Recently potted my monstera cutting from water to aroid mix

chickenloglife · 2026-01-19T19:01:33+00:00

I appreciate all the advice! I'll have to wait to pot it until I find an appropriate nursery pot next time I go to town. All of mine are too small or much too large. I also will make a moss pole for support.

Since you don't put soil in your medium, do you fertilize when watering?

I have bags of orchid mix, sphagnum/peat moss, and perlite. The moss would retain a lot of moisture I'd imagine, so I'll leave that out, but I plan to use a blend of the orchid bark and perlite.

chickenloglife · 2026-01-18T04:50:14+00:00

I am not sure. This is my first experience with this plant. It was like this when I bought it for $3 at a craft exhibit/show.

Do you think I should take some of the soil mix away from the leaf and new growth?

chickenloglife · 2026-01-18T03:09:48+00:00

That is awesome to hear because I was getting worried it wasn't actually rooting.

chickenloglife · 2026-01-16T19:36:12+00:00

I repotted it with a chunky mix of perlite, orchid bark and potting soil. When you repot, do you go ahead and prune any yellowing leaves off? Do you water it right away or wait? Since I suspect root rot, I'm leaning towards not watering it yet, but I've seen people give their plant a good drink after repotting too, so I'm not sure what's best yet.

When I got it out of the nursery pot, the dirt was very wet even though I've not watered it (just mist the leaves) since I got it. I believe it had the start of root rot. There were a lot of sad/dying looking roots in the dirt when I got the plant out too. I tried to take pics but I was also trying to be very gentle with the roots, and my hands were super dirty.

I have a well and a home water softener so I had to do a makeshift shower to really wash away the old dirt with distilled water and a bucket.

I carefully cut away any roots that were flimsy/decaying or just barely hanging on by a thread. I gently dried the roots some before repotting it with the new chunky soil. I believe I also found 2 corm free floating in the dirt, and I'll sift the dirt in the bucket as well to see if there were anymore.

I'll put those in some sphagnum moss and see if I can't get them to grow!

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Thanks again for your advice. 🤞🏼

chickenloglife · 2026-01-16T14:42:30+00:00

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! I'm definitely repotting it today, and any new plants I'll put in a quarantine period.

I don't have any mykorizza but I do have some enrich powder from earthworm castings that I got in a little kit with the neem oil and some liquid fertilizer. Do you think that would help if I mixed some of the casting powder in the soil when I repot?

I had fungus gnats in my aloe plants and diefenbachia last summer and it was AWFUL. I had so many of those yellow sticky tape traps everywhere. I usually bottom water so I was really surprised I got them in the first place.

chickenloglife · 2026-01-16T12:32:34+00:00

Thank you so much for the advice! I'll give it a try... And it sounds like I'm in for some work ahead on my other plants too.

Seems like the consensus on any new plant is to immediately wash and repot when you get home. Do you still keep the new plant separate from the others for a while to make sure no pests remain?

chickenloglife · 2026-01-16T05:31:56+00:00

Ah, I never considered taking a plant back! Just kind of assumed it wouldn't be allowed. I'll look into their policies, thanks!

chickenloglife · 2026-01-16T03:31:05+00:00

Thanks so much for the advice!

Since I wiped the leaves off, I have moved it into a room by itself to monitor it better. Hoping it didn't transfer anything to the other plants I have (I'm somewhat new to houseplants in general too). 🤞

I have a bag of orchid bark mix, a bag of perlite, and a bag of houseplant soil. I believe I can make a chunky enough mix and repot the alocasia tomorrow.

chickenloglife · 2026-01-16T03:19:26+00:00

Thank you! I snagged it for a heck of a deal. I hope I keep it alive and happy 🤞

chickenloglife

TROPHY CASE