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Rubber Plant Drooping Leaves
Rubber plant drooping leaves can make your plant look very sad, especially when the rubber plant is known for it’s fantastic, glossy foliage. Luckily there aren’t too many causes of rubber plant drooping leaves so it should be fairly easy to identify why this is happening to your plant based on its environment. Once you have discovered the reason why you can adjust your care and get your plant looking nice and healthy again in no time.
Overwatering
One of the main causes of drooping leaves is overwatering. When a rubber plant isn’t allowed to dry out between waterings it can start to show signs of overwatering, these can include yellowing of the leaves, brown spots and dropping leaves and stems. If you notice the stems of the leaves starting to feel squishy as well as drooping then this can be an indication that there is something seriously wrong and you need to work fast to stop the plant from dying. If this squishiness moves to the main stem of the plant then this can snap and it could be game over for your rubber plant.
A rubber plant likes to be relatively moist but it doesn’t like to sit in water and it’s important to let the top few inches of soil to dry out between waterings. If you have trouble gauging this yourself then try using a moisture stick like this one from Amazon. These work by simply inserting the two metal probes into the soil. You then get a reading on the display of how moist the soil is. With a rubber plant it’s better not to let the soil drop to 1 or 2 and instead rewater your plant when it reads around 3. This should keep your plant at a good level of moisture while avoiding overwatering it.
Improper Mix & Inadequate Drainage
Improper potting mix and inadequate drainage holes can also cause symptoms similar to overwatering like rubber plant drooping leaves. Even if you aren’t watering your plant too often it could start to suffer if the excess water has no where to go. It’s for this reason that it’s vital any pot you use has drainage holes to allow extra water to drain away.
Heavy potting mixes can also hold water unnecessarily. Avoid compost and outdoor garden soils as they can retain lots of water. Instead go for a houseplant specific mix and try adding perlite for aeration and peat moss to hold moisture. The peat moss should hold moisture without being too heavy and causing your roots to drown.
Underwatering
Now it might annoy you to learn that rubber plant drooping leaves can be caused by both underwatering and overwatering but a good way to diagnose what the cause is, is to simply check the soil. Is it bone dry to the touch? Do you let your plants go weeks between waterings? Is your plant sat near a radiator or by a well lit window? If you’re answering yes to these questions then it’s very likely your plant is suffering from underwatering and you can start watering it more regularly and adding humidity if you aren’t already doing so.
If you find your pot is heavy, you’re watering more than once a week and your plant is in a cool, dark spot then it’s very likely that overwatering if the issue. If you’re not watering regularly but your plant never seems to dry out then it’s most likely to be an issue with mix or drainage.
It can be difficult to diagnose problems like rubber plant drooping leaves when you’re first starting out but as you learn to read your plant’s environment you will soon learn to diagnose the problem.
Article: Rubber Plant Drooping Leaves
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