Hello! I hope it’s ok to post questions like that here. I have ALWAYS had problems with Monsteras and their leaves browning and dying off. I always thought it might be a too dark or too sunny location. Now I’ve made some new living room space and I thought maaaybe this spot would be good (bit away from a large window, lots of light but no direct sunlight hits it)
But once again the leaves turn brown, just as they did with the regular Monsteras I had. I tried spraying them with water for humidity, but no help.
So now I wanna ask if anyone has an idea what could cause this? If there might be something I’m obviously doing wrong?
Any help would be greatly appreciated <3 🌿
Nitrogen burn?
Either from over fertizilation or bad/old soil.
Are you buying all these from the same place? Changing out the soil and reporting might help, but pretty sure these are just “difficult” plants.
Hmm I just bought it a few weeks ago and didn’t use fertilizer yet, is it recommended to change the soil right after buying?
Not all from the same place. This one I got at a more “high-end” place where they usually have a good quality
Thank you!
It might be something else.
But as far as repotting as soon as you get it, it depends. It might be fine for a year or two, or it might be completely rootbound in old soil that has no nutrients and just a bunch of nitrogen dumped on top as a bandaid.
I grew up on a farm, not an expert on houseplants. But most of the time if everything else seems fine but leaves are browning, it’s because there’s too much nitrogen. Especially for houseplants a lot of fertilizer is “slow release”, so if that’s the problem, repotting is the only fix. All that nitrogen in the soil will just stay there and keep getting picked up by the plant.
As far as I know, repotting “early” can’t really backfire either.
My experiences haven’t been too well with repotting, so I often try to avoid it as long as I can… but I just checked and that pot might actually be a little small for this plant. A few roots are sticking out of the drainage holes a bit
Yeah, that’s not just “rootbound” that’s a serious case.
A bigger pot and new soil will def help, just watch some YouTube videos first if you’re nervous.
But if it’s growing out of drainage holes, there’s too much roots and not enough soil in the pot.
I repotted it now and aside from tight roots I also found them and the soil to be really moist! If I’m lucky this helped - and I’ll pay more attention to let it dry more before watering again!
Yeah, the roots were about to start rotting then.
It should be fine now for a couple years.
Like I said tho, pretty sure that plant species is super picky. If it still dies you might want to try like a rubber plant or something. They’re pretty easy to keep alive, which make them a lot more forgiving.
It’s like learning how to drive a manual transmission on an old Civic instead of a Ferrari.
You can make a lot more mistakes and learn from them without ruining it.
Start with what’s easy, and then move on to more difficult options that you’d enjoy more.
But damage from under watering is always more gradual and less serious than over watering for any plant. I just water mine when the soil is visibly dry or leaves are droopy, and I’ve even managed to keep a fiddle leaf alive and growing for a couple years now. If I had started with that, I’d have killed a dozen learning the basics.
I do have a couple of rubber plants, but I found them to not be much easier to handle 😅 mine don’t flourish as they do for some people
You should always wait at least a week after bringing a plant home to repot. Let it get over the shock of moving before giving it a shock of repotting