Last spring I got into this local Facebook group with a lot of plants waiting to be purchased or rescued. And here I found a girl wanting to exchange a fresh snip of Monstera Karstenianum (Peru) for some other fancy plant. All I had to offer were Scindapsus Pictus (Satin Pothos) clippings. She politely declined, but offered me a runner and a node with a dying leaf instead. I took the offer, being very confident in my abilities in plant rescue matters.
Since the runner already had some roots, I’ve put it in dirt and left the other bit in water. As I am impatient and didn’t see an immediate change to the runner, I unearthed it to see what’s going on with the roots. This is how I’ve discovered some horrible larvae eating the fragile roots and rotting taking over the rest. The research I did online made me think I was undermined by fungus gnats. At the same time, my node lost the leaf and metamorphosised into a shy wet stick.
This is the part were my gambling actually paid off. I turned the runner into more wet sticks and locked all of them into a jar with moss. Soon enough two of them developed some healthy roots. By this time I’ve learned how to make a better soil mix for aroids – with perlite and orchid bark added to boring soil. Placed both of the successful sticks in dirt and managed to fill the pot with three gorgeous leaves by the end of autumn. Too bad they decided to hibernate all winter, but I am happy they are still alive. As a back up, I still have a leftover wet stick that is just alive in moss – no growth or roots.
This particular monstera grows slower compared to Deliciosa or Adansonii and is frugal regarding light and water. Luckily for this plant, I live in a basement flat, so the humidity is spot on; although Peru is comfortable in low light, I’ve added some artificial lights to keep all my plants happy over winter.
I have a collection of photographs showing the progress, all posted on social media due to limited space here. Follow me on Instagram @greenmonstera.clinic
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