Divide Rubber Plant??

5 years ago

This burgundy rubber plant is 12 years old. She was a plant from my FIL’s funeral. I made the mistake of repotting her until she grew to this gigantic size that barely fits inside my house. I keep cutting her down and she just keeps coming back. My husband won’t let me give/throw her away. I’m wondering if I can divide her so that I can put the parts into smaller pots and have a reasonably sized plant. Thoughts and suggestions please.

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Comments (4)

User
5 years ago
You can! Just take the root systems attached with each of the stems.

Some will ask "why would you want to?" And I suppose there's an argument there, too. You could strap the stems together if you want, to constrain that monster up together a little more. Or cut away the leftmost stem, root that as a single plant in a new pot, and have a better-shaped plant just from that. And possibly that little one to the lower right by the nice couch can go, too.

And if you accidentally cut away a few things here and there, who would notice, right?

Dealer's choice, it's your plant. :-)

But it's nice to have plants from family funerals. I had one from my father's that I babied and coddled for more than a decade. It was a kalanchoe that I kept regenerating for fourteen years until I finally lost control of it.
Ellen Bshaw
5 years ago
That’s a beauty rubber tree!!
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
5 years ago
all plants can be propagated .... and almost all houseplant NEED to be ... just to keep them from taking over the house ...

a cutting.. IS THE SAME PLANT... so if you can root a few ... you can get rid of the old huge one.. and perhaps have extra to give to friends or family ..

and if hubby cant deal with it.. duct tape it to his bare chest.. and shove him and it out the door ... and good riddance to both ... lol ..

and the key argument is.. a rooted piece is EXACTLY the same plant ... you can have it for decades .. without losing half your floor space ...

sooo.. after watching the vids.. start a few ... and in a month or two... when you sure those are rooted ... move the old one outside for summer.. full bright shade ... and then .... in late fall.. just forget to bring it in ... lol ... or ask him to.. when he's real busy.. and dont ever remind him ... lol .. all the better if you let ma nature kill it.. lol ..

ken

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=burgundy+rubber+plant+propagation&t=ffcm&iax=videos&ia=videos
JoJo (Nevada 9A)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Jen, I keep my rubber plant staked. I use a very tall, light metal tripod I got on Amazon, with the legs stuck all the way to the bottom of the container. But, I don't know if your plant is still flexible and can be trained around a stake or an obelisk.

My plant is very tall but the footprint is much smaller.