Super root bound Monstera

[JohnAndSancho]

This poor girl was in a 6" grower pot. I've had her a few months. There was honestly maybe 1/2" of soil sitting on top of this root ball, and I had to peel the grower pot off.

 

Plopped her in a 10"x14" pot today.  

[Reyes Vargas]

That is one of my favorite plants.  They get huge though.  I had one in the ground under a Texas ash when the freeze hit.  It was totally destroyed.  So I thought.

This Is what it looks like from a distance.

But then I looked a little closer and there was some new sprouts.

This particular plant has been very cold hardy for me.  It survived the white Christmas of 2004 the hard freeze of 2010 the ice storm of 2011 and now the arctic blast of 2021.  This is a keeper.

[Merlyn]

I've had the same experience with Monstera here, though not as cold.  My neighbors have some crawling 40' or more up their water oaks.  They'll burn to the ground in the occasional 25F cold blast, but pop right back up a few weeks later.

[Reyes Vargas]

Does anyone know what is the ultimate low at which point they will die completly?  Mine took 23° f and are still coming back.

[JohnAndSancho]

Dumb question for the plant experts 

 

My Monstera was throwing new leaves pretty regularly in the tiny pot, and it's slowed down since the repotting. Still looks healthy, it's spit out a couple new aerial roots. I'm assuming that the visible growth is slowing due to the rootball expanding in its new home - am I wrong? Other than having a bigger pot - and some actual soil vs a pot of nothing but roots - nothing else has changed. 

[Silas_Sancona]

3 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Dumb question for the plant experts 

 

My Monstera was throwing new leaves pretty regularly in the tiny pot, and it's slowed down since the repotting. Still looks healthy, it's spit out a couple new aerial roots. I'm assuming that the visible growth is slowing due to the rootball expanding in its new home - am I wrong? Other than having a bigger pot - and some actual soil vs a pot of nothing but roots - nothing else has changed. 

Kick back, and watch it grow..  Just feeling out it's new diggs atm. Will resume evolution to monster status shortly.

[JohnAndSancho]

15 minutes ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Kick back, and watch it grow..  Just feeling out it's new diggs atm. Will resume evolution to monster status shortly.

 

[Kevin S]

Some reason last year a whole bunch of them showed up at Home Depot‘s and Costco needless to say I pick one up from Costco it is way overgrown for its size of pot but I’m OK with that for now until I figure out which tree I wanted it to climb up.

[JohnAndSancho]

33 minutes ago, Kevin S said:

Some reason last year a whole bunch of them showed up at Home Depot‘s and Costco needless to say I pick one up from Costco it is way overgrown for its size of pot but I’m OK with that for now until I figure out which tree I wanted it to climb up.

They got really trendy on social media for a while. I just picked mine up because it was cheap. 

[Silas_Sancona]

1 hour ago, Kevin S said:

Some reason last year a whole bunch of them showed up at Home Depot‘s and Costco needless to say I pick one up from Costco it is way overgrown for its size of pot but I’m OK with that for now until I figure out which tree I wanted it to climb up.

You still flying back and forth between HI and Cali?

[dalmatiansoap]

How do they take direct sun? 

[JohnAndSancho]

On 5/16/2021 at 1:22 AM, dalmatiansoap said:

How do they take direct sun? 

I honestly can't answer that, mine is inside. I'd imagine they'd scorch though. I'd ask @Reyes Vargas 

 

Btw @Silas_Sancona there's now 5 new leaves starting. 

[Reyes Vargas]

On 5/16/2021 at 1:22 AM, dalmatiansoap said:

How do they take direct sun? 

These do not like full sun at least our Texas sun.  Like @JohnAndSancho said the leaves will burn.  I tried it and sure enough the leaves got burn holes.  In their native area they grow up trees but they always have shade from the canopy of the trees.

Mine that is in the ground is growing under an ash tree.  As you can see the canopy of the ash tree is not full but just that little shade makes all the difference.

Here is an update picture of the monstera 3 months after the freeze.

[Kevin S]

On 5/15/2021 at 11:21 PM, Silas_Sancona said:

You still flying back and forth between HI and Cali?

Yes I will post some photos of how the garden is going when I get back.

[JohnAndSancho]

Bumping this thread for a new question 

 

How - aside from cutting it and restarting so many new cuttings - do I make this more bushy? Mine obv started as a cutting, and it's getting like Manut Bol levels of tall (Google if you must) but it's pure vertical. I've taken it and wrapped it around a few bamboo stakes to try and get it more "bushy" and less "Shaqy" but it's all artificial. How do I get it to fill out more as it climbs? All of the new leaves it's thrown (and it's thrown A LOT since this post) have been purely vertical. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Bumping again. I'm training her to do some curving by wrapping the newest growth around bamboo stakes but I'd love her to be more bushy and less of a single vine that I'm just wrapping around. 

[Tracy]

On 6/8/2022 at 6:45 PM, JohnAndSancho said:

Bumping again. I'm training her to do some curving by wrapping the newest growth around bamboo stakes but I'd love her to be more bushy and less of a single vine that I'm just wrapping around. 

Give them something to cling onto and they will climb it.  I don't think you can do anything to tighten the internodes but as they get bigger the size of the leaves compensate to create a pretty full appearance.