This is Henry. He is kind of out of control. Tons of aerial roots I’ve tucked back into the pot. Today just found a huge aerial root that was all over the bottom of the pot container. People have said maybe split him up into multiple plants but I don’t know how!
by Happy_Television_501
13 Comments
Holy crap. Is that all the same plant or are there multiple different plants in there?
What are your tricks for growing such a beautiful plant
Is it best by a windows in the kitchen and are lights humidifiers needed
Check on YouTube for videos by killthisplant to see exactly how to spilt-repot and support monstera. Yours is crawling out of the pot and needs a support pole or plank to encourage more upright growth.
Chop & prop time baby! 😎
Good gracious. I will mine look like that
I let mine crawl for the past year, once it got inner fenestrations, I chopped it. Two tricks I learned. Crawling monstera size up leaves faster, second one is, if you keep chopping the bigger l3aves on the new plant from the last chop, they just keep getting bigger, without a pole.
When mine turned unruly like this I got a moss pole and tied it up so it wasn’t so far out and could climb up! And doing that it gave me more space too!
https://preview.redd.it/2lwdbu77wyvf1.jpeg?width=550&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4ca7a39188cd17fef0586c600aceca27389bd851
Everything circled in red are nodes. When you are wanting to chop and prop you cut below the node however far down you want. Depends on how big of a prop you are wanting to end up with! When you prop you can put in water or moist sphagnum moss or some put them right into soil but I have not tried that method yet! When the main root that grows from a prop grows secondary roots that’s when you will want to transfer to soil but you don’t need to if you think it would do best in the water! It’s all up to what you prefer ☺️
It looks like there’s 4-6 separate vines in there. Can you temporarily pull the pot off and show us the roots? I have a feeling this is extremely root bound, if so it’ll need to be repotted. You’ll probably wanna have pots with less vines.
So I suggest trying to get the roots separated and plant with 2 vines per pot and or propagate a ton of cuttings.
You don’t have to be too gentle with the roots. I mean don’t repeatedly smash them with a baseball bat or tie it to your car and drive down the highway going 80 but don’t worry about some breakage while separating roots.
I cut a third of a root ball off my huge pothos and it was actually great for the plant. It’s called root pruning.
I spent an afternoon separating mine into 4 different plants/pots. Then I trimmed and propagated one, so now I have 5 healthier plants. Really, I have just created a lot more work in the future. All 5 are putting on leaves and growing pups. That means 5 afternoons of work instead of one.
LET HIM COOK
So I agree with everyone to “chop and prop” as they say!
Let’s break it down:
1- Each “stalk” that is coming straight from the soil is most likely a separate plant. Those need to be potted on their own
2- If this is all one plant (which would be wild!), everywhere that looks like a little knee or break is a node. Cut right below it and stick it in some filtered water. Change water out every 2-3 days until the roots are long/thick enough to stay in soil!
3- If too many for you to handle, it is OKAY to just prune!
4- Be careful with the roots! They may be a bit tangled with that many in there!
5- Invest in moss poles. Tie only the main stem loosely to the pole. Monsteras normally grow on trees, so that’s what all those roots sticking up out of the soil are looking for!
6- Basic care: chunky soil mix, water fully when stems “droop”, indirect bright sunlight & high humidity, and make sure the front of the leaves face your light source!!!
* Also adding here, don’t be afraid to use unconventional methods to pot plants! I currently have my cuttings in red solo cups with holes poked out on the bottom