Question
live in Toronto.
have an 8' high rubber plant....quite healthy.
should i cut back  a bitand bring indoors?
would also like to see the plant fuller in width - now it's tall/skinny.
thanks.
w.

Answer
Wayne,
To make it fuller you can either cut it back or combine cutting it back with rooting the pieces you take off and planting all together in one pot. You can either cut it back when you bring the plant in or do it in February or March - if you do it now you may not see much growth for awhile. If you cut it back in Feb or March it will probably happen faster as the hours do daylight at that time of year are increasing so that will help signal the plant to grow.

If you cut it back now don't give much fertilizer in an attempt to make it branch faster - only fertilize in the spring when the increasing hours of daylight will support that growth...otherwise you're likely to get more long, skinny growth.

If you want to root the pieces you take off, make the pieces about a foot tall and remove lower leaves. Dust entire bottom part of stem that will be in the soil with rooting hormone and place these in a pot of damp potting soil or seed starting soil. Keep those in a bright but not sunny location and keep the soil moist. You'll know the pieces are rooted when they start to put on new growth. At this point you can pot up the cuttings along with the mother plant and having several stems will make a fuller plant very quickly. Once those cuttings reach a height you want them to start branching out at, pinch their tip off to stimulate their branching.

I hope this helps,
C.L. Fornari
www.GardenLady.com