Rubber Trees (Ficus elastica) are probably best known for being large plants with beautiful, glossy foliage. And that’s great if you have an entryway to fill, but what if you have a small space or just want an accent plant for a shelf?
Although Rubber Trees tend to be fast-growing plants that can grow multiple feet in a season, you can control the size of the plant with regular pruning. Also, manipulating light exposure and restricting pot size may help keep a plant small, though it could risk the health of your tree.
What to Expect from Your Rubber Tree
Rubber Trees in their native habitats can reach heights upwards of 100 feet. And, although the cultivated houseplant varieties will never grow that tall, it’s not uncommon for them to put on one to two feet of growth in a single season, topping out somewhere around ten feet tall.
Want to know what else grows that much in a season? Monstera. That’s right, everyone’s favorite houseplant that seems to take over an entire corner of your home when your back is turned has the same vigor as your Rubber Tree.
I mention this because, just like we don’t expect a Monstera to stay a reasonable tabletop size, neither should we expect our Rubber Tree to do the same. This plant is known to be robust, so if you want to keep it on the smaller size, all I ask is that you manage your expectations of how small you can actually keep it.
Ultimately, you do have some control over how tall you allow your Rubber Tree Plant to get, but at a certain point, it might be to the detriment to the plant, and you may want to consider choosing something smaller instead.
Can You Keep a Rubber Tree Small?
The short answer to this question: Sort of. There are a few things you can do to manage the height of your Rubber Tree, but each one comes with inevitable tradeoffs (I’ll get into those later) and is only effective to a certain point. Remember, Rubber Trees are trees. Both indoors and outdoors, these are relatively large plants.
Pruning is your best choice in keeping your plant at a certain height. Rubber Trees grow from apical meristems, which means that the tips of new shoots are where growth is produced. When you clip these tips back, you temporarily slow the growth of the plant while it works to produce new branches with new meristems.
Much of a plant’s growth occurs when the physical conditions of the room are optimized for what that plant needs. Things like light exposure, water, fertilizer, temperature, and soil quality are all physical factors that either aid or detract from a plant’s growth.
I don’t usually like manipulating these factors too much though, because they contribute to the overall health and wellbeing of your plant, not just whether it grows or not. Withholding nutrients or water may slow growth, but you risk killing your plant in the process.
That being said, there are a couple of factors that you can play around with to see how it affects your plant’s growth that pose minimal risk to its health. These are light exposure and pot size.
Let’s dive into each of these strategies in more detail.
Pruning and Trimming Rubber Trees
The most effective way to control your Rubber Tree Plant’s growth is by pruning. Rubber Trees are pretty resilient and can take anything from a light trim to a hard prune almost any time of the year (although late Spring seems to be the best time to do it).
To control your plant’s height, trim the tallest stems back to the desired height, without taking off more than half the plant at any given time. Be sure to wear gloves if you want to avoid the latex sap (more on that at the end of this article).
Once a cut is made, your Rubber Tree is going to start pushing new growth from a set of nodes below the cut, typically located right above where a leaf attaches or a branch protrudes. These nodes will turn into new shoots that will develop their own apical meristems. So, try to make your cuts right above a set of nodes for the cleanest-looking results.
While pruning can be done often enough to control the height of your Rubber Tree, this will eventually lead to a bushier plant. Each time you prune and new growth begins at the next set of nodes, you’re going to create two additional shoots, causing the plant to grow wider and fuller.
In many cases, this is OK, but be aware that if you want to keep your Rubber Tree short AND narrow, additional pruning may be needed as the nodes grow.
Light Exposure for Rubber Trees
Rubber Tree Plants prefer a lot of bright, indirect sunlight to grow tall. But they can actually tolerate darker rooms and be perfectly fine. You may be able to use this to your advantage when trying to control your Rubber Tree’s height.
If you want to slow the growth of your plant by decreasing its light exposure, do it gradually over a period of many weeks. The idea is to find a light level where your plant’s growth slows, but it still seems to be happy with how much light it’s receiving.
There are risks to this method, however. With too little light, you run the risk of your plant growing sparse and leggy as it searches for more sunlight. This type of growth is undesirable and wastes a substantial amount of energy. Also, if you have a variegated variety, you may lose most of the variegation in lower light situations.
If you notice any of these things, move your plant back to an area with more light.
Pot Size and Growth
If you’re determined to keep your Rubber Tree on the smaller size, consider the pot it is planted in. Rubber Trees can grow surprisingly tall in a relatively small container, but their growth tends to slow as the roots become pot-bound.
If you’ve had your plant for a while and it looks to be outgrowing its pot, you can wait it out to see if its growth slows down as the pot gets more crowded.
Again, this technique has its own set of risks associated with it. Plants that are too rootbound cannot absorb water and nutrients properly, affecting their overall health. Also, pots that are too crowded can actually break from the pressure of the roots growing against them.
If you notice your plant’s health is beginning to fail, you may need to bite the bullet and replant it in a larger container.
A Quick Note About Toxicity
Because this article talks about pruning your Rubber Tree, I want to take a minute to discuss toxicity. Rubber Trees contain a white latex sap known to be a mild irritant when in contact with your skin, eyes, or mouth. While the effects are rather minor, it can cause redness, itching, and GI distress if ingested.
This sap is present throughout the plant and will leak from any cuts or scrapes made to the leaves or stems. When pruning a Rubber Tree, be sure to wear gloves and wash any areas of your body exposed to the sap. Also, be sure to keep the plant out of reach from children and pets to avoid accidental exposure.
Rubber Trees make great houseplants, so don’t be dissuaded by their toxic properties. A little extra precaution is all it takes to enjoy these beautiful plants.
When it comes to keeping your Rubber Tree small(ish), pruning is always going to be your best bet. You have the option to try altering light levels and restricting pot sizes, but both of those methods come with their own set of risks, and therefore should not be prioritized over the health of your plant.
The good news is that Rubber Trees are resilient, so anything you try probably won’t cause too much grief for the plant. Just remember that these plants like to grow big, so manage your expectations about how small you intend to keep them.