The unpretentiousness of the amazing evergreen monstera allows her to exist in the most difficult conditions. Perhaps this magnificent vitality was bestowed upon her by the tropical forests of equatorial America, because it is the birthplace of room monstera, a large vine, reaching 30-40 meters in natural conditions.
The room monstera, of course, is inferior in length to its wild counterparts, but in monumental decorativeness it has no equal.
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A large exotic liana, a representative of the aroid family, the monstera has become a kind of symbol of the success and respectability of many Russian companies. In a rare hall you will not find this bright amazing plant, requiring minimal maintenance costs.
Delicious Monstera (attractive) is a fast-growing liana with large bright green leaves decorated with deep symmetrical slots. It is successfully grown at home. The first leaves that do not have this feature are small, heart-shaped. The following, appearing as they grow, already reach the impressive sizes (up to half a meter) characteristic of the species. The sheet is smooth to the touch, pleasantly leathery, shiny. The homeland of the room monstera (equatorial tropics) took care of the discharge of excess moisture: the leaves remove it through special stomata located along the edge of the leaf.
Opposite to each leaf, air roots form on the back of the trunk that cannot be removed: they give the plant additional support and nutrition.
Cultivation and care
Deprived of any unusual requirements, the monstera grows up to five meters at home. Therefore, it is believed that this liana is a plant of large areas.
With good care, it can give the owners a magnificent white flower, which is not easy to obtain.
Superbly snow-white, it looks like calla lilies. In a greenhouse, you can get the fruit of a monstera, but in the usual home interior, this is not feasible. The fruit is edible, smells good and tastes like pineapple. But monstera is grown, first of all, as an unusual decoration of any room - an apartment or office.
Caring for a plant is to create conditions that are optimally close to its life in the natural environment. The homeland of Monstera room provided her with warmth and humidity. These two conditions must be met in the room where the vine is grown.
The temperature in the room should exceed + 16 ° C. Optimum for comfortable liana growth is considered to be an indicator of + 25 ° C. When the temperature drops to +12 ° C, the monstera stops growing.
Liana is hygrophilous and requires generous watering, but in winter, excess moisture can harm, especially when the temperature drops to critical levels. In such cases, watering is reduced as much as possible, preventing the soil from drying out: it must be moist. An increase in air temperature provokes the growth of monstera, and then watering is resumed. Spraying and washing the leaves with water is no less important in the comprehensive care of the vine. To give shine and more decorative to the leaves of the flower, add a little beer or milk to the spray bottle with water.
Light addictions of creepers
The homeland of the room monster, having taken care of increasing the survival of the liana in the conditions of the first tier of the jungle, instilled in her a fear of direct sunlight. When installing a container with a seedling, you should remember this. But going to extremes is also not necessary. Monstera is rather photophilous, with a lack of lighting it starts to hurt: it stops growing, the leaves lose their decorativeness, the color fades.
It is impossible not to recall the air roots surrounding the trunk and tending to the ground. They can be helped by using additional supports, consisting of a plastic net rolled up into a tube, into the cavity of which peat or coconut fiber is stuffed and kept moist. Such a trunk will not allow the air roots to dry and will create the necessary humidity in order for the monstera to develop correctly. The plant’s homeland offered just such living conditions - generous hydration, light and heat.
Transfer
For a large creeper, you need to select a volumetric pot (with a diameter of at least 0.3 m). To ensure air permeability, drainage is laid on the bottom of the container. Liana prefers light soils, consisting in equal proportions of peat, sand and compost soil. It is advisable to transplant the monstera every two years, gradually increasing the volume of the pot.
Disease
High invulnerability is another magnificent gift that the monstera’s homeland provided with this magnificent plant. With proper care, it rarely gets sick, and the flower announces violations in the content by changes in appearance. For example, the appearance of water droplets on the leaves indicates excessive moisture and excessive watering. The soil should be allowed to dry, otherwise the stem will not rot.
Increased air dryness can also cause creeper disease. In these cases, new leaves grow small and dark, and adults dry out, starting from the edges, and fall off later. A pot with a vine should be installed as far as possible from the heating battery, more often water, spray the plant and moisten the additional supports.
But it happens that even when observing the temperature and water regimes, a completely prosperous monstera is ill. The leaves turn yellow. What to do? If there are no signs of decay or drying out, then the root of the problem is lack of nutrition. It is necessary to carry out regular dressing with means for indoor flowers: in the summer period - weekly, in winter - monthly. Providing additional nutrition, deepen the air roots into the ground, holding them to the surface with plastic brackets.
Despite its exotic origin (the birthplace of the attractive monstera is the tropics of Brazil and America), the plant in question adapts well and grows quickly, delivering joy with its magnificent decorativeness and luxurious lush greenery.