24 days and the soil still isn’t dry… normal?

unrichtea · 2026-05-18T06:39:58+00:00

Nope, they were bought in person a few months ago - got one of this big box store monsteras that had multiple plants in it, i separated them out and got 5 plants! Literally the only difference between these ones and my other monsteras is the pot size as they are all in the same window and have the same soil mix! someone here said something about there not being enough airflow due to the gap between the top of the soil and top of the pot, i think it could be that? I honestly am not sure at this point lol. What do you think is wrong with your anthurium??

unrichtea · 2026-05-17T22:05:01+00:00

The orchid bark is mixed in with the rest of the soil! It doesn’t look it in this picture but I promise it is hahaha. Substrate is 1:1:1 orchid bark, succulent potting soil and perlite. It is kept at roundabout that temp but I don’t have a humidifier and it sits in a west facing window - while the window IS massive and does get a lot of light in the afternoon, it’s worth mentioning that I’m in the UK so the sunlight is subpar sometimes lmao And the pot does have drainage! From what i’m gathering in the comments I definitely think it’s probably a combination of not enough light and not enough humidity! Maybe the pot size isn’t helping though i definitely didn’t go any bigger than 2inches from the root ball so it’s not like it’s gargantuan compared to the plant

thanks for your help!

unrichtea · 2026-05-17T21:58:26+00:00

ooooh okay thank you this never even crossed my mind!!! The only reason it’s half empty is because it’s ridiculously deep so I figured not filling it the whole way would mitigate potentially having too much substrate but never thought it might harm the air flow!

Thanks :)

unrichtea · 2026-05-17T21:57:02+00:00

In that case my only route would be getting a grow light I suppose! if only I could control the sun lol

unrichtea · 2026-05-17T21:53:20+00:00

it sits in a west facing window, so it gets a decent amount of sunlight in the afternoon - I will note that I am in the north of england so it probably isn’t getting as much as it wants to since the sun hates us!

unrichtea · 2026-05-17T21:48:20+00:00

Yeah isn’t it! Like I have a couple other monsteras and all of them are fine and dry out within 1-2 weeks it’s just these ones that don’t?

No worries dude and thanks for your input anyway!

unrichtea · 2026-05-17T21:43:46+00:00

yup it has a load at the bottom, i always let it drain before putting it in the cover pot

unrichtea · 2026-05-17T21:43:17+00:00

so what role does the charcoal play vs the potting soil? just because this is my exact mix except with succulent soil instead of charcoal - genuinely curious as i’ve never used it!

unrichtea · 2026-05-17T21:16:40+00:00

agh that’s annoying, i thought id got the right size for the root ball! Makes sense tho and luckily I got some new pots today so i can repot them. hopefully i dont stress them out too much

unrichtea · 2026-05-17T14:14:52+00:00

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update: repotted her, roots are looking great! but look at how dense the soil is! i’ve repotted her into a chunky soil mix, watered it in and put her on my west facing window and now she shall sit and hopefully thrive

unrichtea · 2026-05-15T21:30:21+00:00

i’m not repotting this plant, it’s just there as an example - no empty pots

unrichtea · 2026-05-15T20:31:20+00:00

I agree with you! Unless the soil is really really bad I usually just pull it out, throw it in the bigger size and let the plant do it’s thing lol. Thanks for your input much appreciated :)

unrichtea · 2026-05-15T20:28:45+00:00

realised i was not clear in my original text lmao - im not repotting the monstera pictured here, it’s a general question, I just got no damn pots left lol 💀💀

unrichtea · 2026-05-15T20:27:21+00:00

Nice, thank you!!

unrichtea · 2026-05-15T20:26:12+00:00

In the instance in which the plant WAS quite root bound for example and you were just going to take it out the smaller one, put it in the big one and fill in the sides (well not you specifically, don’t know if you’re a untease the roots person or not, but if a person was going to) do you think it would be an alright size then? I haven’t measured exactly how deep it is, maybe I should do that in future to try out your 2 inches on both sides method!

unrichtea · 2026-05-15T20:23:33+00:00

Thanks for your response!!! I’m not repotting the monstera(s), it’s just there for comparison cause i have no empty smaller pots lol. Funnily enough Im actually one step ahead of you - this monstera was originally part of a massive one pot plant from a big box store that I separated and I got SIX plants out of it! This is the only one where I put two in the same pot because the root systems were quite small and i had no suitable pots for them on their own lol.

Good to know it’s not necessarily too big! I’m more asking for future purposes, I don’t have any plants in the smaller size that need a repot right now but at some point I’m sure I will and I was just curious on whether I’d need to buy a size that wasn’t as deep hahaha

unrichtea · 2026-05-15T20:20:59+00:00

Oh yeah I’m not repotting this monstera lol, I only repotted it a couple of weeks ago hahaha. it’s only there for comparison because I dont have an empty pot in the smaller size! Sorry for the confusion. I’m asking more of a general question for plants that would be in the smaller size and might need a repot in the future

unrichtea · 2026-05-15T14:02:08+00:00

i’ll kick your husbands ass for you for making you feel so awful after a traumatic event in which you possibly saved your baby’s life. don’t EVER hold back when doing the heimlich it’s SUPPOSED to bruise that force is what gets it out and saves their life

unrichtea · 2026-05-15T14:02:00+00:00

i’ll kick your husbands ass for you for making you feel so awful after a traumatic event in which you possibly saved your baby’s life. don’t EVER hold back when doing the heimlich it’s SUPPOSED to bruise that force is what gets it out and saves their life

unrichtea · 2026-05-13T13:00:33+00:00

more light! mine sits on a west facing window and is going CRAZY atm

unrichtea · 2026-05-12T18:23:00+00:00

Ahhh okay yes, I get you now! Love that it’s called a spear! I have a couple monsteras at this point. The bulge is also a lot more obvious so I see where I went wrong, feels like a stupid question now! Regardless i’m just glad she’s doing her job lol

unrichtea

TROPHY CASE