Native to South and Central America, Monstera is known for its unusual leaves. It is easy to care for and likes bright light. If your Monstera is not growing, there are some things you can do to make it grow faster.
The best way to make your Monstera grow faster is by giving it more light. The houseplant grows well in bright light. However, it doesn’t need direct sunlight. You can also make the plant grow taller by watering it properly, boosting the humidity around it, keeping it clean, and fertilizing it.
This article discusses ways to make your Monstera grow faster, the importance of flushing, and the perils of over-fertilizing your plant.
Give Your Monstera More Light
Monstera grows best indoors when it is in bright rooms but away from the direct rays of the sun. Direct sunlight can scorch the plant’s leaves, leaving brown spots that won’t heal. On the other hand, bright, indirect light encourages the Monstera to grow fast.
If you want to grow your Monstera fast, keep it in a bright space a few feet from a window. Additionally, you can place your plant by an east-facing or north-facing window that doesn’t receive much sunlight.
However, if your plant is near a window that faces south, you need to ensure it’s protected from the direct light.
Fertilize Your Monstera Properly
During the spring and summer growing season, fertilize your plant once every month with a water-soluble houseplant fertilizer. The fertilizer will provide vital nutrients to your Monstera in the form of salt compounds.
The Miracle-Gro Water Soluble All Purpose Plant Food contains vital nutrients that help your plant grow stronger and bigger. You should apply this fertilizer every one to two weeks.
Also, Monstera doesn’t grow too much during fall and winter. Therefore, do not feed your Monstera in the winter and fall. Take care not to over-fertilize your houseplant as it can damage the soil.
In fact, excess fertilizer can be harmful to your Monstera. Too much salt can change the soil pH, making vital nutrients unavailable to your Monstera. These mineral salts can affect your Monstera’s health and decrease soil quality.
Apart from this, excess salts can burn the roots and restrict water uptake. The affected root can become prone to diseases and pests. Some of the signs that show your plant are over-fertilized are browning leaf margins, defoliation, yellowing leaves, or stunted growth.
Flushing the soil periodically boosts the health of your plant and prevents salt buildup. In addition to this, you can also flush your Monstera after accidental over-fertilization, to remove the extra nutrients from the container before they destroy the plant’s roots.
How to Flush Your Monstera?
Here is how you can flush your houseplant to get rid of extra nutrients.
- Keep the container in a bathtub or sink where water runoff won’t cause any problems.
- Slowly pour the water over the top of the soil and let it drain from the bottom of the container.
- Use sufficient water so that you’re giving your Monstera four times as much water as the container’s volume.
- Let the container drain for two to three hours before putting it back in a bright space.
Keep Your Monstera Clean
Keeping your plant clean and dust-free is an effective way of making your Monstera grow faster. You can use the neem oil spray to clean the leaves of the plant. Here’s how to prepare the neem oil solution:
- Fill a spray bottle with water.
- Add a drop of dishwashing soap to the bottle. Mix the dish soap by stirring.
- Now add a teaspoon of neem oil to the solution. Close the bottle and shake it well.
- Spray the solution on the plant leaves.
Neem oil is a natural pesticide that works great to keep pests and insects off your Monstera. The oil is extracted from the leaves and seeds of the neem trees.
Increase the Humidity Around Monstera
You can make your plant grow faster by raising the humidity around it. Using a pebble tray, putting a humidifier closeby, or misting are good ways to increase humidity for your Monstera:
Using a Pebble Tray
Put pebbles in the tray, use water to fill the tray, and keep your Monstera on top. The stones keep your Monstera above the water level. The water in the pebble tray vaporizes and raises the humidity around your Monstera. River pebbles or beads can also be used instead of stones.
Buying a Humidifier
You can also add moisture to your room with the Honeywell HCM350B Humidifier. The device comes with a one-gallon (3.7 liters) capacity tank that has a 24-hour run time on a low setting. With its ultraviolet technology, this humidifier destroys 99.9% of germs in the water.
Misting
To increase the humidity around Monstera, wipe it with a damp cloth to clean it or mist it weekly. You can also grow your Monstera together with other plants to ensure it gets sufficient moisture. It’s a good idea to group plants together because plants growing closely create a more humid space.
Water Your Monstera Properly
Water your Monstera only when you see no moisture in the top one or two inches (2.5-5 cm) of the potting soil. You should water the Monstera until it drains out of drainage holes. Also, you need to ensure that the soil is not overly moist or dry.
Copyright protected content owner: ReadyToDIY.com and was initially posted on August 9, 2020.
Here are some ways to test soil moisture:
Wooden Stick
You can use a wooden stick or wooden dowel to measure moisture in the soil. Push a wooden stick into the soil. The soil is dry if the stick comes out completely dry. And your plant needs water. The soil is moist if your wooden stick comes out wet.
Moisture Probe or Moisture Meter
You can easily buy a moisture meter or moisture probe from your local hardware store. The soil moisture meter can quickly determine the moisture level of the soil when it’s pushed into the soil.
To use a moisture meter, push the sensor down into the soil, and wait for a few seconds to see the result. If the sensor displays a number below than 5, the soil is dry and needs water. And if the sensor displays a number greater than 5, the soil is moist.
It’s important to know that over-watering the plant can lead to slow growth and root rot disease. If left untreated, root rot disease can kill your plant. Symptoms of this disease include reduced growth, yellowing of older leaves, and dark brown roots.
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Conversely, under-watering your Monstera can dry it out completely and lead to curled up leaves. Also, the Monstera needs more water in summer and spring than in winter.
Repot Your Monstera
If your Monstera has overgrown its pot, you need to repot it in a bigger pot. The pot you choose should be one to two inches wider than the present container. So, when is it time to repot your Monstera? Poor drainage, roots coming out of the drainage holes, and slow growth are the signs that your plant needs repotting.
Here is how to repot your plant:
- Take your Monstera out of the pot softly and get rid of extra soil attached to the roots.
- Carefully examine the roots of the plant. Remove damaged or broken roots with the help of pruners.
- Add fresh potting mix to the new pot and plant the houseplant.
Here are some tips for choosing the right container for your plant:
- You can buy terracotta or clay containers for your Monstera. However, it’s important to know that they hold less moisture than plastic containers. So, you will need to water your plant frequently.
- Opt for containers with drainage holes to keep your Monstera from receiving too much water.
Final Thoughts
The Monstera is a vibrant and beautiful plant that is easy to take care of. It thrives in bright, indirect light, high humidity, and moderately moist soil. You can make your plant grow faster by giving it bright, indirect light, fertilizing it with a water-soluble houseplant fertilizer, and watering it properly.
ReadyToDIY is the owner of this article. This post was published on August 9, 2020.
Also, you should remember to flush your Monstera periodically to remove extra nutrients. Extra nutrients can damage the leaves and roots of your plant. Apart from this, cleaning the leaves of Monstera can help them stay healthy and strong.