So earlier this month we attached our Monstera adansonii (Monkey Mask) to our black moss pole planter. Here are some photos from the journey and some tips and thoughts on repotting a monstera plant!
Choosing the right environment for your plant
We wanted to give this plant a great home, as it was clearly not thriving in its current one. We repotted it pretty soon after we bought it, and we are so glad we did, as its roots were being strangled!
We also used this as an opportunity to put this to the audience test and use our own moss pole planter for this one. We used the black planter as that was the clear audience favourite.
We went for this option as the planter was the right size and we wanted the moss pole to be securely fastened, so an integrated design made sense.
Checking the plant: prepare for repotting
A little extra love and care when repotting will go a long way in ensuring you don't encounter any surprises down the line. Check the condition of the roots, and look for any pups that might be growing under the soil line and draining the mother plant.
Cleaning the soil is best done in a gentle way. You can gently shake, nudge, or brush soil away. Do not pull hard, as you will break delicate roots.
Check for nasty horrible little plastic pots that might be strangling the roots! Even if there is no plastic pot residue, there may be other things strangling the roots, like poor quality or matted soil.
Placing the plant on the pole
There is no 100% right or wrong way to place a plant on a moss support, and with time, the plant's roots will find the pole anyways. But, there are a few quick tips to help you maximise moss pole benefits....
Try to angle the plant stems so that the little nubs at the back of the stem make contact with the moss. This will encourage root growth.
You can use ties or frog tape, our preferred method, to strap plants to the moss pole. Especially when you are training the plant to climb the moss pole, these tiny supports will help.
We then watered the entire moss pole, washed off substrate, and ensured the moss and the soil mix were properly hydrated.
Getting the right soil mix
Use a very chunky soil mix for all Philos and Monsteras, I've used a Soil Ninja mix as then I don't need to buy all the different components.
Anything growing up a fresh moss pole, and not up a dry coir pole, is going to have a lot more water dumped on it on a regular basis, and you don't want to risk having your roots sit in swampy dense soil.
That's another reason to use our planter, it ensures you get maximum drainage while keeping the moss on the pole separate from the substrate!
The results: How our monstera is doing now
This is the plant on repot day!
And below, a few weeks later, she is putting out new leaves and climbing her moss pole. In fact, we will be needing to add a moss pole extension pretty sharpish...
