Rubber tree plant has grown too big

[Lochroy]

I was given it quite a few years ago as a houseplant when it was small. Didn't have a clue what I was doing and now it's 5ft tall but can't self support so it's leaning against a wall! The trunk is think and bendy. It would just fall over if not against the wall.

I think it really needs to go. It was attractive when it was short but it's just one stem/trunk. I don't have space to put it in a bigger pot and I don't want something staked up in the house.

But it doesn't feel right just to compost it. I've read you can propagate from them and I like this idea... is it worth giving it a try?

Where do you live op? I'd take it off your hands.
Have you tried using a cane to support it ?

Or you could just chop it above the first leaf or two and it will probably branch out a bit. I have lots of houseplants but ones like this I just cut back every couple of years so they don’t grow too big for the space available.

An ant. He'll move the Rubber Tree plant.

😆

It sounds as if it’s not getting enough light. The trunk shouldn’t be bendy. Sounds as if it’s pushing upwards too fast in search of light.

Air layering is probably the easiest. Scratch the bark near a leaf node (remove the leaf) about a foot below the top or the end of a branch. Take a good handful of moist potting compost and clamp it all round the stem where you scratched the bark. Put clingfilm round it to keep moisture in, and secure in place with string. Then just carry on looking after the tree as normal. After a few weeks there should be a good number of fat white roots visible in the lump of compost. At that point you can cut the stem below the clingfilm, carefully remove the clingfilm and pot up the cutting carefully, trying not to disturb the roots.

once your cutting is growing away successfully, cut the main plant to a few inches above the ground. It may reshoot. Or it may not.

If you do cut it wear gloves because it will bleed a sticky sap that is an irritant

Thanks for all of the advice!

@MereDintofPandiculation you are probably right about the lack of light where I originally had it on a shelf. Then it hit the ceiling and started growing sideways which is why it's bendy.

It can be held with a cane but I really don't have anywhere suitable to keep it.

I'll have a go at the air layering. So if I get new roots and cut it, I ditch the old pot and bottom section and start again with the top part?

So if I get new roots and cut it, I ditch the old pot and bottom section and start again with the top part? basically, yes. Except if it were me, I’d keep the pot, cut the old plant a few inches above ground level, and see if it threw up new shoots

Thanks, that's very helpful @MereDintofPandiculation. I did a quick google to see where to scratch the plant and I've seen moss suggested. Is this better than compost? I have a big patch of moss in the lawn (must remember to work out when to deal with it this year!) so if garden moss is preferable I could do that.

By moss, they mean Sphagnum, which have cells whose sole purpose is to hold water, allowing the moss to hold many times its own weight of water. Your lawn moss is almost certainly Springy Turf Moss, Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus, which isn’t a Sphagnum and doesn’t have the specialised water storage cells, so personally I wouldn’t use it. I think you would have to re-wet it every few days, and it wouldn’t be easy to re-wet.

Fabulous!