Swiss cheese plant (Monstera deliciosa) care

Aroids · easy to keep

The plant that put holes in a million living rooms. A monstera deliciosa is a climbing aroid from the rainforests of southern Mexico and Central America, where it hauls itself up tree trunks and grows leaves the size of a bin lid. The famous splits and holes — fenestrations — only appear as the plant matures, and only if it has enough light and something to climb; a young one in a dark corner makes plain heart-shaped leaves and stays that way.

Quick facts

Water

Water weekly. Water when the top 5 cm of mix is dry, then water until it runs out of the bottom. Monsteras would rather be a day late than a day early.

Light

Bright indirect light; an hour or two of early sun is fine, midday sun is not.

Humidity

Happy at normal room humidity; better above 50%.

Soil

A chunky aroid mix — bark, perlite and coir, something water runs straight through.

Feeding

A balanced liquid feed at half strength, every second or third watering in spring and summer.

Repotting

Repot once a year.

Toxic to pets

Toxic to cats, dogs and people if chewed — the sap carries insoluble calcium oxalate crystals, which burn the mouth and throat. Keep it off the floor if anything in the house tastes its way through life.

Difficulty

Easy.

Mature size

2–3 m tall indoors with a pole, leaves up to 60 cm across.

Native to

Southern Mexico to Panama.

Watering a Swiss cheese plant

Water weekly. Water when the top 5 cm of mix is dry, then water until it runs out of the bottom. Monsteras would rather be a day late than a day early.

That cadence is the one PlantParlour sets for this species when you name it, and it is deliberately on the cautious side — a plant that asks a day early is safer than one that asks a day late. Log each watering and the reminder moves with the plant rather than with the calendar.

Light

Bright indirect light, which in practice means a metre or two back from an east or west window, or right up against a north one. Monsteras will survive in low light and simply stop earning their name: the new leaves come out smaller and solid, with no splits. Direct midday sun bleaches them to a pale khaki.

Humidity and temperature

Happy at normal room humidity; better above 50%. Central heating in winter is what turns a comfortable room into a dry one, and it is the usual reason an established plant suddenly browns at the edges or picks up spider mites.

Soil and potting

Monsteras are climbers that root into bark in the wild, not into soil. A peat-only compost holds water against the roots and is the usual reason a healthy plant turns yellow. Cut potting soil half-and-half with orchid bark and perlite, or buy a ready-made aroid mix.

Feeding

A balanced liquid feed at half strength, every second or third watering in spring and summer. Stop feeding in autumn and start again when you see new growth in spring — feeding a plant that isn't growing just builds up salts in the pot.

Repotting

Repot once a year. Repot when roots come out of the drainage holes, in spring. Go up one pot size only — a monstera in too big a pot sits wet. Give it a moss pole at the same time: aerial roots that find something to climb produce noticeably larger, better-fenestrated leaves.

Common problems

• Yellow leaves, usually the oldest ones first

  Overwatering, or a mix that holds water. The roots have been wet long enough to start dying back.

  Fix: Let it dry out further between waterings, and repot into something chunkier if the mix stays soggy for days.

• New leaves come out small and with no splits

  Not enough light, or nothing to climb.

  Fix: Move it closer to the window and give it a moss pole. Fenestration is a maturity signal; the plant withholds it when conditions say stay small.

• Brown crispy edges

  Dry air, or a build-up of salts from tap water and fertiliser.

  Fix: Raise humidity, and flush the pot thoroughly with plain water every few months.

• Fine webbing between stems, leaves stippled pale

  Spider mites, which arrive in dry warm air.

  Fix: Shower the whole plant, then treat every five days for three weeks — one treatment never gets the eggs.

Propagation

Cut just below a node — the brown bump where a leaf and an aerial root meet. A cutting with a node and one leaf roots in water in three to six weeks, or straight into damp sphagnum. A cutting without a node will never root, however long you wait.

A cutting taken in PlantParlour keeps its link to the plant it came from, so a propagation years later still traces back to the mother plant — which is the point if you ever sell or trade it.

Toxicity and safety

Toxic to cats, dogs and people if chewed — the sap carries insoluble calcium oxalate crystals, which burn the mouth and throat. Keep it off the floor if anything in the house tastes its way through life.

Named cultivars and variegations

Monstera deliciosa is sold under several cultivar names. Care is the same unless noted; variegated forms carry less chlorophyll, so they grow more slowly and want more light than the plain species.

Questions people ask

Related plants

• Monstera adansonii
• Monstera obliqua
• Monstera standleyana
• Philodendron hederaceum
• Philodendron 'Florida Ghost'
• Philodendron 'Florida Beauty'
• Philodendron 'Prince of Orange'
• Philodendron 'Moonlight'

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