Indoor rubber plant question

[ted]

I have a rubber plant I bought at Sam's 2 years ago. It has three plants in that pot. I didn't move it to another pot. I fertilized it twice a year. Of late I'm seeing that the new leaves are getting smaller and smaller. The big leaves all fell off. So the plants don't have any leaves in the bottom half. They are just bare. So I airlayerd them and want to move to a bigger pot in hopes of making them look better. My question is after they develop roots and I re-pot them, will they grow bigger leaves?

Thanks.

[Gerry]

three

fertilized it

getting

don't

airlayerd

look

them,

Probably yes, but not because you air-layered them. They will grow bigger leaves because they are in new compost with adequate fertiliser.

Feeding them twice a year, unless it is with a slow-relaease fertilizer is not enough.

Small new leaves while dropping the older leaves is a classic sign of Nitrogen deficiency. Nitrogen, unlike many other nutrients, is mobile in the plant so, if the plant is growing but is short of N, it just robs it from the old leaves (which then drop) in order to make the new ones.

Repot and feed liquid feed weekly, or use a slow release fertilizer.

Air-layering is fun though, isn't it?

-- Gerry

... for responsible gardening