According to Wikipedia, Monstera is a genus of 49 species of flowering plants native to the rainforests of Central America. This plant is known as the "Swiss Cheese plant" or "split-leaf philodendron". The name Monstera is derived from the Latin word "monstrous" or "abnormal" which refers to the unusual leaves with natural holes commonly grown indoors as houseplants. They are herbs or evergreen vines and can grow to a height of up to 20 meters in the wild. They prefer an environment with bright, indirect sunlight.
The tallest grow up to 4 meters and reach the second floor of our house. This area has never received direct sunlight.
20-liter gallons we use to place the stem cuttings.
We place the tallest Monstera in a bucket full of water, and if you look closely, you will find some little fish there. We never add any fertilizer.
The picture above and below were taken from the second floor.
We grew Monstera Delicosa from stem cuttings about 15 months ago. Unfortunately, I did not document the process. We had approximately 50 - 60 cm of stem cuttings that we immersed into a bucket full of water. The area where we grow them is at the back of our house by the kitchen. There's a space about 5 meters by 1.5 meters without a roof that gets less than 1 hour of direct sunlight every day.
Initially, we started with 2 plants and later propagated 2 more plants from stem cuttings when pruning. We place the cuttings into a bucket of water and 20-liter water gallons. We leave them there to grow with almost no intervention and no fertilizer. They are grown without soil and thrive. What baffles me is the fact that they do not require any fertilizer. We have a hydroponics grow bed in front of our house where we have to top up the water level every 2 weeks and add nutrients.
That's our Monstera Delicosa grown without soil and are thriving for the past 15 months. I don't know how much taller they can grow in this kind of environment.
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ABOUT ME
A baby boomer who is trying to embrace and adapt to the new digital world. After spending more than 30 years in the IT world before retiring, now running an online vegetable delivery and hydroponics equipment supplies business with his wife based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Enjoy traveling, cooking, writing, and all IT-related stuff. You're always welcome to leave a comment or feedback, and an upvote or reblog is also greatly appreciated.