How often to water rubber plant

The interval

A rubber plant is watered about every 9 days in the growing season and about every 18 days in winter. The growing season is spring to early autumn wherever you live, so the northern and southern hemispheres sit on opposite halves of the calendar, and in the short days of winter the interval doubles. The Royal Horticultural Society advises watering sparingly in winter, and the Missouri Botanical Garden advises reducing watering from autumn to late winter.

The test is a finger pushed 3 to 4 cm into the compost. The RHS gives a shallower test for ornamental figs, water once the top 2 cm is dry, and this entry keeps to the deeper one because the leaves are thick and the plant is far more forgiving of a missed week than of a wet pot. Weight is the second check. Lift the pot just after watering and again a few days later, and a pot that is still heavy when the interval is up is not ready.

Those thick leaves hold water, so a thirsty rubber plant is slow to show it, and when it does the leaf edges go dry, crisp and brown. An overwatered one sheds its lower leaves, which turn yellow and drop. Overwatering and cold both make the leaves fall, and the two are easy to mix up in winter. The NC State plant toolbox says that overwatering can cause loss of leaves, as can temperature drops and cold draughts.

Water from the top, with water at room temperature, which the RHS recommends for figs. Soak until it runs from the base, let it drain, and empty the saucer. A wide shallow pot suits the roots, which run outwards.

The thing particular to this plant is that feeding and watering are linked. The entry feeds monthly at half strength from spring to early autumn and not at all in winter, and unused feed builds up as salt that browns the leaf edges. A flush of plain water every few months clears it.

Related guides

How to tell whether a plant actually needs water

The finger, the weight, the leaf and the pot. Four ways to read a plant's thirst, and what overwatering actually is.

Rescuing an overwatered plant

How to tell overwatering from underwatering, how much root damage is recoverable, and the exact rescue steps once compost has stayed wet too long.

Watering through a southern winter

Winter in the southern hemisphere runs June to August, and houseplants drink far less then. How to read the soil, and why overwatering is the bigger risk.