Hello!

I have purchased a cutting of a variegated monstera and I have received it today.
I have seen that the roots are rotting and I am not sure the steps to follow. I have read a bit about it and I have done the following: Cut off the black areas of the note and aerial root, wash with soap and let it dry. I am going to leave it overnight but, what should I do after? Does it have enough roots to pot it? Should I put it in moss or water first?

I am new to this and i need help!

I have attached a picture of the plant before and after I cut the rot part.

Thanks!!

Well, I think my first question is, why did you wash it with soap? If you see those teeny tiny hairs projecting off the very small adventitious root, those have probably been damaged by that treatment. You cut looks good, it looks like you got all the rot. Did you trim off the broken end of the longer adventitious root? If you didn;t you should,just above the break.

I would treat this with fungicide, and plant it in a small container just large enough to contain the roots, in a substrate of damp long fibered sphagnum moss. DAMP. NOT wet. Keep it damp, warm, in bright light. The remaining rootstock should begin to grow new small roots (this is how adventitious roots in epiphytes and hemi-epiphytes work) and after you can seen them running through the moss, and hopefully you see a new shoot emerge up top, you can transplant the whole moss plug into a nice well draining small pot of aroid-friendly substrate

But please be advised....you have to be PATIENT. This will take time, probably quite a bit of time, because not only was this damaged in shipping, it was also traumatized by the soap wash. Don;t be tempted to pull it up out of the moss to 'check the roots'. Leave it be. I think it is a viable cutting, but it won;t be if you monkey with it too much

Hello Gina1960,

Thank you for your quick response. I have read on many websites that a quick wash with soap where there was rot is recommended to kill the bacteria. I did not touch the tiny hairs of the root though. I've cut the long root as well but it seems it is getting darker again so I will keep an eye on it.

I will follow your instructions carefully. Thank you so much for your help!!! ;)

I think your cutting is viable but it may be dicey. Its always best to just leave things as natural as possible and introduce as few outside agents as possible. A real fungicide would have been better than soap and water. And please do NOT use Hydrogen Peroxide. Ever.

Hello Gina,

I am not sure if the node is still rotting. I have ordered the moss and should arrive tomorrow. Should I cut the black part or is it normal?

Thanks!

Its hard to tell. These small single node cuttings are always such a gamble. Do you have anything else you can put it in until you get some moss? Besides water? Some medium that you can place it in to hydrate the roots? I would mist those roots several times a day to keep them from desiccating

Hi Gina,

Just to be certain, I have removed the black areas of the node as I didn't find fungicide. I managed to buy moss so I will put it there later today.

Regarding the moss, would you recommend using a spray to make it moist only or fill the container and then remove all the water in order to soak the moss?

Thanks

Put the moss in a container and soak it in water until it is wet then squeeze out the excess water with your hand.

Thank you Gina. I have followed your indications. Hopefully it works!! ;)

I hope so....good luck!

Hello Gina,

I emailed the seller about the plant that he sold me and he wanted some pictures.

I have removed the node from the moss this morning and it seems the rotting keeps extending. I had to remove the aerial root as it was completely black and rotted. The small root is getting surrounded by black and there is also rot in the other end.

What would you advise? Trying to remove the black around the root again? Cutting both ends of the node removing the root and try to create new roots?

I couldn't find any fungicide (the Captan is not available in the UK). Do you know any other product? I found one spray but it's mostly for roses, not sure it will be effective but if you recommend using it, I could give it a go. Anything at this point is better than leaving it die... Do you think it's too late?

Thanks

I am assuming that the rose fungicide is Funginex which is an organophosphate and highly toxic. If you are very careful you could use it but ONLY outdoors and wear a face mask and gloves.

I actually think that if the seller will refund you, you should go that route, because there may be no way to stave off that rot. I know I am always on a soap box about this, but this is just one of my pet peeves....I have no idea about your seller's credentials but here we call people who sell these types of cuttings 'node flippers'. You need more plant material than you usually get in these purchases to have the best chance of making the plant go. To chop up a viable beautiful plant into basically as many sections as you can to sell them individually at a great profit is just really awful IMO

The seller will refund me the money, I have sent him the pictures already.

I want to do everything I can to try to save at least one bit of node. I will cut the black areas again today and research about rooting the node without any root.

Thank you so much for all your help Gina. We haven't been lucky this time but I'm sure this post will help more people in the same situation. ;)

If these sellers have to make more refunds maybe they will start sending more honest cuttings for the $$

Since you are getting a refund on this and it is so sad, would you be willing to try an experiment? People have recently started experimenting with air layering Monstera to get them to produce new shoots. The reason it seems to work is that when a plant in the wild gets accidentally broken in midst, it will grow a new shoot with a new apical meristem to continue growth. What you would do is to make a shallow cut half way through the stem just above the node and insert a plastic plant into it to keep it from closing, then see if a new shoot will emerge above the cut. I am going to try it with one of mine.

Hi!

Yes, I can definitely give that a try. I am waiting for the seller to confirm. The current node is around 1-2cm long only..

This is what I am trying with a plain green one.

Keep up posted on how both of your plants turn out. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Sorry I don't know why I keep getting dual posts.
Keep us posted on how both of your plants turn out. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Hello,

Unfortunately the node has expired and it iss completely black so I can't try the experiment you mentioned.

Thank you.