Notching Rubber Tree Plant To Force Side Shoots

Learn what is notching of a rubber tree and how to notch a rubber plant tree to force side shoots and encourage new leaves and branching out. The notching will fix a leggy rubber plant by growing new shoots. Can you force side shoots on a rubber plant? Yes, the process of notching on the rubber tree and fiddle leaf fig tree is the same.

Notching is different than pruning a tree. The pruning of a tree involves cutting and removing a portion of trunk or branches completely. Whereas in notching, no portion of the tree is removed.

Notching is a branching method which involves a strategic deep cut made on the trunk or branch of the plant at an angle, just above a node. This causes the auxin to flow downward and in most cases a branch will form just near the notch in the direction of the notch. 

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Notching will force plant to branch out and produce side limb, shoots and leaves, thus fix a leggy rubber plant or a stalky rubber plant.

You can use this technique of forcing new leaves, shoots and branching on all types of leggy rubber plants and also on fiddle leaf fig tree.  The new growth will emerge near the cut in the direction of the cut.

The cut should be thin and quarter deep in the thickness of the branch and on the same size around the branch. This means that if you make a cut 5 mm deep, then the size of the cut should be 5 mm around the circumference of the branch.

The cut will not produce branching if 

 It is advisable to make cuts at 3-4 different places on different portions of the tree, so that at least a few will branch out.