Monstera brown edges
Plant: Monstera deliciosa
How long have you had the plant? 6 months to 1 year
Concerns:
Apart from the 2 latest leaves, all other leaves have started browning at the edges.
The last new leaf that the plant produced was in April (winter here in Australia now). This issue also started in April. The plant does not feel like its root bound as there’s space when I press the pot.
Light Situation:
How do you determine WHEN to water? I wait for the soil to become about halfway dry before watering.
Describe HOW you water: Pour a small amount of water onto the soil. I use to water it once a week with about 1 cup of water when the top 2 inches are dry and let the excess drain away. Since June I’ve been watering it once in 12 days or so depending on the soil since its winter here. I use to wash the plant including all its leaves before April, now very rarely.
Fertilizer? Yes, I’ve always used fertilizer – Plant Runner indoor plant food.
Soil:
Darryl’s Analysis
Environment:
The current location where you have it is okay in terms of light. When the sun hits the curtain, that would yield very good diffused light but if the curtain is down the rest of the day, that would be rather weak.
Effort:
Pouring a small amount of water will not adequately moisten all parts of the soil. Since your pot has drainage holes, you should water so that the entire soil volume is saturated, letting excess drain away.
To minimize future appearance of brown patches, it’s good to occasionally flush the soil so excess water that drains through can leach away built up minerals. Obviously, the pot must have a drainage hole in order to do the flushing. IMPORTANT: although this flushes out built up minerals, it also flushes out nutrients so be sure to keep up with fertilizing. And remember that this only minimizes the brown patches – you can never completely prevent it!
You can repot your Monstera into a pot that has roughly the same diameter as your largest leaf. So I think your plant can go into a larger pot than this.
Expectations:
The tips of Monstera leaves will likely become brown eventually no matter how good your care is. Ensure your environmental conditions are good for growth – most notably the light situation. Make that growth possible by watering/fertilizing/repotting accordingly. Then let Nature take its course – your plant can still grow as older leaves die.
My monstera’s nice new leaf, born in June of 2018.
And how it looks in March of 2021: years of hard work (transpiration and filtration of minerals). Since then, many new leaves have grown after this one. The overall plant is doing great!
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