The way to Prune Potted Rubber Plants
If you abandon the rubber tree (Ficus Elastica) alone, it might reach a height of about 100 feet, that is not exactly optimal for a house plant. Because of this, rubber plants are pruned to keep a more manageable size and shape. Since they’re evergreen trees, the best time for pruning is in the in the fall when they go dormant.
Snip off additional shoots of the rubber plant at the ground level of the grass. You want to maintain one strong shoot to come up with a healthful plant. Choose the greatest trunk stem to remove and keep all others.
Train the tree and also maintain shape by cutting branches off that are growing down. Snip them back to inside 1/2 inch of where they intersect with a different branch to avoid damaging the other limb.
Select and remove branches to thin the plant, and then allow light and air in. Pick three divisions evenly spaced around the tree and then cut one third of the way back, only in front of a leaf node, in order to bring light to the center of the tree. If the rubber plant is dense back to this point, then eliminate the three divisions completely by cutting them away 1/2 inch from the main stem.
Preserve the total form of the rubber plant by cutting divisions back to be with other individuals. Snip the comes in a 45-degree angle in front of a leaf node.