Distinctive features of the plant, caring for the rubber plant in room conditions, independent reproduction, the fight against diseases and pests that arise during cultivation, interesting facts, varieties. The content of the article:
- Room Care Tips
- Reproduction at home
- Diseases and pests in indoor cultivation
- Interesting facts and photos
- Varieties
Ficus rubber (Ficus elastica), or as it is also called elastic Ficus, is part of the genus of the same name Ficus, attributed to the Mulberry family (Moraceae). This representative of the flora can rightfully call the northeastern regions of India (Assam) and the southern territories of Indonesia (the islands of Sumatra and Java) his native lands. Also, such a plant is not uncommon in Malaysia and Burma, in Nepal and Bhutan, and also found in the Himalayas.
This specimen of ficus was given its scientific name thanks to the thick juice that oozes from any cut or broken part of it, and although all ficuses tend to secrete milky juice, in this variety it is with greater density and is a raw material for the manufacture of rubber products. In the areas of its natural growth, rubber ficus is revered by adherents of the Buddhist religion as a sacred tree. Until recently, this species and its various cultivars were the most common ficuses for indoor cultivation, but everything changed with the advent of the "fight against the bourgeoisie" and on the territory of the USSR, such representatives of the flora were undeservedly forgotten. Today, everything has changed, while this merit is given to the breeders of Holland, therefore ficuses and in particular the rubber plant have become a desirable indoor plant.
Ficus elastic can in natural growing conditions reach indicators of 30-40 meters, but when grown in rooms, its size starts from 46 cm, approaching the 3-meter mark, but occasionally such a plant becomes equal to 10 meters. Differs in evergreen foliage. Its crown grows mainly in breadth, due to the formed aerial roots, which originate from the trunk or shoots and, approaching the soil, begin to take root. Through these root processes, the tree receives additional nutrition and takes on the well-known banyan form. The local population precisely because of these roots call the rubber ficus "snake tree". When grown in rooms, the trunk of such a ficus rarely gives off shoots located on the sides.
On the branches of the plant, large leaves with a leathery shiny surface unfold, their arrangement is regular. The foliage is elliptical with a pointed tip. When the leaf is still young, then its color is pinkish-brown and it is covered with a stipule of a reddish-brown color, which over time quickly dries out and falls off as soon as the leaf plate is fully opened. All leaves are dark green. The length of the leaf reaches 20-30 cm, and the width varies within 10-20 cm.
During flowering, nondescript buds are formed, which are collected in spherical inflorescences (syconia) and the formation of fruits is possible only when flowers are pollinated by certain blastophagous wasps. Therefore, when cultivating in rooms, such a process is a problem. If you want to see the flowering of rubber ficus, you will have to wait for its mature age, despite the fact that it will be kept in a winter garden. After pollination, spherical fruits ripen, which do not exceed 1 cm in diameter. They are not good for food.
The growth rate of elastic ficus is high and the annual growth of branches can range from 60 cm to 1 meter. But growing a plant is not difficult and even a novice florist can handle it.
Tips for indoor care for rubber plants
- Lighting and location selection. The plant needs bright, but diffused light, which can be provided on the windowsills of east or west windows. If the elastic ficus will be in the southern room, then the pot with it is placed at a distance of 2-3 meters from the window. Only variegated forms will need a greater level of illumination, but any varieties of rubber ficus can adapt to "life in the shade", but its growth rate will greatly decrease.
- Content temperature Ficus elastica should be 18-29 degrees in the spring-summer period, and not fall below 15 units in autumn and winter. But it should be remembered that forms with variegated foliage are more thermophilic.
- Air humidity during cultivation elastic ficus should be supported by a medium. At any time of the year, weekly spraying of the deciduous mass is required, especially in summer when temperatures rise and in the winter months when heating appliances start to work. The sheet plates should be wiped down frequently with a damp cloth. It is better to take warm and settled water when spraying. Cold moisture can cause leaves to crumble and hard water will cause whitish spots on the leaf surface.
- Watering. It is recommended to water Ficus rubbery regularly in the summer period with a frequency of once every 3-4 days. But the best guide for watering is the slightly dried top layer of the potted substrate. With the onset of winter, they dry out a little more, so humidification is carried out once a week. Such a ficus will most often experience the inconvenience of waterlogging the soil, and not from its slight drying. When the water, when watering the glass in a pan under the pot, then when 10-15 minutes have passed, it is drained to prevent decay of the root system. Water for irrigation is used only warm with a temperature of 20-24 degrees and well-separated.
- Fertilizers for rubber ficus are introduced from the beginning of growing processes (early March) and ending in September. The frequency of such dressings should be once every 14 days. The agent is selected special for ficus and released in liquid form so that it can be added to water for irrigation. It is recommended to alternate organic and mineral preparations for better growth.
- Transplanting and soil selection. When the plant is still young, it will need a transplant every year between February and March. Each time a new container should be selected 4–5 cm larger than the previous one. When its diameter reaches 30 cm, then elastic ficus should not be transplanted, but only 3 cm from the top of the soil changes. A layer of medium-sized expanded clay or pebbles is placed on the bottom of a new pot, and everything is covered with river sand on top, the height of such a "pie" should be 3-4 cm. For rubber-bearing ficus, the soil should be loose with weak or neutral acidity. You can use ready-made commercial formulations intended for ficuses or palms, but they add a few pieces of charcoal to them. Often, flower growers themselves make up the substrate from turf, leafy soil, river sand in a ratio (1: 1: 0, 5), adding a small amount of charcoal there. Also, for these purposes, use equal parts of peat, sod soil, leafy soil and coarse sand.
- General tips for the care of elastic ficus. With the arrival of spring, the plant needs to shorten the branches to form its crown. When the ficus is still young, it is better to tie it to a support. When multiplying in one container, it is better to place several plants, so later you can get a more lush bush. When the rubber ficus is still young, then to stimulate branching, a pinch should be done or removed at the top of the bud, at a height of half a meter to a meter.
Reproduction of rubber ficus at home
You can get a new elastic ficus plant by grafting, rooting the cuttings.
Cuttings are cut from the apical or stem part of the shoot, they should be 10-15 cm long and have 2-3 nodes. Also, you need to leave only a couple of leaves on them in the upper part, and remove the rest. Since milky juice will ooze from the cut of the rubber ficus stalk for a long time, the workpiece should be rinsed under running water until the process stops. You can just wait a short while until the juice hardens, and then carefully remove it.
Then the cutting is placed in a vessel with water or planted in a loose peat-sandy substrate. From above, the container should be wrapped in a transparent polyethylene film, but you can put both a glass vessel and a cut plastic bottle (part with a neck) on top. Then the cutting is placed in a warm place so that the temperature is about 25 degrees, and the light is bright, but diffused. In this case, you will have to air every day for 10-15 minutes, and if the soil in the pot is dry, then it is moistened.
If the cutting is taken from a variegated variety, it is better to treat it with a root stimulator (for example, Kornevin or heteroauxinic acid) before planting. Also, for such blanks, bottom heating is recommended, however, they have very little chance of rooting.
If the root shoots have appeared on the branches placed in water, and their length has reached a centimeter, then the cuttings can be planted in pots with drainage at the bottom and fertile soil suitable for ficuses. They also do the same with cuttings planted in a peat-sand mixture, as soon as signs of rooting appear - they are transplanted into separate containers filled with the above-described compositions by transshipment.
In order to reproduce with the help of layering, a healthy shoot is selected in an adult specimen and an incision is made on it just below the leaf, the depth being 1/3 of the thickness of the trunk. In such a "wound" you need to insert some object to avoid its overgrowth (for example, a small pebble or a match). Then a sprinkling of a root formation stimulator is carried out, and from above it is wrapped in a layer of sphagnum moss, which is fixed with a thick thread or twine. It is recommended to cover all this place with a plastic bag for tightness, which is fixed with tape on the trunk. When the root shoots that fill the entire space become visible through transparent polyethylene, the shoot is carefully separated below the cut from the parent rubber-bearing ficus and planted in a prepared pot with soil.
Although there is often information that reproduction is possible with the help of a leaf, but if you put it in a vessel with water, then roots form on such a leaf cuttings, but even if it takes root in the soil, it will never have shoots.
Diseases and pests of rubber ficus in indoor cultivation
If the owner of the elastic ficus often violates the conditions for keeping and caring for this plant, then, as a result, it weakens and can be affected by harmful insects, among which the scabbard, spider mite and mealybug are most often found. In this case, you will need to wipe the sheet plates with soap, oil or alcohol solutions. They are also then treated with insecticides and acaricides.
Also, when growing rubber ficus, the following troubles are encountered:
- foliage falling due to waterlogging of the substrate;
- with low heat indicators and the action of a draft, the leaves begin to wither, curl and a brown spot of color forms on their surface and subsequently they fall off;
- if the soil is too dry, the leaf plates wither, and they are also dumped;
- the color of the leaves turns pale, the growth of the elastic ficus is rather weak, and young leaves are formed of small sizes, which means that the plant lacks nutrients;
- if the lighting level is low, then the shoots are ugly stretched, the leaves grow small and quickly fall off;
- with an excess of fertilizing in the soil, the foliage begins to actively turn yellow;
- yellowing of the foliage also begins when the substrate has become too salty, the container when transplanting is too large, or decay of the root system has begun.
When, in the lower part, the leaves began to fly around in rather old plants, then you should not be frightened, since this is a natural process.
Curious facts and photos of rubber ficus
Elastic ficus has long been of industrial importance, since thick juice is a raw material for the production of rubber, but outside the tropical territories, the plant is used as an ornamental crop.
It must be remembered that some people have a negative reaction to the milky juice of ficus rubber, since they have skin intolerance in the form of allergies to latex, various enzymes and alkaloids. It can even cause dermatitis. Also, asthmatics have reactions in the form of asphyxiation, to the rubber that is released into the air.
The plant serves as a good filter, helping to purify the surrounding air from harmful compounds such as phenol, trichlorethylene and benzene. Elastic ficus has the property of converting such toxic substances into amino acids and sugars.
If we talk about the spiritual abilities of Ficus elastica, then adherents of the Ayurvedic teachings claim that the plant can help cleanse the room of the negative energy of anxiety and anger. Also in India, they advised a couple who dreamed of having offspring to grow such a ficus in their home, and then children's laughter will certainly sound in the home.
According to studies carried out by medical professionals, the leaves of ficus rubber are raw materials for the manufacture of drugs that help in the treatment of mastopathy and contribute to the prevention of cancer, are applicable in the treatment of uterine fibroids and fibroids. If you use the juice of elastic fixer and make a compress on its basis, then with its help you can relieve the symptoms of sciatica, arthritis and also contribute to the treatment of hemorrhoids and osteochondrosis. If you use the milky juice of Ficus elastica, you can heal wounds and cuts caused by animals or people.
It is interesting that on the territory of India, with the help of such plants, "living" suspension bridges are being built.
Ficus varieties
Among all the elastic ficuses, the following varieties are noted that are popular in indoor cultivation:
- Decora differs in a bronze shade of young foliage.
- Doescheri variety with variegated color of leaf plates.
- Burgundy has large leaf sizes and oval outlines, while the central vein is highlighted due to the red tint. From above, the foliage is painted in a dark green color, and on the reverse side, the color is greenish-cream.
- Abijan has leaves of a deep green hue and large sizes, but when they are young, their color is almost burgundy.
- Sylvie - a variety with foliage decorated along the edge with a continuous strip of cream tone, and in the central part the entire surface is distinguished by areas of light and dark green.
- Robusta probably the most common of the rubber ficus varieties. It can be most often found in nature in the north-east of India, and such a plant is also not uncommon in the southern regions of Indonesia, China, in the vastness of Burma and Nepal, in Malaysia and Bhutan. The height of this type of tree is the largest and can approach 60 meters. But in the middle, the indicators mainly fluctuate in the range of 30–40 m with a trunk diameter of about 2 meters.
It has strong branching and multiple aerial roots grow from the trunk and branches, but they are not so large in thickness as to create a banyan tree. The breadth of the crown does not have the ability to grow. On the leaf blade, a thick central vein is clearly visible and its color is light green. The petiole with the same shade does not differ in length. Leaves have the property of tucking the edges inward.
