Advice needed. A friend of my fiancé was decommissioning a building of IT equipment and rescued this abandoned monster of a plant. I’m WAY in over my head. I cut all the dead leaves off but don’t know where to go from here. I need advice on everything from repotting (soil, pot size etc) to long term growth, sunlight, how to help this thing climb, propagation. You name it. My fiancé wants to throw it out but my heart can’t. Please help, thank you
Watch my last video on YouTube “Albo Monstera Propagation Zach Auky” it should help you!
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I would take 2-3 leafed cuttings of the best sections and propagate then repot in a pot about two inches bigger than the root ball
0 J'aimeWow, what a find and fun challenge you have ahead of you haha. Advice kind of depends on what you’re wanting to do with it, are you wanting to keep the whole/most of the plant intact (it will need a lot of space) or chop it up into several smaller plants?
0 J'aime I’m not against cutting it up into more smaller plants. I’m also not against helping it grow as is. But I’m not sure if the stems are able to be redirected so it’ll grow straight. I want to save it but if cutting it into smaller plants is the way, where do I begin?
1 j'aime It’s got two large stems in the pot and a smaller one
If you want to propagate you would chop the stem in the intermodal space between nodes. Each node has the potential to sprout new growth and/or roots, so the more nodes on a cutting the higher chance you have. Both the top of the plant cutting and the bottom after cutting have the best chance of survival with propagating; the top because it has leaves to help grow new roots and the bottom because it has roots to help grow new growth. The middle cuttings will have a harder time surviving because they will have to grow both new roots and growth points (cuttings with aerial roots and/or leaf will have a boost chance).
0 J'aimeAfter cutting, let it dry out for several hours or a day to make a callous. Then they can go in soil or water. You have a lot of plant to work with, so you could try both. If doing water, make sure the node or a couple nodes are fully submerged and keep the water topped off and replace if the water starts turning green (algae growth). After 4-8wks roots should start growing and you can move to soil if you want once they’re 2-3inches or start branching.
0 J'aimeYou’re not likely to straighten out the bends and curves of the stems very much, so it will need some sort of support like a trellis or moss pole to attach it to. I attached a couple pics I found on the internet for ideas. The wooden trellis is wide and sturdy, while the bendable coco coir moss poles could be useful since they can bend to the curves of the stems and some brands can stack to be extended. In these cases you would use twine, plant wire, or Velcro tape to attach the the plant at the intermodal space (space on the main stem between where the leaves come out) and leave the petiole (leaf stem) free to turn the leaf towards the light source. Over time if it’s happy it may sprout new growth at a few nodes, but not guaranteed.
