I posted a question to this forum a few weeks ago regarding the light my Rubber plant is getting. Now, I'm seeing tan/see through/dark spots on a few of the leaves (each leaf has one small spot). Is this what it looks like when it's sunburned?
I don't want to prevent it from getting sufficient light -- my window faces west. I got a nice windowsill but a lot of light does stream in. -- so where can I move it so it can grow nicely and without getting burned?
Thanks,
It looks like mechanical injury - bruising, if you will. It's not a disease or insect-related, by what I'm seeing in the pics.
You really can't give a rubber tree too much light indoors behind glass (windows) unless the plant is acclimated to low light and you move it suddenly to a high light location, but they can suffer over-heating. Leaves act like passive solar collectors and absorb light, turning it into heat. What's called the boundary layer (of air) surrounding the leaf can then trap the heat and prevent it from being lost to the surrounding air. Having a fan in the room disrupts the boundary layer and helps prevent over-heating (entirely different from sunburn, which is photo-oxidation). Moving air in the room also helps control insects and tends to promote back-budding. I keep a fan on all the plants I over-winter indoors 24/7 from the time they come in in the fall until they go out in late spring (end of May or early Jun in mid-MI where I live.
Best luck!
Al
This message was edited Jul 23, 2014 3:31 PM
Thank you tapla. So far, no one thinks it's sun related. However, to be safe, I moved the plant to a slightly shadier spot about 5 feet from the window. I'm not sure if I'll keep it there. I may wait a week and move it back to the windowsill.
