Tony O’Neill, gardener and author of the popular “Composting Masterclass” and “Your First Vegetable Garden,” combines lifelong passion and expert knowledge to simplify the art of gardening. His mission? Helping you cultivate a thriving garden.
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Beautiful foliage! The significant aspect that makes Monstera stand out is their lovely dark-green fenestrated leaves. Their stunning appearance varies from one variety to the next, with the variegated ones taking the beauty levels a notch higher.
Besides the plain green shade, this variety has white, yellow, or cream markings that form a marvelous combination of colors. The leaves are the first thing that draws your eyes to any monstera variety.
Healthy Monstera plants produce new leaves every four to six weeks. If your plants are not growing new leaves within this time frame, you can speed up growth with additional care, like fertilizing and placing the plant under indirect bright light.
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While some are interested in ultimately having a monstera with many leaves that create a bushy appearance, others are content with having just the correct number that continues to grow steadily. We have pieced together this highly informative piece to answer how often monstera should produce new leaves, and we will also further tell you how you can speed up the process.
Continue reading this to learn more about monstera leaf production!
How Often Should Monstera Produce New Leaves?
With the right conditions, monstera grows at a fast pace. Expect to see new leaves after four to six weeks. Typically, your monstera has growth points or nodes where new leaves emerge from, and you will get one new leaf from each node. Therefore, the number of new leaves produced depends on the number of nodes available.
As monstera plants mature, they will develop more growth points, resulting in more leaves within this four-to-six-week timeframe.
For instance, you get yourself a monstera plant at the beginning of February. You nurture it and provide the ideal conditions it needs to thrive.
We mean the correct humidity levels, good lighting, and nutrition through fertilization under ideal conditions. Once you do all these things, you can expect to see new leaves on your monstera in the first or second week of March.
So, it is safe to say that monstera will have new leaves every month during their lifespan. However, it is essential to remember that the plant may get to a natural period of dormancy at some point in its lifetime; no new leaves arere produced.
One such dormancy period can be during the coldest seasons of the year.
During such times, your monstera will invest all its energy in supporting the health of the existing plants. The limited resources are utilized to stay alive other than producing new leaves.
Additionally, it is worth noting that the new leaves produced by your monstera will have a lighter shade of green (lime green) and are a bit thinner than the mature leaves on your plant. It would be best if you did not worry because as the leaves grow more significant, they will harden and get a richer shade of green.
You should be concerned if the plant’s existing mature leaves turn pale or light green can be a possible indication of pest infestation, inadequate light, or insufficient nutrition.
Naturally, monstera plants are climbing plants that attach to a support medium and grow upwards toward light sources. Outside, they can grow to a height of 15 to 30 feet.
When indoors, they have the potential to get to a height of between 10 to 15 feet. But many may experience a challenge maintaining a plant taller than 9 feet inside the house.
What contributes to this height is the leaves. Variegated monstera has a slower growth rate than the other varieties, which can be attributed to the less chlorophyll on their leaves, resulting in less energy for growth during photosynthesis.
The more leaves your monstera has, the more magnificent and taller it looks. Your monstera can produce as many leaves as your home can accommodate. All you need to do is nurture it well and give it time.
Plants like Rhaphidophora Tetrasperma can grow very quickly and will require pruning. known as the mini monster, it can grow up to 15 feet, so is a fast grower putting out many leaves per month
How to Speed Up the Growth of New Leaves on Monstera
Are you keen on getting your monstera to produce more new leaves faster? If yes, you will be happy to learn that you can do this easily with just a few tips and tricks. Here is what you can do to speed up the process
Give your monstera sufficient light
Light is an essential aspect in contributing to the extraordinary growth of plants. Your monstera needs sufficient light to successfully carry out photosynthesis and generate the energy needed to grow.
Therefore, to speed up the growth of new leaves on your monster, you must ensure it is exposed to plenty of bright indirect sunlight. Remember, plants grow leggy when light-deprived.
You can place your monstera in a south or west-facing window to encourage optimal growth. To minimize the chances of getting burnt by the sun, have a sheer curtain on the window that filters out direct sunlight.
If you have a variegated monstera, keep it a few meters away from the window since the white/yellow patches are more susceptible to burning.
Water your monstera properly.
Creating the right balance in your watering schedule is a great way to ensure your monstera has the ideal conditions to continue producing new leaves.
Neither should you underwater nor overwater your plant. To be safe, you will need to check the moisture levels on your plant every week before watering and only water it when you see that the soil is dry.
You can use a moisture probe to check the moisture levels for accuracy. If the moisture probe reads two or below, then it means it’s time to water your monster.
After watering your monstera, allow the excess water to drain away before returning the plant to its usual location. Remember, you are keen on getting a healthy plant with more new leaves, and you do not want to spoil this with root rot stealing your focus.
Increase the humidity in their surrounding
Your monstera will still grow in average room humidity of around 40%. But if you are keen on getting your monstera to grow faster and produce more leaves, then this humidity level won’t help you achieve this faster.
To speed up the process, you can increase the humidity levels in the area around it to a safe high of 65%. If the humidity levels get above 80%, your monstera will grow faster but will, unfortunately, be at risk of root rot, which you want to avoid at all costs.
For starters, you will need to get a hygrometer to check your room’s humidity levels. If they are anywhere around 60%, you have the ideal conditions to encourage faster growth in your monstera. Find that the humidity levels in your home are lower. You can get a humidifier that will help you raise the humidity levels in your home to an ideal level that encourages your monstera to chuck out new leaves faster.
The other alternative to raise humidity levels is to use pebble trays and regularly mist the leaves of your monstera. However, misting has an underlying risk of spreading diseases and fungus.
Keep the leaves of your monstera clean.
You will encourage your monstera to keep things clean by adding more new leaves. Having clean leaves is a great way to keep fungal diseases at bay.
Such diseases have a way of limiting the monstera’s growth. To clean the leaves of your monstera, you will first need to get a spray bottle. Fill it up with water, a teaspoon of neem oil, and a drop of dish soap. Shake it up to create a consistent solution.
Before spraying it on your monstera, please remove the visible dust on it using a dry cloth. After that, spray the mixture evenly on the leaves of your monstera. Now wipe each leaf with a cloth. Neem oil works so well in preventing pest attacks and kills any pests that might be on your monstera already.
Prune your monstera
Pruning is a fantastic way to boost the growth of new leaves on your monstera. You can begin doing this by cutting out the leaves at the furthest end of the stem in the middle of the monstera. You can also target the older stems that are fading away.
The node left at the cutting point is where new leaves will grow. When done carefully and right, pruning will promote the growth of new leaves faster and even lead to monstera with a bushy appearance. It is ideal for pruning your monstera in spring.
Report your monstera
As much as monstera doesn’t like a pot that is too large, it can grow better in a pot with enough room for its roots. It often grows an extensive root system within a short time. Therefore, you may need to change the pot as your plant continues to grow. If you notice the roots of your monstera are sneaking through the drainage holes or the roots are growing in a circle outside the pot, it’s time to repot your monstera.
Once your monstera is in the correct pot, with a good soil mix, proper growth will occur, and new leaves will surely come faster.
Fertilize it
Fertilizing your monstera will surely add the nutrients it needs for good growth. You can use diluted general fertilizer or worm castings to go the natural way, and the fertilizer will encourage your plant to have more vibrant and healthier foliage.
The general rule is to fertilize your monstera once a month, and adding fertilizer to moist soil has been proven to be more effective.
Also, read Why don’t my monstera leaves have fenestrations?
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Conclusion
In an ideal growth environment, Monstera plants should produce new leaves every four to six weeks. We have explored the possibilities of speeding things up in this article.
You can encourage your Monstera to produce new leaves even faster by giving it adequate light and the right amount of water, placing it in a room with optimal humidity levels that encourage faster growth and fertilizing it.
You can also speed things up by pruning the plant and repotting it when its root system expands. Once you follow these guidelines, you will have more new leaves popping up from your Monstera in no time. Hoping you found this piece informative, you can subscribe for more of these gardening posts by filling out the form below!
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