the scar where leaves were formerly attached.

Below is a ficus cutting I started and purposely removed the apical meristem in order to ensure there would be 2 trunks. Technically, the new buds emerging are branches, but they will serve as 2 trunks. Had I not removed the apical meristem, the original trunk would still be growing, and it's likely there would be no branches where they appear in the image.

"And for clarification, does apical meristem refer to the top of only the main trunk, or the top of each branch at which there is growth?" Every trunk or branch starts out with an apical meristem, immediately behind which all extension growth occurs. If you remove the AM, branch extension stops and branching occurs immediately proximal to (behind) the pruning cut. That is almost as reliable as our next birthday.

"Thanks for taking the time to reply, everyone! And when I do cut it back, I will make sure to try my hand at propagation! (Have only attempted tradescantia nanouk, but I read it’s ridiculously easy compared to ficus elastica.)" On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being easy and 1 being difficult, almost all ficus are in the 8+ range insofar as how cooperative they are re cutting success.

Al

Thank you, AI! That helped a lot! I didn’t realize that stub was the original trunk that was cut until you pointed it out. Helpful to have an experienced eye! I will observe my plant closely to decide what shape I want before cutting it back in the spring.

-Monica

AI,

I have a question sort of related to this part of your response:

“Ficus and other trees in the mulberry family are genetically programmed such that in the succession of leaves, the next leaf to emerge along any given branch or stem will be larger than the previous leaf. That tendency can be trumped by light levels and other cultural influences, but generally leaves are smaller close to the trunk and increase in size as they are added to the branch.”

When the new leaves come in, do they grow to their full size all at once and then stop, or do they emerge and then gradually keep increasing until reaching their mature size? I ask because the same ruby ficus put out a second new leaf on the other (main) trunk, and both the two new leaves seem smaller than the previous ones on their respective branches. I am worried they are small. Is it because it’s winter? Would you look at this image and tell me what you think, please? Maybe I just need reassurance as a new plant parent, but better to be safe than sorry.

Many thanks! :)