Hello, I was hoping someone could give me some tips to keep this plant alive and thriving.

I was gifted a monstera plant in September. I was told they don't want much water. I live in Greece and I had the thing on the balcony, out of the direct sun, so I would water it once a week. I read that you should check the soil to see if it's moist to determine when to water it.

Eventually I put it in a bigger pot with some more soil around the original soil bundle, since the original one seemed quite small. Over the past few months, two of the smaller stems/leaves at the bottom gave up. When I showed a picture to the woman at the plant shop she said it looked like one had been overwatered and the other had been underwatered. I had made scaffolding on my balcony but she suggested I try to keep the whole thing more tight rather than allow it to spread outward. So I put some bamboo around it and some string. I need to adjust the strings.

I still feel like the lower leaves are sagging. Some outer edges of the big leaves appear burnt. I have put it for some brief periods in the direct sun as the woman at the shop suggested, but never for a long time. In the past few days I kept the plant inside cause it was quite cold, in a corner that actually got an hour or so of direct sunlight.

I'm attaching some pictures. In addition to the drooping leave, the trunk itself looks a little wrinkled, and I don't know why that is. Perhaps someone could give me some tips?

I appreciate it,
Homer

Its too dry. It needs more water. Depending on your temperatures, a monstera outdoors can be watered 2-4x a week

What is the compost like? How are you watering it?

I didn't use compost. I just bought some gardening soil from the grocery store. I water it around the edges to avoid water falling directly in center. I believe that can cause rot?

I'm not sure how you're watering around the edges but the plant needs a thorough watering. You need to soak the whole pot in a bucket of water until bubbles stop rising from the rootball then let it drain for a while until the water has run out of the bottom of the pot. A thorough watering followed by letting the soil dry out for the first few inches is much better than "little and often".

it is clearly wilted and I agree, it needs to be watered more often. With all those big leaves, it can use water quickly. ('compost' does mean 'potting mix' in some regions, I think true in this case)

Yes I mean potting compost in terms of the growing medium.

Thank you for all the replies!

Hello again,

It's been 5 days or so since I did what you guys suggested. I gave it a thorough watering and I placed the pot on top of some things to make sure the water could drain out of the holes underneath. I haven't watered it again since then. It still looks quite weak. I thought the watering would spruce it up some. Any suggestions? What is a good frequency/amount for watering?

Thanks

It's had a tough few months so give it some time to recuperate.
I generally CHECK mine once a week and water when they get to the point of needing water. You might want to look at it daily to get a feel for just how fast it dries out until you get comfortable.

Happy Plant Parenting!

yes you can still see the shelf in the potting mix where you repotted it. Just give it time to recover

Hey everyone,

In addition to that thorough watering, I watered it again a week or so later (when the dirt finally appeared to not be moist). That was a week or so ago and I can see the dirt is still moist so I haven't watered it again.

It appears to be getting worse rather than recovering. Check out the yellowing leaves. I had it indoors for a couple weeks cause it was quite cold. In that spot it would get an hour or so of sunlight through the windows. Since it seems to be dying still I put it back outside at the end of the balcony. It doesn't get any sunlight there but the weather has warmed up.

I'm at a loss with this thing.

The newest, biggest leaves look good and that's the important part. The smallest, oldest leaves are the first to go and the stress of the watering issues causes the plant to drop those first. Remove those if you don't like the look or leave them to help the plant. At a certain point it will be very obvious they need to go.

Agree. How cold is cold for you? The plants in the box stores here routinely sit out on the benches outside in the 30's with no protection. Some stores have a 'greenhouse room' they can close, some don't and just leave them outside under a shade cloth. Never hurts them. It takes low to mid 20's to really damage them here. Then they usually grow back from the stem. This one has been in the rainforest part of a theme park in orlando for like 20 years on the wall in the open Never gets hit even in 20's. Monstera are from Mexico. The aroids from Mexico tend to be a little hardier than other genera

The plants may be able to withstand low temperatures, but only if they're already growing outside. If you've had your plant indoors then put it outside then my guess it's suffering from cold shock and may not recover.

I don't know if it was indoors or outdoors at the shop. My sister bought it in mid September. I kept it outside for a good two months at least. I didn't move in inside until it went below 10 celsius outside (50 Fahrenheit). That's quite a bit warmer than the temperatures you guys mentioned. It rarely goes below freezing here in Athens. Perhaps I should leave it outside? I brought it in because I heard it's a tropical plant and I did go to ask the shop owner who said I could bring it in on very cold days. I put it back outside yesterday cause it's been in the 60's (fahrenheit) last couple days. The top leaves look better but a couple of them have started to get blacker on the tips.

Consider the stress the plant has experienced since September. Transport from the place it was grown to the store, to your house. In and out of the house, repotted.. all this can have severe consequences. You need to leave it alone for a while and let it get used to the conditions you have without too many changes.

50F is a zone 12-13 tropical climate for a night time temperature. 50F would not make a Monstera deliciosa BLINK. Even if it had been grown inside until it saw 50F

I really appreciate everyone's help on this. House plants seem to be more sensitive. I've tended to trees and vegetables plenty of times and never had issues.

I don't think this one was stressed by severe temperature changes. It didn't experience any. If anything it was the fact that I repotted it and apparently didn't water it enough the first couple of months. When repotting I simply put the whole thing in a slightly larger pot and added some more fresh dirt.

It was outdoors in warm weather until December. I only brought it in for a few days when it approached freezing, and another time when there was a violent storm which knocked it over and had the stems flailing about. I brought it in the that time too.

Honestly since I gave it that thorough watering it took a turn for the worse, and the black spots/yellowing leaves became more pronounced. I'm still hoping someone can shed light on how much water the plant needs.

In autumn I was told they don't need much water, and so as long as the dirt didn't seem fully dry I didn't water it. Now the dirt is still moist and it seems to be dying anyway. If two weeks go by and the dirt hasn't completely dried should I not water it? I don't have a definitive answer on how often and how much to water it.

You repot the way I repot. Its the way I was taught 30+ years ago.
Monstera in the wild would get just rainwater. And how much they get would depend on the area of the forest they were growing in. Plants on trees in disturbed forest where the canopy has been obliterated would get more....plants in the interior forest where the canopy is intact would get less.
I have had monsteras in containers before that were propagations I took off of my mature plants, I kept them wet. I grow in a greenhouse and in the growing season I water almost daily, because its extremely hot here. I have never lost a plant to too much water. But in a house, it may be different....low air movement, lower light, all conspire to not help the plant dry out