Variegated Monstera Propagation Part Three: Repotting

Variegated Monstera Propagation Part 3: Repotting

This is part three of a growth story of a Variegated Monstera which has been grown from a single leaf cutting.  If you haven’t seen the first posts, you might want to see part one here and part two here.

After a year and half of growth in a self watering pot, this plant has grown from a single leaf cutting into a significant maturing plant.  The roots had grown significantly, and were actually growing through the drainage container.  It was was time for this plant to be repotted. It’s really important to get a self watering pot that isn’t too expensive, because you might need to cut it up (like I had to for this one) in order to not damage the roots of the plant.

20th July 2019: The plant in it’s original pot next to the new pot which it will be transplanted to. This photo also shows how the roots have been trained vertically to hopefully stabilise the plant in the future.

20th July 2019: The roots had grown so much that the pot needed to be cut off

20th July 2019: The root ball after the inner pot was cut

20th July 2019: The underside of the root ball shows how tight the roots were bound. This also shows an unfortunate accident which happened while cutting off the pot – the root was cut.

20th July 2019: Close up of the cut roots – only time will tell if this will kill the plant or not

20th July 2019: To remove the soil and spread the roots gently, the root ball was soaked in water

Tips when repotting into a self watering pot

Self watering pots work a little differently to normal ones, and there is a risk that your soil could stay too wet, which would mean that your plant wouldn’t get a chance to breathe.  Without drying out occasionally, the plant could get root rot and die.  To ensure that this doesn’t happen I chose to mix in some orchid planting mix which is larger and creates more space for air in the soil.

 

17th August 2019: The full size plant showing no signs of damage despite the cut root a few weeks ago.  The plant now has ten leaves.

17th August 2019: The side view of the plant showing how the aerial roots have been trained. The goal is that the roots will reach the water at the bottom of the self watering pot, and will continue to strengthen and stabilise the plant in the future.

 

14th September 2019: The plant now has ten leaves with another on the way

 

For up to date links to variegated monstera for sale, see this post.

If you haven’t seen the first posts, you might want to see part one here and part two here. which show the full growth story of the variegated monstera from a cutting.

Tips for growing a vareigated monstera indoors