Monstera deliciosa is one of the most popular houseplants of the last 10 years (in part due to those eye-catching leaves that stand out on social media).
It has featured on every interior design mood board, every botanical print t-shirt and tote, every cool hipster café wall from London to Los Angeles.
And due to its popularity, there’s a huge amount of care advice online, and to be honest, I find most of it vague and lacking in expertise.
For example, just “locate it in bright indirect light,” and “Water when the first inch of soil has dried,” and of course “It loves humidity.”
All this advice would work and means your monstera would survive. But do you want an unruly plant that produces fewer leaves without those iconic splits and holes? No, you want the gorgeous big leaves and bushy appearance.
I’ve grown monstera plants for decades, and have even studied them from a botanical perspective to give you something useful!
If you understand how a monstera grows naturally, you can understand what it is doing and how to make it thrive.
Here’s How Monstera Grows and Why It’s Important
So botanically speaking, our cheery Monstera deliciosa are what’s called a hemiepiphyte, which just means a plant that stays rooted to the ground initially, then it starts to grow and climb trees to find brighter light so it doesn’t have to compete with the plants on the forest floor.
It lives naturally in the tropical forests of southern Mexico and Central America.
If we understand this growth strategy, then it explains the seemingly eccentric quirks of our monstera in our homes.
- The awkward-looking aerial roots (they are searching for a tree to climb)
- Why it grows toward light more so than other houseplants (it evolved to seek the canopy)
- Why do the leaves develop splits and holes (aka fenestrations) only once the monstera climbs high.
- How it’s able to tolerate lower light than most houseplants (its adpated to shady forest floors floor for the first part of its life)
That last point is a very important distinction. Our monstera are not sun-loving plants (they scorch in direct sunlight). But the tolerance for low light doesn’t mean they’ll thrive or grow big leaves.
How Much Light do Monstera Need?
To give your monstera the opportunity to grow bigger leaves with more splits and holes, we need to give it more light and not settle for the low light in the corner of the office.
A quick word on botany: The splits and holes are thought to be an adaptation partly to try and make the most of the light.
(It’s mostly about reducing wind resistance so the big leaves don’t act as sails and pull the monstera from the tree.) But a large whole leaf would cast shadows on the leaves lower down the monstera.
With splits and holes, light filters through and reaches the leaves lower down the plant.
Therefore, our beloved fenestrations only develop when the monstea has enough light, and it’s mature enough.
In practice, what this means is…
- Your monstera in lower light is going to produce smaller, flat, and unfenestrated leaves because it’s still in a juvenile state.
- A monstera that is in brighter, indirect light is going to produce the holey, split leaves we love.
Personally, I was able to grow my largest monstera plant around 2 feet from a south-facing window in my bathroom that had frosted glass to diffuse the light. The leaves were much bigger, as big as 50–60cm across, with lots of splits and extra holes.
I took a cutting from the same plant and put it in a north-facing room, and it produced smaller, paler leaves with minimal, only 1 or 2 splits, with the only differing variable being lower light.
What to aim for: Bright, indirect light is the best, with some gentle direct sunlight in the early morning from an east-facing window, or late afternoon from the west, usually is tolerated and can be beneficial in northern latitudes where the sunlight is less intense than in, say, Southern California.
Avoid midday and afternoon sun as this can scorch the leaves.
My cheat code for a monstera with low light is to use a grow light. I had a grow light for my succulents when I was in a small apartment and decided to use it on my monstera, in the Winter and early spring and the difference was dramatic!
The new leaves in the Spring and Summer all had far more fenestrations than before and were much larger than before, highlighting how critical bright light is for your plant.
Watering is about the roots and soil rather than a generic schedule
So I find the often-circulated online advice of “water your monstera when the top inch of the soil has dried” is okay as far as it goes, but it doesn’t help you understand why you should wait till the soil has dried and without understanding the why, you’ll struggle when seasons and conditions change.
Monstera needs oxygen around the roots (for root respiration) as much as water, and without both, it cannot draw up the nutrients it needs, which causes yellowing leaves and superficially overwatering and underwatering appear very similar.
What we need is a dry-to-dry cycle that keeps the soil moist enough so the monstera can draw up the moisture and nutrients it needs without staying saturated for too long.
Many factors influence the frequency of watering, such as…
- The Pot size. If your pot is too large, it’ll contain too much soil, which can stay wet long after the soil’s surface has dried. For this reason, I recommend increasing pot size one size at a time.
- The Pots material. Terracotta and clay are more forgiving if you are heavy-handed with watering, as they are porous, and the soil can dry out through the sides, which goes a long way to mitigating the effects of overwatering.
- The time of year. In summer, with higher temperatures, more sunlight and during a phase of active growth with lots of new leaves emerging, your monstera is going to need a lot more water. Watering every 7–10 days at least is what I do typically, whereas I find in winter, when growth slows and evaporation from the soil drops, usually I find watering every 14–21 days is enough to keep it balanced.
- The type of Potting soil mix. (very important, more on this below)
My approach is to water thoroughly so that excess water trickles from the drainage holes in the base and then wait.
I push my finger 2 inches into the soil. If it’s still cool and damp, I’ll wait until its dryer before watering. I also sometimes pick up my pot periodically to assess the weight.
If the soil is evenly moist and the pot is going to be heavy, but if it’s lighter than when I water. If it’s much lighter than expected, then the soil has probably dried out too much, as you should give it a soak in the basin with water to properly hydrate the rootball.
This is a type of reactive watering that is much better than following a fixed schedule, as universal advice often leads to overwatering, I find.
Potting Mix for Your Monstera
Most monstera plants in garden centres and supermarkets are potted up in peat-based compost, which often compacts too much and retains too much water for long-term monstera health and can cause root rot.
It is also at odds with the type of soil structure that Monstera grow in when they are in their native environment.
They prefer loose, well-draining soil with lots of air pockets around the roots.
Here is my preferred soil mix (after some trial and error!)
- 50% normal potting compost (which provides nutrients and retains the water)
- 25% perlite (for added drainage and aeration)
- 25% orchid bark (for better structure and air pockets replicating the soil in their native habitat)
This is the most important step in monstera care! The right soil helps avoid overwatering, which is the main cause of a monstera turning yellow.
I recommend repotting every 3 years, as eventually the pine bark decomposes, which can make the soil more dense. I use potting mixes meant for orchids for the pine bark.
What to do with Your Monstera’s Aerial Roots? (Don’t Cut Them Off)
I know there is a temptation to trim them off because they look untidy; however, this is to the monstera’s detriment.
We need to acknowledge that these are functional roots, and in the wild, they are adept at absorbing moisture from the air and anchoring to trees to stay stable in the face of winds.
Indoors, what I recommend you do is tuck them into your soil if at all possible, or you can even have their own pot for them if space allows, and they’ll happily draw up water and nutrients to contribute to the monstera’s growth for those big, glossy leaves.
Better yet, trained toward a moss or coconut coir pole.
Snipping them won’t immediately harm your monstera deliciosa, but removing them can weaken it and prevent the big leaves we all want.
If you guide them towards a moss pot with string, they’ll anchor, and your monstera is going to grow bigger leaves with more splits.
Whether you Should Support Monstera: Moss Pole vs Coir Pole vs Nothing
A monstera without support to climb can sprawl horizontally, looking for the nearest “tree”. But really, it has adapted to growing vertically, and it’s this vertical growth that produces more holes and splits in the leaves.
This is due to thigmotropism, which is a botanical term meaning a plant’s growth response to physical contact.
When a monstera’s aerial roots make contact with a rough texture (the bark of a tree, for example), it triggers the growth of larger, more hole leaves because it has now found a structure to climb and can invest in growth upwards rather than searching for something to climb.
I personally recommend a proper moss or coconut coir pole rather than a bamboo shoot, as it’s too smooth to be effective!
After you do this, the difference is really striking as the leaves are much bigger and more holey.
You can DIY this by using a pipe and attaching moss to it. I recommend misting the pole so that the aerial roots grow better. This is going to transform your monstera!
Temperature, Humidity, for Your Plant
Our monstera are tropical plants, and they do prefer warmer temperatures with 18–27°C (65–80°F) being the sweet spot.
I’ve found that they’re relatively sensitive to cold draughts, so my recommendation is to find a nice stable area for monstera and to avoid areas near exterior doors, frequently opened windows, or air conditioning and don’t put it right next to a radiator.
Usually, below about 12°C (54°F), they slow down their growth completely, and prolonged cold can damage the leaves with yellowing or brown tips and even promote root rot as the potting soil stays damp for long periods.
Humidity?
They definitely prefer humidity as they grow in humid forests, but Monstera are actually very adaptable to indoor environments, and I’ve found they can still thrive at standard humidity in most homes.
But if you are in a really arid area, such as Southern California, I would recommend misting them or using a humidifier to keep the leaves happy.
You can also mist the leaves and moss pole, which is what I do every time I water it.
Fertilizer
Our monstera are relatively hungry plants during the growing season (spring through to early autumn), thanks to their large leaves that require lots of resources to grow.
I use a normal liquid houseplant fertiliser at half strength, once a month in Spring through till about mid July.
More is definitely not more when it comes to fertiliser, as excess can lead to root burn with brown tips and yellowing. This is why I prefer half-strength, as you are almost certain to avoid any problems like this and still get a huge plant.
Of course, you should stop feeding entirely in Winter as there is no meaningful active growth (unless you use a grow light in Winter and keep indoor temperatures warm, then it can grow all year).
How Fast Should Your Monstera Grow?
This is a question I get a lot because lots of people struggle with stalled growth.
These are the conditions it depends on…
- The brightness and intensity of the light
- The temperatures
- Whether the soil is good (to avoid stress)
- Feeding
- A moss pole to climb
Generally, a healthy mature monstera can produce a new leaf every 3 or 4 weeks in ideal conditions during the growing season.
In moderate conditions (average light, standard potting soil and no support), you might see a smaller leaf with fewer holes once every 6 to 8 weeks.
The most impactful single change you can make, if growth is slow, is increasing the intensity of light, as almost nothing else has as dramatic an effect.
My Final Thoughts on Monstera Care
I love Monstera deliciosa as it is one of the more forgiving plants, and it is going to tolerate differing conditions better than most.
However, there is a really meaningful chasm between a monstera that survives and one that produces the enormous, holey, split leaves we all know and love.
This gap is almost always explained by light intensity, potting soil structure, and proper support for it to climb.
If you get these three right, you avoid almost all problems and any of the problems that do occur resolve themselves typically.
It’s a plant that rewards attention to detail, and once you understand what it’s actually trying to do, it becomes genuinely satisfying to give it the right conditions and watch it respond.
Growing a monstera and have a question I haven’t covered? Leave a comment below, and I’m always happy to troubleshoot.