Below is the second plant. My questions are identical to the previous posting.

Thanks!

If it were me, I would make the cut a little bit lower than the red mark, and most definitely not as low as the blue mark. Perhaps about halfway between both lines? Or a little bit higher than that? The dormant buds are located at each node, where the leaves are attached to the stem. Wherever you do decide to prune it, make the cut at an angle about half an inch above one of those leaves.

I would also wait until your plants begins to show signs of growing first, before pruning it back. The energy that would've been used for that new growth will then be redirected towards those dormant buds instead. Give your plants as much light as possible until then, to help it build up the energy needed to put out new growth.

Looking a little bit closer at both plants, thinking about where I would make the cuts, I would probably only cut off the 1st leaf on the first plant. Right above the next leaf, leaving a total of four leaves left. And as for the second plant, I'd cut off the top three, leaving a total of five leaves. That's just a suggestion, how I would go about it.

Whatever you do decide, at least wait until when it just begins to start putting out new growth again, before making the cuts. To maximize your plants' growth potential. If you prune it before then, your plants will still recover, but they won't have nearly as much stored up energy to put into any new growth. That's what I do for any plant of mine, and it works everytime.

This post was edited by ToMMyBoY69 on Sat, Mar 29, 14 at 4:18

Thanks for your advice. I hadn't intended to do the pruning soon. I was thinking May or June, depending on how quickly things warm up here. And I appreciate that you teased out of my question the REAL question: basically how many leaves I should have remain. (Sorry I wasn't especially clear about that, but you ferreted it out nonetheless!)

You're welcome. :)

At first I gave a general answer, not too specific. But then I went back and took a closer look at them, asking myself where I would prune them back to. That's when I figured four leaves on the first one and five on the second. Leaving a sufficient number of leaves on both of them, while keeping them relatively similar in size.

I just recently purchased myself a small rubber plant a few days ago, a Ficus elastica "Burgundy." It reminded me of a huge one that I had several years ago that a really good friend gave to me, and I just had to have it. I plan on pruning it too, once it has gotten much larger. But that won't be until next year.

When I lived in Miami Beach, I would see Burgundy rubber plants that just grow like crazy. I had a potted one I liked a lot.

That's interesting to know, thanks Al. :)

This post was edited by ToMMyBoY69 on Sat, Mar 29, 14 at 17:13

Just for clarification, Al, you'd suggest July-August as a time frame rather than May-June? (Or would June-July be better?) Do I want to wait until early summer, when things ramp up, midsummer, or toward the end of summer? My guess, after reading your insight, is sort of early-midsummer, so July-August (for the mid-Atlantic US). (But, I'm often wrong about these things.)