Are you growing a monstera, but you are not happy with its look? Do you want to encourage this plant to become bushier, taller, and fuller? If yes, read this article to learn how to improve the look of your monstera following a few simple steps.
To grow a fabulous monstera, you should put this plant in an environment that mimics its native habitat. Generally, high humidity, bright indirect sunlight, adequate watering, and good drainage are enough to grow this plant at its full potential. But other actions such as pruning, repotting, and fertilizing are required if you want to get a remarkable monstera.
This article will give you all the secret tips that will help you shape your monstera as you want.
Let’s get started!
How to Make Monstera Bushier?
To make monstera bushier, you should prune it regularly and re-pot it every year by the end of the dormancy period. Additionally, by growing multiple monstera cuttings in a single pot, you will get a bushy plant later.
Let’s go over every step to help you get a bushy monstera.
Pruning
Pruning helps to shape your plants and maintain their growth pattern. For instance, if you have a small monstera that you wish to turn into a bushy, more dense plant, you will want to prune off any small or unhealthy leaves.
The act of pruning promotes healthy plant growth, and removing old parts of your plants, such as dead leaves and twigs, is essential for the development and health of your houseplants.
You can prune your monstera at any time of the year. But to get the best results, it is recommended to prune this plant by the end of winter or the beginning of spring.
Generally, dead and unhealthy leaves consume a big part of a plant’s energy. But trimming a plant just before the beginning of the growing season will help it focus all its energy on growing new leaves and maintaining healthy ones.
Finally, if you want to prune your monstera to make it bushier, then make sure to cut just above the node. This will help the plant to continue growing and produce new healthy leaves.
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Provide the Plant with Enough Light
To grow a bushy monstera, you must expose it to 8 to 10 hours of bright indirect sunlight daily. This can be easily achieved if you have a south-facing window or balcony where you live.
If you don’t have a south-facing window, you will be forced to use artificial light. The two leading artificial lights you can use for growing monstera are fluorescent and incandescent. There are several advantages to each type of light, and you should decide which one suits your needs best.
Fluorescent lights are often expensive, but the energy efficiency of these lights is excellent because they produce less heat.
On the other hand, incandescent bulbs are less intense, reducing the risk of burning the leaves. Additionally, these lights provide warmth which helps keep the plant warm during winter.
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Propagate Several Cuttings in One Pot
Propagating multiple monstera cuttings in one pot will ensure getting a bushy plant. Not only this, but if you get all the cuttings from the same mother plant, you will get leaves and branches of the same size, making the plant more aesthetically pleasing.
Growing multiple cuttings together in a single pot will also increase humidity which will be highly beneficial to monstera. In fact, maintaining a high humidity level for this plant is usually a challenge, especially if you grow it indoors. But, when the leaves and stems grow crowded with each other, the plant will increase humidity by releasing more water into the air.
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Re-pot
By repotting your monstera, you will improve the soil structure. This will give the roots more space to grow and support the growth of new healthy leaves and stems. Therefore, your plant will look bushier.
Monstera should be repotted every year by the end of winter or the beginning of the spring season. This will help the plant start the growing season in an optimal growing medium.
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How to Encourage Monstera to Grow Taller?
Provide Light from the Top
Providing plants with light from the top allows them to grow tall without stunting. In fact, plants naturally tend to grow in the direction of light. Therefore, providing light from above will force the plant to grow vertically instead of leaning to the right or left.
People who use grow light will find it easy to put the light source above the plant. However, if you increase your plant using natural sunlight, it might be impossible to control the direction of light. In this case, try at least to rotate your plant every few days to prevent it from leaning.
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Fertilize During the Growing Season
During the period of dormancy (the winter), monstera stops growing and enters a state of recovery and preparation for the upcoming growing season. Any fertilization during this period will impact how big the plant will develop later.
However, when the plants start to grow again in spring and summer, it is essential to provide them with fertilizer. This will guarantee they have enough energy to keep the old leaves and stems growing and produce new ones.
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Keep the Temperature Warm
Keeping your monstera warm promotes the production of chlorophyll, which is essential for the growth and development of the plant. Chlorophyll plays a significant role in photosynthesis, the process through which plants produce food and keep growing.
Creating a warm growing medium will benefit monstera, especially if you live somewhere where winter temperature drops below 50°F. You can do this by putting a heating pad below the pot or moving the plant to a room with AC.
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Maintain High Humidity
Monstera is sensitive to low humidity levels. When the humidity is below 60%, this plant may experience stunted growth, and leaves may change color. As a result, using a device that will help maintain high humidity constantly is a great idea.
To do this, you need to get a humidifier and install it in the plant’s room.
You can also increase the humidity by misting your monstera weekly. But this method is not accurate because you can’t control the amount of water that gets onto the foliage.
Additionally, you can use a tray or bowl of moist pebbles to increase the humidity of your plant.
