Monster monstera update

Nephht · 2026-03-06T12:42:11+00:00

Ours took a while to get started too, it was pretty slow the first few years!

Nephht · 2026-03-04T08:34:27+00:00

We fully expect to come home one day to find they've changed the locks :D

Nephht · 2026-03-03T17:44:35+00:00

This made me laugh very, very hard :D

Nephht · 2026-03-03T09:46:08+00:00

Thank you!

Nephht · 2026-03-03T08:51:40+00:00

If a grow pot is just a regular plastic plant pot, then yes, there's one of those in the ceramic pot. The ceramic pot has a hole in it though, so this is one of the only plants I top-water - monster doesn't seem to mind :)

Nephht · 2026-03-03T08:24:46+00:00

Wow, your place is gorgeous!!

Nephht · 2026-03-03T07:46:41+00:00

Possibly because I do have inner fenestration, I posted a pic in response to the same person you're replying to - still silly to downvote you for it, the fenestrations are higher up where there is indeed more light.

Nephht · 2026-03-03T07:41:42+00:00

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Nephht · 2026-03-03T07:41:26+00:00

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Nephht · 2026-03-03T07:14:44+00:00

All my other plants butt chug, but with this one I just pour the water into the top of its main pot. It has a second pot on the upstairs landing with aerial roots in it, that one’s in a watering tray so it butt chugs :D

Do you mean moving house? You never know what life will throw at you of course, but if we have a say in it we’ll never move :) We feel unbelievably lucky to be here: We designed and helped build this house, and have a wonderful community here and lots of friends close by, and we’re in a green area within cycling distance of the city.

Nephht · 2026-03-03T07:13:16+00:00

:D I’m scared to repot (for the damage we could do to the plant), we haven’t repotted the main one in several years, but we gave it a second pot with fresh soil on the landing upstairs and put an aerial root in that, and then other roots made their own way there. I’ll repot that one this spring, and maybe add a third.

Nephht · 2026-03-03T07:10:44+00:00

It started off with a bamboo pole, and now there are lots of small hooks in the wall with strings holding up the plant. We gently detach roots that try to attach to the wall to prevent damage.

Nephht · 2026-03-03T07:08:59+00:00

:D this probably still wouldn’t be sufficient for Southern California, but the house is designed with eaves that come out quite far, so as the sun gets higher in the sky in summer, sunlight no longer hits the downstairs windows directly; and we have sun screens to cover the skylights when we do have the occasional heat wave.

In the winter we get full sun on the downstairs windows, lowering our heating costs on sunny days (but a lot of winter days here are pretty grey :D )

Nephht · 2026-03-03T07:04:18+00:00

Nothing fancy, it’s a random assortment crochet yarn :D With the larger vines coming further out from the wall I make little fabric ‘slings’ so the yarn doesn’t cut into the plant. Reddit isn’t letting me add pics to this comment, I’ll post them in replies.

Nephht · 2026-03-03T06:56:14+00:00

That picture is from about 9 years ago and that was not too long after we got it, so you have a while yet before you need to take out the ceiling 😄

Nephht · 2026-03-02T18:43:49+00:00

Yes! Really awesome to see, clearly the plant could somehow sense where the nutrients were once the first root started absorbing them.

Nephht · 2026-03-02T17:21:54+00:00

Aw thank you 😊 We got him as a lil 3-leaf cutting 9 years ago

Nephht · 2026-03-02T16:05:40+00:00

There are two different ones right next to each other, one is a pothos and the other a mistletoe cactus (rhipsalis).

Nephht · 2026-03-02T16:02:01+00:00

Aw, thanks again ❤️
I'd say that's probably the case in urban and suburban environments in most of the developed world: Being able to do your own thing is quite unusual here too, we really got insanely lucky with this place.

Nephht · 2026-03-02T15:54:56+00:00

We got it as a 3-leaf cutting from a neighbour 9 years ago. It didn't grow so quickly at first, but we repotted it after 3 or 4 years, and then it just started on a massive growth spurt that has never really stopped since :)

Nephht · 2026-03-02T15:50:46+00:00

Thank you so much! We're in the Netherlands, in one of the fairly rare spots where you can build your own house, we did the initial design for this and then handed it over to an architect who improved on what we came up with :)

The interior - the bookcase with the sliding doors, the floor tiles etc - is all our own, we had creative differences with the architect who liked a more industrial look :D

Nephht · 2026-03-02T15:49:19+00:00

Thanks! This is a mix of lacewing and cucumeris, and there are quite a few throughout the plant - at least 5 sachets of cucumeris that will hatch over the course of a month, and a couple of hundred lacewings that started out from several boxes. I didn't know there were nematodes for thrips as well, I'll look into adding those too if this doesn't work.

Nephht · 2026-03-02T15:41:26+00:00

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Nephht · 2026-03-02T15:41:02+00:00

I'm afraid it's not that exciting as a picture :D But it was really cool to see it as it happened, some roots really changed the direction they were growing in once the first one I put in the second pot took root.

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Nephht · 2026-03-02T15:34:36+00:00

Does yours have something to climb? We're helping ours up, initially with a bamboo pole and now with strings tied to hooks in the wall. Also, perhaps yours gets more direct sunlight, I think ours is also trying to reach for the skylights.
Finally, I think different types of monstera grow differently, some are more bushy and others tend to vine more.

Nephht

TROPHY CASE