maintenance advice, watering and repotting

Presentation of the monstera

How to properly maintain your monstera?

Good light, appropriate watering and long-lasting maintenance are small actions that will make your monstera even more beautiful. Detailed explanations.

What brightness / exposure for the monstera?

The brightness must be excellent to keep leaves well developed and well cut. The young potted plants cannot stand direct sunlight, whereas adult plants in humid climates only need shade in summer. Poorly lit, monsteras produce very long petioles and small, slightly indented leaves.

Tip: When growing, expose monsteras to bright subdued light, but in winter they can be placed in full sun.

What is the ideal temperature for the monstera?

The temperate atmosphere of a room suits them. But above 21 ° c, place the pots on chippings kept moist.

Regarding the minimum winter temperature, some species are only suitable for the greenhouse. Those that are cultivated need a temperature of 13 ° C minimum, although some adult plants, growing in well sheltered places in our milder climates, withstand occasional drops in temperature without being damaged.

Watering the monstera

Watering should be frequent and abundant in summer, reduced in winter

• Once a week during the summer;
• Every 10 to 15 days in winter.

Our advice: The water should never stagnate at the bottom of the pot because the fleshy roots rot. One can try to guide the adventitious roots so that they absorb the necessary humidity in cups containing moist gravel; however, water should never stagnate at the bottom of the pot. Excess water is fatal to philosophy.

What land and what type of fertilizer for your will climb?

The earthy mixture should be very porous and coarse, formed in equal parts of leaf and peat soil, with a little sand, perlite and bark soil which help to aerate the compost.

Tip: The root system is not very extensive, so large pots where the earthy mixture tends to settle are not recommended; it suffices that the plant is quite stable.

Regarding fertilization, From May to September, add regular liquid fertilizer for green plants every two weeks to a damp root ball.

Ideal atmospheric humidity

As strong as it gets. It must be very high, with frequent washing of the leaves and especially by placing stakes as humid as possible.

Tip: Every month, dust the leaves with a sponge. Support new shoots as they appear and avoid drafts.

Planting and repotting Monstera

Every year, at the end of winter or in spring. Surface large subjects. Repot until the plant has reached a size you deem suitable. Subsequently, renew the mixture on the surface every year.

Tip: if you think the pot is too small when you buy it, do not hesitate to repot your monstera so that it will develop well.

How to multiply the monstera?

The multiplication is relatively simple, it is carried out either by cuttings from the ends, or stem sections. Without any special precautions other than keeping the substrate slightly damp to avoid rotting.

It is better to have a very porous mixture made up of sand and peat. Operations can take place in any season (in a greenhouse) at a temperature of around 21 ° C, and even more, but spring is a good time if you want to give the cuttings the maximum amount of light.

Cuttings from the ends are advisable to obtain plants with already characteristic adult leaves, while the stem sections will give plants whose leaves will have a juvenile shape and will take a long time, even in good conditions, to take their final shape.

Good to know : You can also practice air layering, a slow but safe method. Finally, the seedlings have a chance of success, but the leaves of the sown plants will take at least two years to cut off.

How to do :

Put the cutting in a 10 cm pot filled with a wet mixture, equal volume of peat and sand. Enclose in a transparent plastic bag and keep in the heat, under a bright subdued light. When growth resumes, repot it in the mixture recommended for adults and grow it normally.

What to remember about the care that Monstera needs

• Stake your monsteras and provide them with plenty of light and humidity, as well as fairly consistent heat (although in winter, the plant supports 10 ° c).
• Water less in winter, but know that the lack – as well as the excess – of water causes the leaves to turn yellow and fall.
• Give fertilizer once a week from May and this during the whole period of growth.
• Dust the foliage from time to time with a damp sponge and, on the occasion of this toilet, look for cochineals and red spiders.
• Repot in quality compost in spring.

What to remember about the genre monstera

The genus includes 22 species, all creeping with adventitious aerial roots, serving as stakes or to absorb food by clinging to trees or wet rocks.

Among the most famous varieties:

• Monstera Variegata, variegated with green and creamy white.
• Monstera Adansonii, with oval, perforated leaves, is less vigorous.
• Monstera Borsigiana, very slow growing.

If the necessary stakes and moisture are lacking, the plants will have increasingly small and almost misshapen leaves, often returning to the juvenile stage.

Good to know : Staked, the monstera indeed very easily reaches 1.80 m to 2 m. There is, however, a smaller clutter species, M. Pertusa, often sold by florists under the name M. d. “Borsigliana”, the leaves of which are less than 30 cm long.

Depending on the species, the leaves may be lobed, laciniated, pinnate and at the same time have the blade perforated irregularly, or the margins may be entire and the perforations more or less large and regular.

The latter case is found in some species and culminates in the Monstera obliqua expilata the blade of which is reduced to a small strip with veins and margins so thin that it often tears at the perforation. One of the most widespread houseplants belongs to this genus: the Monstera deliciosa commonly known as “philodendron”.

Good to know : It is said that the holes and indentations in the leaves of monsteras are a sign that the plant comes from a windy country: indeed, the leaves are so large that, if they were whole, they would be torn and blown off by the wind.