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I have this Monstera and I think it may have multiple plants. I know… | Monstera Maniacs | Planta community

My Leafy Life

I have this Monstera and I think it may have multiple plants. I know very little about these plants. I had a moss pole in it and I used yarn to gently tie some of her to it. She barley had any air roots and the moss pole was very wobbly so it took it out and purchased some wire leaf shaped things to gather her leaves together to make them sturdy. Is the Miss poke better to use? How do I know if she's more than one plant? If she is, do I need a pole for each plant? The picture is as she looks today. For past pictures see the link to her page.

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7 comments

  1. Bb

    These plants sit at the bottom of forest floors and climb up trees to reach the sun. They’re very cool! Having a pole in there is a good thing but having a wobbly pole is probably pointless. These plants have a central stem from which the petioles grow. I guess the tricky thing in your case is working out whether the leaves buried in the soil are from multiple stems. It does look like it from the photos but the way you will know is by repotting the plant. If it were me, I would prepare to repot, get my aroid mix ready with multiple supports. In terms of support options, I quite like just using a thick fallen branch or an ordinary plank of wood from the hardware store for monsteras. I have used these and also the standard coir poles without issue. But the wood plank was quite good. If you don’t want it to be exposed to the soil mix, you could place the end of the plant or stick into a plastic bag and wrap that up with gaffer tape. Or just put it in the soil, it probably won’t matter too much. Anyway, once you have all your supplies ready, gently tip your soil out and you will see how many plants you have in there. Repot them into individual pots with their new supports so that stems where the aerial roots tend to be face the back of the pole. I like to use plant ties (which are a metal wire that has been wrapped in silicone or rubber) to gently tie the plant to the support. I end up removing these as the plant attaches itself to the support and also as the plant’s stem thickens. Hope that helps! And best of luck to you!

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    • My Leafy Life

      Thank you so much for that information! I didn't think I needed to put them in separate pots if I have more than one but it makes more sense than having poles blocking the view. I was never told about the direction of the aerial root needing to be toward the pole. It makes sense but mine doesn't really have any yet, just what appear to be a few nodes. We have plenty of branches around so I think I may give one a try if I can clean it up well enough. I don't want to bring in damaging insects.

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    • Bb

      Totally fair enough. Also, you could wait since the plant(s) seems pretty juvenile still :)

      1 like
    • Andrea A

      Agree with nearly everything Bb said - but I don’t think you need to separate if there are multiple plants. Many people keep multiple in one pot to ensure it looks full and nice. Just need to make sure you either have a pole/support for each, or position them in such a way that a single pole works for multiple plants (which is not always so easy).

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    • Bb

      Agree you can defo keep them in one pot but I have found that much harder to manage and always ended up separating them in the end :) It’s not a hard and fast rule but just found that to be more practical. I don’t follow the same principle for other climbers necessarily but monsteras just get so big and unwieldy that I always separate :)

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  2. My Leafy Life

    I was told it could take a couple years for fenestrations to appear.

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    • Bb

      It might indeed take a couple of years. It’s also dependent on the conditions the plant is in. You can accelerate growth by providing the right conditions eg. supplementing with a grow light, having a really good support in place, feeding and watering well etc. I hope you get a nice set of big plants from these babies!

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