Monstera care: light, the holes and the support it needs
The holes are what people buy this plant for and they arrive with age and light rather than with anything you do. Everything else about it is undemanding until it gets big, and then it needs a pole and a floor. This page covers the light, the watering, the support and the size.
- Bright indirect light. The holes never form on a plant kept in a dark room.
- Let the top third of the compost dry, then water thoroughly and tip out the saucer.
- Toxic to cats and dogs on the ASPCA listing, in every part except the ripe fruit.
What a monstera is, and why it is not a philodendron
It is an evergreen climbing vine in the arum family, from the tropical forests that run from southern Mexico down into Central America. NC State is blunt that the split-leaf philodendron is not actually a philodendron: it sat in that genus once, the shops never updated, and the two are only family. The same family holds the peace lily, which wants much the same room.
In the forest it is a liana that climbs into the canopy, and Wisconsin Horticulture puts that climb at 21 metres or more on a stem that rarely branches. Indoors NC State keeps it to between 1.8 and 2.4 metres. The detail worth knowing is what a seedling does first: Wisconsin Horticulture describes it growing toward the darkest thing it can see until it hits a tree, then turning upward and pressing small unlobed leaves flat against the bark in a stage called a shingle plant. The plant you buy is a later version of that, and it is still looking for something to climb.
Why a monstera makes holes, and when
The holes come with age and light, and nothing else brings them forward. The RHS says the leaves usually only show them once plants are a few years old, so a young plant with whole leaves is not a plant you are treating badly. Wisconsin Horticulture adds the part you can act on: it will not develop the perforations when the light is inadequate.
Why they exist at all is not settled, and the two sources give different answers. The RHS writes that the holes are thought to let light through to the lower leaves as the plant climbs. Wisconsin Horticulture offers that they let high winds pass through a large leaf without tearing it. Neither states it as fact, and this page will not either.
The practical version is short. A plant in bright indirect light makes each new leaf bigger and more cut than the last, and the variegated kinds need more light than the plain green ones to do it at all, which NC State names directly. A plant in a dim corner stays whole-leaved and small however long you wait, and low light houseplants covers what to put there instead.
What you are signing up for with a monstera
The care is easy and the size is not. NC State lists no significant pest or disease problems, and the watering and feeding are ordinary. What catches people out is that this is a climbing forest plant in a living room: NC State says sturdy support is necessary to stop the stems breaking, and Wisconsin Horticulture puts single leaves at up to 45 cm across on leafstalks 30 cm long.
So the honest summary is that it is a cheap plant to keep and an expensive one to house. It wants a pole, then a corner, then a corner you stop using for anything else. It is also toxic to pets in every part except the ripe fruit. If the room is small or the animals chew, the plant is not the problem and a smaller species is the answer.
Monstera types and which one fits a small room
Two species do nearly all the work as houseplants and the rest are cultivars of the first. The RHS names Monstera deliciosa as the original and by far the most available, with Monstera adansonii as the smaller, less vigorous alternative, sold as the Mexican breadfruit plant and worth looking for when space is the constraint.
The variegated ones are the expensive tier and they are slower for a reason. White tissue does no photosynthesis, so Wisconsin Horticulture notes their leaves come out somewhat smaller than the plain species, and NC State lists both ‘Albo Variegata’ and ‘Thai Constellation’ as rare. Buy one for a spot you have already proved with a plain plant. The plant care guide has the light and water for everything else on the site.
| Type | Leaf | Size indoors | Suits a pocket? |
|---|
| Monstera deliciosa | Large, deeply cut, holes along the midrib with age | Reaches the ceiling if you let it | Only while young and whole-leaved |
| Monstera adansonii | Smaller, holes across the blade rather than cuts to the edge | Stays manageable, the one for a small room | Yes, and the better of the two |
| Monstera deliciosa ‘Variegata’ | White sectors and splashes across a green leaf | Slower, and smaller-leaved than the plain species | Only in a bright room |
| Monstera deliciosa ‘Albo-Variegata’ | Bold white blocks, often half a leaf at a time | Slow, rare and expensive | No, too slow to fill it |
| Monstera deliciosa ‘Thai Constellation’ | Creamy speckling and marbling all over the leaf | Slow, rare, more stable than the albo | No |
| Monstera obliqua | More hole than leaf, very thin tissue | Small, and difficult | No, it wants a case rather than a wall |
Where to put a monstera in a room
Put it in bright light with no sun on the leaves. The RHS names a west- or east-facing window and warns that direct sun scorches, and it keeps the room at 18 to 25°C, away from cold draughts and from direct heat. NC State gives a slightly wider comfortable band and the same instruction about the sun.
The one place the sources part company is winter. Wisconsin Horticulture says the plant does best in bright light in summer and direct sun in winter, which suits a northern climate where the winter sun is weak and low. The RHS keeps it out of direct sun all year. If you try the winter sill, watch the leaf that sits closest to the glass, because that is the one that tells you first.
Give it space before you give it light. A leaf 45 cm across needs room to open without pressing against a wall, and a plant turned a quarter turn each month grows evenly rather than leaning into the window. Large indoor plants covers the others that need a floor and a corner.
How often to water a monstera
Water thoroughly, then let the top third of the compost dry before the next one. That is NC State’s instruction, and the RHS puts the same thing as letting the compost become almost dry before watering it properly. Never leave the pot standing in a saucer of water: the RHS names that as the way the roots rot, and it is the most common way one of these dies indoors.
How long that takes is a property of the room. Missouri Botanical Garden lists light, temperature, vents, humidity and distance from the window as what sets how fast a pot dries, which is why a fixed number of days fails on the same plant in two rooms. The thick stems carry it through a forgotten week, so when you are unsure, wait.
Air matters more here than it does for most easy houseplants. The RHS says to mist the leaves regularly or stand the pot on a tray of moist gravel, and that the leaf edges brown when the air is too dry. NC State suggests the same pebble tray. Dry air and a heavy hand with the watering can leave different marks, and the problems table tells the two apart. What yellow leaves are telling you sorts out the rest.
Compost, feeding and repotting a monstera
It wants an open mix rather than a bag of multipurpose. The RHS blends one part ericaceous peat-free compost to two parts orchid compost and puts the target at pH 5 to 6, which is mostly bark: the roots came off a tree trunk and they want air. Feed with a balanced liquid fertiliser through the growing season, April to September, and stop for the winter.
Repot every few years, in spring, which NC State names as the season for both repotting and pruning. Go up one pot size. While you are there, wipe the dust off the leaves, which NC State lists as ordinary maintenance rather than housekeeping: a leaf this size collects enough to matter to it.
Aerial roots, a moss pole and pruning a monstera
The brown roots coming out of the stem are how the plant climbs, not a fault. Wisconsin Horticulture describes them as tentacle-like roots that attach to branches and trunks, with the tough ones growing downward from the stem and rooting if they reach the ground. Cutting them off every time is working against the plant.
Give them a pole instead. The RHS trains the stems onto a moss pole and says they will eventually root into it if the moss is kept moist, which is the whole trick: a dry pole is a stick the plant is tied to, and a damp one becomes part of it. NC State is firm that sturdy support is necessary to prevent the stems from breaking, and a large plant without one eventually leans until something gives. The same damp pole works for a pothos, which climbs the same way.
Prune in spring when it has taken over. The RHS cuts it back then, and every cut piece with a node and an aerial root nub is a new plant. Tuck a root you do not want back into the compost rather than trimming it at the stem.
Is a monstera safe for cats and dogs
No. The ASPCA lists it under cutleaf philodendron as toxic to cats and dogs, with insoluble calcium oxalates as the toxic principle, and names oral irritation, intense burning of the mouth, tongue and lips, drooling, vomiting and difficulty swallowing. The RHS says to wear gloves when handling it.
The ripe fruit is the one exception. Wisconsin Horticulture says every part contains oxalic acid except the ripe fruit, and that unripe fruit carries enough calcium oxalate crystals to cause immediate and painful irritation to the throat. Indoors it is academic, because the RHS says a houseplant is extremely unlikely to fruit at all.
If an animal in the house eats plants, height is a weak answer for a plant whose leaves reach out over a room. A prayer plant stays low, wants a similar spot and is on the ASPCA non-toxic listing.
A monstera in a wall planter
This is a plant the pocket holds for a while rather than for good. Use a young one, while the leaves are still whole and unlobed, because that is the stage Wisconsin Horticulture describes as pressing flat against a trunk, and a board is a reasonable stand-in for the trunk. Once the leaves start cutting, it is telling you it has found the light and wants to climb, and the next thing it needs is a floor pot and a pole. Living wall systems, compared covers the other ways to put plants on a wall.
While it is up there, turn the board a quarter turn each month. It leans and sculpts itself toward the light, so a board that never moves gives you a plant with a front and a back.
The Medium pocket holds 1.8 litres of substrate. The board hangs by a slot near its top on one wall hook, so the wall side is one screw, one plug and one drilled hole. Treat the filled weight like a heavy framed picture rather than a poster: plasterboard takes an expanding plug, brick a standard one, and a tiled wall needs a tile bit before the masonry bit. The mounting guide goes through it step by step.
- Fill the pocket a third full with an open, bark-heavy mix.
- Loosen the root ball and tuck any long aerial roots downward into the pocket.
- Backfill around the roots and press the stem upright.
- Water slowly, in measured amounts, until the substrate is evenly damp.
Monstera problems and how to fix them
| What you see | Why | The fix |
|---|
| New leaves arriving with no holes | Too little light, or a plant still too young | Move it brighter. The holes come with age and light and not before. |
| Yellow leaves low down on the plant | Compost that has stayed too wet | Let the top third dry, water less often and empty the saucer. |
| Brown crisp edges all round the leaf | Dry air | Stand the pot on damp gravel or move it somewhere more humid. |
| Small leaves on long stretching stems | Too little light and nothing to climb | Move it closer to the window and tie it onto a damp moss pole. |
| Stems bending or snapping under the leaves | No support under a plant that got heavy | Pole it now. NC State calls sturdy support necessary rather than optional. |
| White cottony masses in the leaf joints | Mealybugs, which the RHS says leave a sticky residue | Wipe them off and check weekly until nothing new appears. |
For the white cotton in the leaf joints, how to get rid of mealybugs covers the treatment.
How to propagate a monstera
Cuttings and layering both work, and NC State names them as the two methods. What the cutting has to carry is a node, the swollen point where a leaf and an aerial root come off the stem. A leaf on its own, however big, never becomes a plant.
- Take the cutting between spring and late summer, which is the window the RHS gives.
- Cut below a node, so the piece carries one leaf and one aerial root nub.
- Stand it in a glass of water somewhere bright, out of direct sun.
- Change the water weekly and wait for a good set of roots rather than the first one.
- Pot it into an open bark-heavy mix and give it something to lean on straight away.
Layering is the other route and it costs you nothing. Pin an aerial root down into a pot of compost while the stem is still attached to the parent, let it root where it touches, and cut it free once it has.
Why is my monstera crying water drops?
That is guttation, the plant pushing water out through pores at the leaf edge overnight when the roots take up more than the leaves are losing. It is harmless. Frequent guttation is a hint that you are watering slightly more often than the room needs.
Can you eat the fruit of a monstera?
The ripe fruit, yes. Wisconsin Horticulture describes it tasting of banana, pineapple and mango, and says it ripens from the bottom up as the hexagonal scales dry and fall away. Unripe fruit contains enough calcium oxalate to burn the throat, and the RHS says a houseplant is extremely unlikely to fruit anyway.
Is Monstera adansonii the same plant?
A different species in the same genus, and the better one for a small room. The RHS describes it as similar in looks but smaller in stature and less vigorous. Its holes sit inside the leaf rather than cutting through to the edge.
Does a monstera need a moss pole in a wall pocket?
Not while it is small enough to be in one. The board is the support at that stage and the plant presses against it the way a seedling presses against bark. Once the leaves start cutting, it wants a pole and a pot on the floor.
Can a monstera go outside in summer?
In a sheltered shaded spot while the nights stay warm, and back inside before they cool. The RHS keeps the plant between 18 and 25°C, so a cold night outdoors costs more than the summer outside gained it. Direct sun scorches it faster outdoors than behind glass.
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