The Mysteries of Monstera Deliciosa: A Beginner's Guide to Growth and Care

most of us are familiar with the big monstera deliciosa with the big fenestrations giant plants or even you know smaller giant plants like in six-inch eight-inch containers today I want to walk you through how they start when they're little baby seeds and so they get to a certain point like this size and also show you some of the more mature ones that I have in my house so let's start with looking at the seeds and looking at them before they grow so it's hot in the seed germinating room here and for good reason because these guys need the heat to push out of their little hard seed shells and to make little monteiro babies making babies is not easy when you're a monster so let's just show you so it's get those babies those monster babies we got to get them in a nice bed you got to start out with a good bed to make monstera babies comfortable and you want to cover the seeds with vermiculite so you can have moisture it needs the moisture to push out its little baby root and it's a little baby cobble even the first leaf that's coming out and once you've got that you're off to the races so after two weeks of germinating on these rocks the ones especially the ones that are in the shade need to come out and get more light because they're gonna stretch and reach the light and that's what they do in nature anyway so we're gonna help bypass but nature normally has to do to get through the forest jungle and bring them out into the light so they can evenly grow so now these seedlings have been taken out of the germination chamber I know it sounds a little scary but it is a good place they are getting the light they need they're growing these these guys are about three to six weeks old and the soil still needs to be kept moist it's the same soil it's the same soil mixture because there are seeds in there that happened germinated so it gives those guys a chance to grow up and be big boys one day so once these are a little bit fuller maybe a few inches taller another couple of weeks they would be put into six inch pots and have about four to six little little seedlings little adolescent preteens put together to create one big monstera deliciosa see these monstera deliciosa are about twelve weeks old and they were repotted like a week ago and acclimating to their new pot size you'll take about four to six weeks for these roots to push out and then to get to a bigger size and the foliage should probably double or triple in size within that time and then these pots will also get separated to give enough airflow and room for growth and development they're looking pretty healthy and you can't they'll always keep their little leaves cleans yes happy happy now there's a lot of them there's a lot so these plants are at about 24 weeks of growth and they can see they almost like doubled doubled in size and they there's five of the little seedlings in here and over time this is obviously going to get bigger and bigger and bigger and it takes this is what I heard this is what I've heard from the grower that after the fifth leaf on each individual seedling remember there's five in here there should be fenestrations forming in the leaves so we're just about at that point and we will know very shortly if that's the truth but either way we know that over time as the leaves get bigger you know they take up a lot of space their vines but kind of hard vines and you can train them up holes you can let them free stand appending on the foreman shape they're in over time as the leaves get bigger they develop the fenestrations and thank God for that because we love that watching this growth has been amazing seeing these little tiny seeds grow and just push out growth and generate a root and become these little seedlings to these magnificent monstera deliciosa you can totally do this in your own home if you want to try this you can get some seeds and you can try to create a humid environment for them to germinate in that's what you really need you need light and humidity and I think you can do this I know you can do this [Music] I hope that was fun for you that little process from seed to shining seed to plant I love seeing that I love watching things grow it's pretty spectacular but now I want to talk to you about monster I care I know I've done a video before about it but I just want to try to condense it as part two of this monstera video so let's talk about the pots the kind of pots you can use so yes terra cotta is a pot I like to use for a lot of plants and especially for monstera and philodendron Xand things that like to dry out between waterings so I recommend terra cotta and you can use ceramic pots as well but it needs to have a pretty decent-sized drainage hole because you don't want water sitting at the bottom of that pot and if you are using ceramic I do recommend putting a layer of gravel or broken terracotta or whatever you can to elevate the roots from the potential of sitting in water in case for some reason that drainage hole gets backed up you don't want that to happen so then you can also use the plastic nursery pots which are great I have one here because they have lots of drainage holes and the possibility of them getting clogged is like almost zero so I'll bump them up into a bigger size like a one or two inch size bigger plastic pot for the majority of them especially if they're big because I don't want gigantic ceramic pots because I can't lift them so the nursery pots are great and you can just put them in a basket like this let's talk a little bit about transplanting them when to transplant them generally you want to transplant the monstera deliciosa when the roots start really coming out of the top of the pot or the bottom of the pot and it's not always necessary to do it right away if you don't do it you can stunt the growth of the plant and that can be a good thing if you're limited in space but if you want your plant to get bigger bump it up one or two inches in size and diameter and use a potting soil that's made up of 60% cocoa or peat moss coco coir or peat moss 20% perlite pumice coarsened and 20% composted material like worm castings like I always say I know I recommend making your own soil make sure but you don't have to be there's so many great soil mixtures on the market that are fantastic that have the cocoa it has the worm castings it has pumice and as perlite has everything in it like I said just stay away from the ones that have the water retentive gels because I think that causes more problems than anything else I just never I never like to use it in gardening I don't like to use it and indoor gardening does not for me the best time to transplant is late winter early spring so this gives your plant a chance to reestablish its roots it gives it a whole growing season to grow new foliage to fill out the pot and it just makes for a healthier happier plant so early spring late winter you know I mean that's a great time so now that you've transplanted it into a larger pot and maybe a terra cotta pot maybe a ceramic pot the temptation to fertilize is real I know it but hold off if you used some of the compost like I recommended you don't necessarily have to fertilize right away and if you use a potting soil which you can totally use you can use a store-bought potting soil just make sure it doesn't have those moisture retentive gels in it but most of the soils have a type of fertilizer in it so wait about three to six months before you potentially fertilize again but if you made your own mixture like I recommend it to do you can use a complete liquid fertilizer or you can use like a fish fertilizer like I use and I also put in some chelated iron in it because it really helps green up that plant if you just can't bump up your plant any more it's in too big of a pot and you can't lift it you might just want to top dresses so put some posted material around the base of the plant try to keep it away from the stems and till it in a little bit into the soil and just water it in that should be fine and then you can because you haven't messed with the roots you can use a liquid fertilizer throughout the growing season because generally the organic stuff you're putting in a compost it will slowly release to the roots so you can use like a foliar spray or a liquid complete fertilizer as well we have these crazy aerial roots that are growing from the sides of your plant growing through it up everywhere and some people like them and some people don't if you don't like them just cut them away you know they don't have to be there but I can't do it I just feel like I'm cutting off like a an appendage I can't do it so I let them system wind around and find their way around my house but they want to attach because they use those roots to attach themselves to grow up the trees so anyway if you like them keep them you can also tuck them back into the soil or I saw something really interesting on Instagram the other day someone had this beautiful monster at deliciosa all these amazing aerial roots growing and then they had a pot and they just stuck the ends of the aerial roots into a pot that looks great so I'm thinking about doing that if you want to keep them healthy spray them they love humidity sometimes they get dry I've noticed especially upstairs here they get dry so I'm gonna miss them a little bit more I feel bad kind of neglected them but you'll notice that if they're getting really thin you're probably not getting enough light but I'll cover that in a minute you don't want to go below 50 degrees Fahrenheit because they're just not gonna grow and they're gonna hang on and suffer and we don't want to do that to our plants so try to keep it above 50 if you can throughout the winter and during the growing season the best optimal temperatures are I'd say between at say 75 75 80 is the best but keep it between 65 and 85 and they will grow they'll start pushing out new growth and also humidity they like humidity if you don't have good humidity in your home maybe invest in a humidifier it's pretty much the only thing that gives consistent consistent humidity in your indoor air so the trays work but just pump out that steam and they're gonna love it guarantee it I can't guarantee anything but I think they're going to love it do you have to stake your monstera I'd say no but you're probably going to watch it because they get really top heavy and they start just falling over and doing whatever they want to do I find the best digs or cedar poles and because cedars not gonna rot in the soil or you can use a Moss pole but the Moss pole should be very sturdy maybe you put an iron plumbing pipe inside it and coat it surround it with like a coco coir or sphagnum Moss and put like a stocking over it or something and you can make your own you can buy one I think the store-bought ones aren't that sturdy that's what I found so you might want to make your own but cedar stakes are great you can just tie it up to the cedar stake so yeah you could totally do that or you can find some other creative way to stake up your monstera if you want or train it to be like a tree and balance itself if you can do that but that might take some finagling and some nothing egg laying some finessing it's got to work with your planet so when it comes to propagating my monstera I go both ways I go soil and I go water I do both but I generally go towards the soil propagating because it's a little bit faster for me so I started this I don't even remember when I put this in the water maybe two months ago it's documented somewhere but I don't remember and now it's got some nice roots sticking out of the node because I cut below the node and now I think it's time to put in soil but anyway so there's the water propagation and then there is soil propagation and the soil I use is the same soil I use for everything else which is the 60% peat or cocoa core 20% humus and 20% worm castings I think there's actually some wood chips in here I don't know how that got in there but it's in here so all I'm gonna do is I'm gonna cut I am gonna sacrifice it's not really a sacrifice but for demonstration purposes I'm gonna cut this monstera and show you but I'm scared because I don't like cutting it but I do like my little monster cuttings so anyway so you cut below the node and you have enough of an aerial route that will be able to establish itself into the soil medium and then you water you wet it down you wet it down you get it in there and then you wait it's a waiting game and the difference is you can't see what's going on in here but you can see what's going on in here so some people prefer to water propagate because it's visually interesting and it's pretty exciting and this just wandering hmmm I wonder if any roots are growing in there and you're afraid to take it out and look at it because you don't want to ruin it so you just stare at it I like this way though I do it with a lot of my philodendron sense as well so this one was just soil propagated it's just one leaf should I pull it out and see what's going on maybe I should let's do it okay we're gonna do it ready I'm scared I'm sorry I'm doing for the camera not really I won't it really won't okay come on this is dumb why am I doing this because I just want to show you I wanna I'm and I'm curious as well okay I gotta go loosen it up I need a little I break this just to show you guys I'll be a upset a lot of roots in here okay well and of course I'm gonna get dirt everywhere look at that you are doing great in there see all that good stuff okay I'm sorry I disturbed you I don't have to replant that properly later I'm sorry I'll get you I'll get you a better home - okay so now you know it works when it's in soil and when you put it in so all you want to keep it relatively moist at least for the first month so it'll just push growth out and if it's too dry it will tell you because the leaves will start just going so pay attention to the leaves and keep it evenly moist don't make it soggy don't let it sit in water and in a month or so you'll have roots maybe not as extensive as that but they'll start growing they will okay this one I've shown you this before that's good this one is doing very well and this is also soil propagated so I have pretty good luck with it and you probably will too so that's about the two different propagating methods other than the seed right forgot to mention when you're when your water propagating you want to change the water out once a week and so it doesn't get stagnant and if you forget that's okay I forget all the time so every one or two weeks change the water but do as often as you can because you just want to have fresh oxygen you don't want to get stagnant and smelly yeah that smells a little fishy maybe I put fish emulsion in here just to test it but so change the water out then is gonna be fine when your soil propagating don't put it in such a giant pot because what happens is that when you water it the water will stay in much longer because there's more soil to hold the water and there's a potential that you can rot the roots so it's me this is a good size you can even go smaller but this has been working pretty well yeah so just keep in mind the size of the pot I don't know how to but ratio to tell you but do that that's a good ratio to wonder out any of these plants who are alive with me taking care of them I don't know how that's happened light light how much light does a monstera deliciosa need I'm gonna tell you a story I have them all over the place I have this one back here that gets it's like low to medium light I have one that's in a garage that's getting some light some light it's fine I have some that are getting bright indirect light and they're doing fine like I don't see a difference here but as a general rule the more bright light they're going to get the health or the healthier they will be the faster they'll grow and they will probably start developing fenestrations sooner because I think when they're in the low light they think they're still under the canopy in the forest and the rainforest and they're still producing those simple leaves those single simple leaves without any fenestrations so a little bit more light a little bit more fertilizer when you should fertilize will help promote more of those fenestrations and promote a healthier plant so let's just say between low high low light does that make sense low light on the higher spectrum to bright indirect light is where a Monster is want to be so that could mean 10 feet back from a south-facing window it could mean very close to a north in the east and a west facing window as long as it's getting I'd say like 4 to 5 hours of sunlight a day potentially if you can read a book in that room all day long that's better without the lights on so you're gonna have to play around with it because that's just a part of being a plant owner you never know right away so you're gonna have to just move it around and see like wow that the right spot but medium light will be great brighter light is great but not direct sunlight although I have put mine out on the porch in the summer in direct sunlight and it was fine so go figure who could figure all this stuff out if you're seeing very small leaves developing on a mature plant and your aerial roots are super skinny that means you need more light so push it closer to the window and watch it grow in theory let's touch on pests let's not touch pests let's talk about pests a little bit what are the most common pests found on monstera deliciosa I would say thrips yuck mealy bugs gross and spider mites okay anyway the good news it's that you can get rid of them really easily first of all you can manually remove them and when you're cleaning your leaves on your mint on your monstera like you should be you're gonna see them and then you'll know right away before a major infestation happens I use neem oil and I'm using dormant oil and that really helps if you have a very big problem that means you have been paying attention to your monstera and your monster actually be angry at you but if you do have a big problem and you are okay using a houseplant systemic insecticide you might have to do that but I don't think it should get to that point because you can manually remove them you can wash the leaves off wash the whole plant in the shower outside in the hose and then use a neem oil spray neem oil and spray horticultural oil dormant oil whatever you want on it it'll it'll just suffocate them and the neem oil will kill them so just just watch just pay attention just watch your plants watch I don't know if I covered everything I probably didn't but I wanted to just give you one block of care knowledge so just maybe have it all in one spot anyway so we learned how a monstera grows from a seed to a plant and then part two we went over some of the basic hair for having a monstera deliciosa anyway you guys have a fantastic weekend I hope you go find some cool plants I'm on the search and look out for some cool new philodendron this weekend and I hope I find one and enjoy it it's getting beautiful out so I hope you go outside and just love being out in nature and if you can't be out nature maybe you can be indoors in nature in your own little jungle like I am all by myself we got to mention one thing and it's about brown edges on the leaves and brown spots and that can be caused by a few different things it's usually over watering especially when you have the new leaves forming and then all of a sudden you're so excited and you see there's a big black block on it super disappointing but it probably means being watered it too much during that point in time when it would the when the leaf was developing or you were under watering it so it's either way it's over or under watering it or it could be a nutrient deficiency or not enough light it's hard to exactly know why that's happening but it happens don't freak out you don't even have to cut the leaf off if it bothers you you can cut the brown section off but if you see the brown section continuing to grow it's probably a fungus and just get we're gonna to leaf toss it away get it out of the house don't put it in a compost pile there in the garbage incinerate it just get rid of it that was it I forgot to say that before

Channel: PLANTERINA

Views: 1,260,476

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Keywords: monstera, monstera deliciosa, monstera care, propagating monstera, growing monstera from seed, monstera deliciosa care, swiss cheese plant, indoor plant care, houseplant care, house plant, house plant care, low light houseplants, low light plants, low light indoor plants, easy indoor plants, east houseplants, best houseplants, best indoor plants, interior plants, interior plant care, greenhouse tour

Id: izsbLWvqe3s

Length: 24min 6sec (1446 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 12 2019