- HOUSE PLANT- -HANDLE WITH CAUTION- -REFERENCE SHEET-
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This is your reference sheet how to care for your new baby in the house. Happy reading, happy growing.
Up to the 1970s, the rubber bush has been one of the most prominent plants in households. It also looks amazing as a pot plant in stairwells or office buildings. The Ficus Elastica is equipped with big, rubbery, dark-green and shiny leaves. The tropical ornamental tree is a very tough and low-maintenance plant with which you will be quite happy. The plant is well-loved in offices, conservatories and entrance halls, but is increasingly gaining importance for living spaces again, because it degrades formaldehyde from furniture and carpets and grows really well in room temperatures. If you care for it in the right way, it’s one of the most rewarding ornamental plants.
CARE:
Light: The rubber bush will develop well when you keep it in a bright and warm location. It doesn’t have to be bright sunlight, but it can also adapt to that. It can also tolerate warm draught, but it isn’t optimal, that’s why its should be in a possibly quiet and sheltered location. Put it in a bright corner not next to a radiator or window, that’s where it will feel the best.
Watering: The rubber tree does not need too much water and is used to a dry environment. You should only water once the substrate’s or soil’s surface becomes dry as a bone.
Fertilizer: You only have to fertilise every 6 weeks with a customary, liquid fertiliser. The Ficus Elastica also tolerates ripe compost as a fertiliser in so far that the soil is mixed with coconut or wood fibres. You should not fertilise during the winter.
Temperature: What you should keep in mind is that the room’s temperature should not fall under 16 degrees Celsius and never under 10 degrees celsius, the rubber bush doesn’t like cold temperatures or air.
Leaf Care: Leaves should be cleaned from dust regularly. If the rubber tree is kept in the kitchen or nearby a thin greasy film can be found on the green leaves. To get rid of this you can use a moist cloth to carefully wipe down the leaves.
Humidity: Ficus elastica grow well in basic household humidity.
Pests: A regular check should be followed through to recognise pest infestation. As well as all tropical plants, the rubber bush can be infested by scale insects and mealybugs, or the red spider mite.
Diseases: A pest infestation can especially be caused by a dry room temperature (you should mist your tree from time to time) or water-logging. Flower soil will often import fungus gnats that can be exterminated by their natural enemies (biological remedies).
Soil: Ficus Elastica will be happy with ordinary house plant potting mix. Since it’s a room or pot plant, the Ficus Elastica needs a high-quality soil on the basis of compost and you can definitely mix in some turf, wood, or coconut fibres. But there’s something the rubber bush does not like and that’s water-logging, that’s why a draining hole is necessary.
Pot size: Once the Ficus Elastica starts cultivate aerial roots and the substrate pushes up you should look for a new pot. It feels the happiest in a clay pot.
Pruning: Real experts will cut so well, that the bush can grow uniformly. Even a radical cut will not bother the Ficus Elastica. So that’s how you can curb this tropical tree and it will grow bushy instead of growing uncontrollably higher.
CAUTION: The leaves will release gum that can cause allergies, that’s why you should always wear gloves while cutting. A plant juice will emit from the shoot that can drip off. Please use cloth to clean it.
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