Variegated Monstera Care - An In-Depth (and Practical) Guide | Ep 13

what is the number one killer of variegated monstera root rot what is the number two killer of variegated monstera root rot any conversation about variegated monstera care and maintenance and fundamentals has to focus a lot on prevention of root rot so today we're going to talk a lot about prevention of root rot as well as other aspects of variegated monstera care and fundamentals hello plant friends if you're new to this channel I'm a doctor and plant hobbyist in Los Angeles I try to make videos about my collection I try to bring and introduce new plants to you guys as well as offer some practical and rational care tips so this video is going to focus on the fundamentals I'm going to be talking about the albo as an example the variegated monstera elbow is the white one if you're confused or curious about the different varieties of variegated monstera I did make a video about that I'll try to link it up there and post a link in the description the reason we're going to focus on the elbow is that in my experience and also talking with other collectors it is by far the most sensitive and the most finicky and the most nitpicky of the variegated months there are varieties so if you can master the elbow you are you're good to go with any of the other variegated monstera the first thing we're going to talk about is soil if root rot is the number one cause of elbow tragedy mortality morbidity mastering the soil is you know that's you're halfway there if you got the you're probably more than halfway I think I think you're probably about like 80% there if you can master the soil if you're doing your research your your watching your videos you're on Facebook and forums and you're asking around about what is the best soil composition or mixture you're gonna get a lot of responses oh there's probably hundreds of you know 30% this 10% that you know this this isn't this everyone has their own little recipe ignore all that and focus on the bigger picture right the bigger picture is what you need a soil composition that is airy and well draining that's it that is the overlying fundamental and how you interpret that according to your experience your resources your you know how much you're willing to spend on soil as well as your environment dictates the rest bad bacteria in the soil grows when it's damp and there's not enough air right so you want a very very light well draining well aerated soil so that that bad bacteria doesn't grow and eat up your roots stay away or back off on potting soil the the potting mix that you find at Home Depot or Lowe's or any of the big box stores that is not Airy that is dense right is not well draining it holds a lot of moisture that's not good for your tropical plants and it's especially not good for your variegated monstera I recommend that people in their composition use less than 50 percent potting mix I normally lean towards about 30 percent potting mix and you know 70 percent something else so what is something else something else is pearlized bark orchid mix right you can use Spagna moss basically like basically anything that's not potting mix or potting soil and just kind of add it together right so if you mix that all up your potting mix should look like a fruit salad for me personally I use about 30% potting mix and 70% other stuff right so other stuff is usually a mixture of perlite bark orchid mix is using my other stuff so the soil mixture as I'm using Z has bark orchid mix perlite and and soil as you can see it is chunky like a fruit salad right and whenever I water it the water drains very well you do not need a fancy potting mix you do not need exact measurements if you're measuring precisely and scaling and weighing your soil compositions you're you're overdoing it that's that's a bit you can but I would say that you know you do not need to go that far the fundamental principle that you need to remember is that your soil needs to be airy and well draining that's it so after you decide on your soil composition the next step is to decide on your pot all my plans are in terracotta and the reason for that is that I tend to be an overwater er so my plants if I put it in a glazed pot or any other sort of pot that's not terracotta they tend to just stay wet for too long and that's caused me problems in the past so this plant here is in terracotta terracotta whisks away excess moisture so it really acts as a good barrier against root rot and then also as the terracotta is whisking away the excess moisture that moisture also adds to your humidity level some people don't like terracotta for the reason that it does whisk away the moisture if you live in a very hot or dry place you can find that if you use terracotta it can dry up your soil and your plants a lot so that's the case for you then you can always move to you know a glazed pot or you know a surrett basically any of the other pots or a plastic growing pot if if that works for you but again I unless you know that's been a proven case for you I really really recommend going with Terra Cotta first it is the safest I have never heard of a month's Terra variegated monstera dying from being too dry right like no one's got like oh my gosh you know I I've killed my variegated monstera because it you know I I turned around and it was too dry and it's just like completely died right root rot will catch you off-guard variegated monstera when they're dry their leaves will curl you have plenty of time to act so so don't worry so much about that right always err on the side of being too dry than being too wet and risking root rot always try Terra Cotta I really really want to stress this fact try the Terra Cotta first and if it's too dry for you if you're you feel you're feeling the soil and you're watering you know you have to water every day or every two days you know yes then you should probably switch to a plastic or a different type of pot it's it's really helped me it's probably saved the life of a lot of my plants so I really really highly recommend that hey guys if you're finding this content useful or enjoyable please do me a favor hit the subscribe button hit the like button it helps me a lot the next thing people talk about or wonder about is the light requirement I'm sure you've read around or if you've talked around and you know the answer is bright indirect light do variegated monstera need bright indirect light no I will repeat that do variegated monstera need bright and direct light no they do not need it do they want it does it help yes do they need it no because you keep hearing that term bright indirect light I think a lot of people are overestimating how much light these variegated musts there really need my elbow is situated across from a very large window and the distance is about I would say about three feet away you know at three feet away from the window you're not really getting that much light intensity reaching the plan I would consider this indirect and medium light I would still be very you know cautious about the indirect part I think that part is true direct light is bad and is prone to burn your leaves so definitely I think that part is very correct but I think the brightness is even though preferred is is not needed so if you're thinking about getting one of these guys or you know you're just figure out where to put the your bear game on stare around your place don't go way way out of your way way way out of your don't go too much out of your way to to put them in a bright indirect area okay so medium light is fine they will do find that's where mine are they are fine okay next we're gonna talk about humidity everyone talks about humidity humidity this humidity that my plan is dying or whatever is because the humidity is too low is humidity good for your bear game on stairs especially the alb oh yes you want high humidity I would say the bare minimum for a bear Gaeta monstera elbow is probably about 60% you can probably go down to 50% if you have a tight constellation I think Thai constellations you know there are a lot more Hardy more robust less sensitive so you can probably go down to about 50% maybe even lower a little bit and they'll still be generally fine most variegated monstera elbows I think the Aria as well those the leaves are just a little bit more sensitive and I really don't know why it's probably due to the type of bear gation so their leaves just tend to burn more to bruise more and crisp up more especially on the white parts if you want the white parts to they white and pretty and instagram-worthy yes you know crank up the humidity as as much as you want as much as you know is worth it for you like I've said many times in my videos my humidity is just the ambient humidity of where I live which is about 60 to 70 percent I live in Southern California and near the beach so that's just sort of the humidity that's around me I really don't use that much humidifiers though I know that a lot of my friends in Los Angeles who are more inland where it's dry or they do really really well with humidifiers I would say aim for 60 to 70 and you know that's that's about all I can say and all I want to say about about humidity okay 60 to 70 if it's lower that's fine for a tie but if it's lower and you have an elbow just you know be okay with the elbow leaves burning up crisping up and not looking as as pretty as the ones that you see on Instagram don't drive yourself crazy with the humidity one of the reasons why I don't meant my humidity a lot is that well I don't like humidity and you know I live where I live because the humidity isn't crazy I my hair fizzes or whatever's with humidity so I don't like you know being in a very humid environment even though I know that a lot of my plans would probably be happier with higher humidity I suppose where you should talk about watering all I can really say about that is water your plants I just used normal tap water I don't have the time or the patience huh to to use any sort of special water I basically take the water out of the tap and you know it goes into my plans basically all my plans just get tap water so the last thing I want to talk about that I really really think is a fundamental even though I feel like a lot of growers and collectors and other people don't talk about it as much but it's the importance of a moss poll you are really doing your variegated muster a disservice if you do not give it a support structure to climb on you are compromising its growth its form it is more than just a support structure it's more than just something that allows you to train and mold your monstera to to grow upward it's also something that augments growth and development and the form of your monstera my elbow is against this Moss hole which I made oh wow I did not even know this look at this this this root which I thought just ended around here actually whoa it extends all the way up there wow I did not even realize that yet that's great if you are looking into making your own Moss pull at home it's really easy I share my secret method I guess it's not really a secret but I share my method of making your own Moss pull in a video I'll try to link it above and then I'll post a link on the description below you know if you're thinking about keeping your monster happy give it a moss pull all right and look forward to one of my future videos where I go way much more into depth about that and explain all my thoughts about the importance of the moss pole and why as a plant community I feel we are currently undervaluing and under appreciating the importance of the Moss pole I know some of you guys are probably curious about fertilizers or grow lights and you know other stuff I'm not going to talk about that in this video like I said that this video is just about the fundamentals if you enjoyed the content please like subscribe it really really helps me a lot I appreciate all comments I reply to all of them so that's it happy planting thanks again for watching

Channel: Legends Of Monstera

Views: 60,694

Rating: 4.9573984 out of 5

Keywords: variegated monstera deliciosa, monstera plant, monstera deliciosa, tropical house plants, aroids, rare houseplants, philodendron, alocasia, anthurium, anthurium care, monstera care, monstera adansonii, rhaphidophora, rhaphidophora tetrasperma, moss pole, exotic plants, legends, legendsofmonstera, monstera, syngonium, indoor plants, low light plants, buying plants online, monstera thai constellation, apartment tour, apt tour, easy to care for plants, houseplants, how to

Id: a4dDWfWAlcI

Length: 15min 50sec (950 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 10 2019