Hello! I hope it’s ok to post questions like that here. I have ALWAYS had problems with Monsteras and their leaves browning and dying off. I always thought it might be a too dark or too sunny location. Now I’ve made some new living room space and I thought maaaybe this spot would be good (bit away from a large window, lots of light but no direct sunlight hits it)
But once again the leaves turn brown, just as they did with the regular Monsteras I had. I tried spraying them with water for humidity, but no help.
So now I wanna ask if anyone has an idea what could cause this? If there might be something I’m obviously doing wrong?
Any help would be greatly appreciated <3 🌿
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I have kept a mosteras for many decades. A few basics. The brown spots on the edges are usually too much water (causes N deficiency), salt buildup, or lack of fertilizer.
Watering, the pot should be saturated then allowed to completely dry out. Don’t pay attention to the soil, look at the leaves. When the plant is drought stressed they have a slight dimpled look. The leaves appear duller and not as shiney. Salts- the are very sensitive to water softeners. Do not use water that has been softened.
Fertilizer - they do best with slow release fertilizers. For conventional fertilizer you want polymer coated. For organic you want manures aka something that takes time to break down.
Salt leaching- you need to leach the pots at least every couple of years. The smaller the pot the more often it is needed. Flushing a bunch of water through the soil removes salt buildup.
Pot size- ignore everything anyone says about pot size for monsteras. They always get rootbound in any pot but they don’t care. You can grow giant ones in a 1 gallon pot. A larger pot = less frequent watering and fertilizing. For most of my plants life I kept it in an 2 gallon pot for ease in transport.
Light: monsteras are tree climbers. In low light conditions they grow away from the light looking for a tree trunk (small leaves with long internodes. If you want big beautiful leaves, they need 4-5 hours of direct sunlight. Preferably in the early morning or evening.
That’s a lot of super useful knowledge, thanks for sharing! I thought I already watered them quite little, but it seems it’s still been too much! Your comment also makes me consider to move it further towards the windows to maybe get bigger leaves
You got to give us a little bit more detail. How much sun is it getting? How often are you watering and how much? Did you check for pests? Did you ever fertilize the soil? What kind of soil are you using? Is there drainage at the bottom for the extra water to go somewhere?
Thanks, good point!
I usually water it once a week, but check with a finger that the soil doesn’t dry out completely. I’ve only just bought this one about three weeks ago, so I haven’t used fertilizer yet, soil is the one I got it in. No pests from what I can see. There are drainage holes in the pot, but maybe I should make sure that inner pot doesn’t stand directly on the bottom of the outer one? It doesn’t get direct sunlight, but it is about 2m from a south-facing windowed wall.
Also, I can see that your plant is right next to a humidifier, and misting the leaves doesn’t raise humidity as much as people think (it’s negligible). I would refrain from letting water stay on the leaves, it might lead to fungal problems. In nature, there is a lot of wind and aeration going on, but not as much in our homes 🌪️
Oh I definitly had that misconception! Since winter air is really dry here I thought that might help. So you think the humidifier alone should do the job or should I put that away as well?
Yeah, humidifier is completely fine, it’s just the spraying of the leaves that’s usually bad
Noted, thanks for the info!!
The top layers of the soil dry out a lot faster than the bottom layers. Deepening on how large the pot and volume of soil is, often when your finger comes out dry and you think your plant needs more water, the rest of the soil is still wet and your plant is still trying to absorb that.
I recommend using the “chopstick method” or my personal favourite - “picking up your plant and seeing how light it is”.
Chopstick method
Gently stick a chopstick in the soil, being careful not to damage any roots. If it comes out dry, then the soil is dry. If it comes out mostly dry but the bottom 20% has some damp soil sticking to it, then 20% of the soil is still hydrated. From this, you can decide if you want to water your plant depending on what it likes. In this case with your beautifully variegated monstera, as the person before me mentioned, they’re adapted to dry spells, so if the chopstick is dry you can wait a few more days before you water.
Picking up your plant and seeing how light it is
Self-explanatory, feel how heavy or light the pot is. I like this because it lets me get to know my plants better, but I also understand that it’s not for everybody.
Hope this helps, it sounds like you’ve placed your monstera in a good spot so it should be happy there :)
Thank you so much!! I think it’s great to learn other people’s tricks, that way I can try to see what works best for me and my plants! Shame that I haven’t thought of just picking up the plant to see if it’s lighter or not, seems like such an easy thing to do with smaller plants
You actually do want the soil to dry out with monstera. They grow on trees and are used to dry spells! I don’t think this is it but you may be watering it a day or two early
Ohhh ok! Might try that first then! I’m just used to leaves turning yellow, not brown when overwatering
Just kidding, I’ve been informed by a friend that overwatering can indeed cause the leaves to brown!!
That’s a TC right? I’ve had mine for a little under a year with no brown spots and it sits less than a foot from the window. Fertilized every time I water (liquid drops) and I make sure it dries out completely before rewatering which was about once a week. I repotted it a few months ago so it’ll stay moist for 2 weeks now until the roots fill in.
I use a $20 moisture sensor stick thing and test 3/4 the way down the pot
I just repotted it because it’s been bothering me (can’t do more than kill it right? B’) ) and it turned out the roots and soil around them where super moist! I’ll definitely pay more attaention to let it dry properly before watering again. Thanks so much for all your input!
It’s almost definitely not the problem here, I just wanted to share that info! A lot of people kill plants by overwatering
Like everyone else said, water less frequent. I water mine every 2 weeks or so. Its also possible that there is water sitting at the bottom of the outer pot so even though there are drainage holes water still has nowhere to go. Its also spring time great time to fertilize. Some places sell slow release pellets that you pit on top of the soil and it fertilizes every time you water. Definitely change the soil too, that’ll do a couple of things. Fresh soil will have nutrients, if it’s root bound you’ll get to detangle the roots and give them room to breather, can even trim some excess roots but if you do that make sure you use sharp cutters and sanitize then with rubbing alcohol prior to use (that goes for any trimming you do). Changing the soil will also let you check for root rot (caused by overwatering). Repotting can be a daunting task, especially if it’s a bigger plant but dont be scared, there are a ton of super helpful step by step videos online. A lot of places will also do it for you either for a small fee or in some cases for free if you do it at the same spot where you bought the plant. Not an expert by any means, just some stuff I learned a long the way as a plant owner. Good luck. Hopefully you save it. Worst case scenario take some cuttings of leaves that are still good and try to propagate it.
Thank you for your input! I think too much water really was the problem here. I hope it can recover, because sadly it’s a new and pretty small plant, so I can’t take cuttings of good leaves :')
It looks like you’re getting the browning on the variegated areas. They lack chlorophyll. It’s always going to be difficult to not get those areas to not brown.
Nitrogen burn?
Either from over fertizilation or bad/old soil.
Are you buying all these from the same place? Changing out the soil and reporting might help, but pretty sure these are just “difficult” plants.
Hmm I just bought it a few weeks ago and didn’t use fertilizer yet, is it recommended to change the soil right after buying?
Not all from the same place. This one I got at a more “high-end” place where they usually have a good quality
Thank you!
It might be something else.
But as far as repotting as soon as you get it, it depends. It might be fine for a year or two, or it might be completely rootbound in old soil that has no nutrients and just a bunch of nitrogen dumped on top as a bandaid.
I grew up on a farm, not an expert on houseplants. But most of the time if everything else seems fine but leaves are browning, it’s because there’s too much nitrogen. Especially for houseplants a lot of fertilizer is “slow release”, so if that’s the problem, repotting is the only fix. All that nitrogen in the soil will just stay there and keep getting picked up by the plant.
As far as I know, repotting “early” can’t really backfire either.
My experiences haven’t been too well with repotting, so I often try to avoid it as long as I can… but I just checked and that pot might actually be a little small for this plant. A few roots are sticking out of the drainage holes a bit
A few roots are sticking out of the drainage holes a bit
Yeah, that’s not just “rootbound” that’s a serious case.
A bigger pot and new soil will def help, just watch some YouTube videos first if you’re nervous.
But if it’s growing out of drainage holes, there’s too much roots and not enough soil in the pot.
I repotted it now and aside from tight roots I also found them and the soil to be really moist! If I’m lucky this helped - and I’ll pay more attention to let it dry more before watering again!
Yeah, the roots were about to start rotting then.
It should be fine now for a couple years.
Like I said tho, pretty sure that plant species is super picky. If it still dies you might want to try like a rubber plant or something. They’re pretty easy to keep alive, which make them a lot more forgiving.
It’s like learning how to drive a manual transmission on an old Civic instead of a Ferrari.
You can make a lot more mistakes and learn from them without ruining it.
Start with what’s easy, and then move on to more difficult options that you’d enjoy more.
But damage from under watering is always more gradual and less serious than over watering for any plant. I just water mine when the soil is visibly dry or leaves are droopy, and I’ve even managed to keep a fiddle leaf alive and growing for a couple years now. If I had started with that, I’d have killed a dozen learning the basics.
I do have a couple of rubber plants, but I found them to not be much easier to handle 😅 mine don’t flourish as they do for some people
You should always wait at least a week after bringing a plant home to repot. Let it get over the shock of moving before giving it a shock of repotting
