How Often Do Monstera Grow New Leaves? - Planet Houseplant

Monstera deliciosa grow quickly if you put them in a great environment and treat them well. They can grow leaves as often as every month

If you put them somewhere unsuitable, you might have to wait several months between new leaves.

There are also factors outside of your control, such as genetics that can influence how quickly your Monstera deliciosa grows.

Monstera deliciosa is slow-growing compared to other Monstera. If you want a Monstera that grows quickly, an adansonii or dubia might be more suitable OR you could go for something that just looks like a Monstera, like a Rhaphidophora tetrasperma or a mature golden Pothos.

How often do Monstera grow new leaves?

There is a huge amount of variation between individual specimens. Some Monstera deliciosa produce new leaves monthly, and others only produce three per year.

I have two Monstera next to each other in pretty much the same conditions: one has put out one new leaf this year, and the other has six.

Factors that impact how fast Monstera grow

There are a tonne of factors that influence how fast a Monstera grows:

• The amount of light it’s getting
• The amount of humidity it’s getting
• How healthy its roots are
• Whether it has pests/disease or not
• How warm it is
• How consistent its environment is
• Whether it’s climbing

These are all *technically* things you can control, but there are also factors that determine how often your Monstera will grow new leaves that you can’t really do anything about:

• Genetics

Monstera deliciosa are an incredibly popular houseplant, and they’re produced in labs and nurseries all over the world. Each grower will use different parent plants to produce their stock. Natural variations between plants mean that some will grow faster than others.

• Age

Monstera grow faster when they’re younger, and slow down when they’re old. They slow down further when they’re old and don’t have anything to climb, which I suspect is why one of my mime has slowed right down.

I direct the aerial roots into the soil so it is stable, but I think the stem (which is pretty thick) would prefer to be staked. I think it feels a bit exposed and vulnerable to snapping.

Does pruning Monstera slow growth?

NO. If you cut your Monstera back, it can actually give it more energy and start a growth spurt.

There might be an initial delay in growth, because when you cut off the apical bud (the growth point) the plant has to activate an axillary bud on a lower node, but once the new growth gets going, you can get a few new leaves in quick succession.

How to make your Monstera grow faster

There are three main ways to get Monstera to grow faster:

• Improve it’s environment
• Improve its care
• Stake it up

There are various different things you can do in each of the three categories to encourage your Monstera to grow faster.

Improve its environment

• Give it more light

One of the most common mistakes I see people making with Monstera deliciosa is not giving them enough light.

The light requirements of Monstera deliciosa can be summed as ‘more is better (within reason)’, yet they’re commonly sold as plants that can live in low light.

Monstera can live in low light, but they won’t grow very fast, if at all, and they’ll be much more at risk from pests and root rot than they would be if they were kept in brighter light.

My Monstera thrive (well, one of them does) in a big, south-facing window. I sometimes put them outside in summer for a bit of additional light. If that’s not an option for you, you could try adding some grow lights.

Increasing the light to Monstera deliciosa is the closest thing to a cheat code in the houseplant world. I put my Monstera right in front of the window and use it to shade my other plants.

• Give it higher humidity

Monstera deliciosa don’t have super high humidity requirements BUT increasing the humidity temporarily can give it a temporary boost to kick out some new growth.

To be perfectly honest I have no idea why it works, but it does – it can also encourage splits in the leaves.

It’s fine to mist Monstera, but misting is not the same as providing high humidity. You’ll either need a humidifier or you could try keeping your Monstera in a clear plastic box for a couple of months (if you can find a box big enough).

• Keep it warm

Monstera aren’t particularly picky about temperature, and they can survive surprisingly cold and hot weather. A guy in England managed to revive a Monstera that had been outside in -6˚C/21˚F, and they grow wild in Florida which can reach temperatures of 42˚C/109˚F.

However, surviving is not thriving, and regularly exposing your Monstera to temperatures it can’t grow in can slow growth. Not only can they not grow in low/high temperatures, but they need time to recover once the temperatures are in a comfortable range.

• Keep conditions constant

This is both the key to getting Monstera deliciosa to grow quickly AND the hardest thing to control.

Plants don’t move in their natural habitat, so they find change quite stressful. Monstera deal with stress well BUT it still slows their growth.

One of the biggest obstacles to Monstera growth is winter. Caring for Monstera in winter isn’t difficult – as long as you water them sparingly and don’t let them get too cold they won’t suffer BUT those cold months where they lie pretty much dormant will slow their growth.

If you can keep conditions constant year-round, you’ll be able to grow Monstera faster than those of us who get like five hours of grey light in December if we’re lucky. You can throw grow lights, heat mats, and humidifiers at the problem, but it can be a costly exercise.

I’ve also found that Monstera grow fine in bathrooms, but they don’t grow as quickly as they might elsewhere. Bathrooms tend to fluctuate quite a lot temperature-wise, which isn’t ideal if you want a fast-growing Monstera.

Improve its care

• Make sure its roots are healthy

Root health is determined by a few different things. You need to ensure that you’re watering your Monstera correctly – not too much and not too little. A big part of adequate hydration is ensuring your Monstera is in a suitable substrate.

The pot size also needs to be correct.

Unfortunately, there’s no right answer to getting these things right, because how often you water, the substrate you use, and the size of the pot all depend on both the environment your Monstera lives in and the care you give it.

• Keep it well fed

We don’t really know much about aroids to know their ideal fertilising regime. Most of the research we have around feeding plants comes from studies on crops.

However, last year I changed up my fertilising regimen a lot, and I found that my Monstera grew fastest if I added nutrients every other time I watered them.

Interestingly, my Thai Constellation and bathroom Monstera responded really well to increased feedings. The big, old one was entirely unmoved EXCEPT it grew a two-foot-long aerial root.

Check out my resources page if you want to know which fertiliser I use.

Stake it up

I think I’ve convinced myself my big Monstera needs a support. This is annoying because it’s perfectly capable of standing up perfectly solidly on its aerial roots. Perhaps it is just old? I’ll add a pole and report back.

The reason it’s so important to grow a Monstera vertically is that growing them up makes them think they’re climbing a tree and getting more light as they climb towards the sun (they don’t know they’re in a house).

This is true of most, if not all climbing plants. If you get two Pothos, one trailing and one climbing, and keep them in the exact same conditions, the climbing one will grow faster and bigger.

The reason I used Pothos in that example is you can't have trailing Monstera - their leaves are too big and heavy and you'll be forever running the risk of it snapping. Monstera deliciosa also don't crawl (not even the small-form ones) - they all want to climb.

There are a few different options when it comes to supporting Monstera:

• A moss pole

Moss poles are plastic or mesh poles stuffed with damp sphagnum moss. They’re great for staking climbing plants because as they grow, their aerial roots bury into the moss and change into a proper subterranean root system.

This is great for all climbing aroids, but it’s particularly good for Monstera because it negates the problem of them growing very tall and then getting droopy at the top due to lack of turgor pressure.

I don’t use moss poles (well, I have a couple) because you have to keep them hydrated and I’m terrible at remembering to water moss poles. I can barely remember to do my plants, never mind poles.

• Kratiste poles

I have a Kratiste review here, but they’re bark-like poles made from elephant grass and potato peels. You don’t need to wet them and the aerial roots attach by themselves BUT they don’t develop into another root system – they just grow and attach to the pole.

• Bamboo canes

Bamboo canes work fine, though they can be a bit flimsy for large Monstera. You’ll have to tie the stem to your Monstera yourself because the aerial roots won’t attach to bamboo.

• Coir pole

A solid, budget-friendly option, though I know a lot of people don’t like the way they look. Coir poles get a lot of flack because the aerial roots can’t attach by themselves (coir just isn’t attractive to aerial roots) but there’s nothing wrong with attaching the stem to the pole with garden ties or greening pins.

Don’t bother trying to keep coir wet. You’re fighting a losing battle. Get a moss pole instead.

• Directing the aerial roots back into the soil

I have four Monstera and none of them have a moss pole. Monstera grow long aerial roots that you can direct into the soil and they’re sturdy enough to support them.

As far as I’m aware, that’s perfectly sufficient to support them. Mine is incredibly solid in the pot and doesn’t lean or anything, but now I’m wondering if it would prefer something to climb.

Before I started writing this article I was 99% sure the reason one of my Monstera grows at a snail’s pace is because it’s incredibly old. Now I’m 85% sure it’s old age and 15% sure it needs a pole. Ugh.

• How to stake your Monstera – includes all the pros and cons

How long does it take to grow a Monstera from seed?

Growing Monstera deliciosa from seed isn’t a very efficient way of growing a Monstera quickly.

For one thing, unless you manage to get your Monstera to produce a fruit, it’s pretty difficult to get your hands on seeds – 99% of the posts I see on eBay and Etsy are scams.

It can take a year for the fruit to ripen, and then it can about 8 months to grow a Monstera from a seed to it’s first few leaves. Then it’s another year or two before you get fenestrated leaves IF you provide it with the correct environment and care.

Ok, I’m done. That’s everything I know about getting Monstera to grow faster.. I’m gonna go and give my Monstera a pole. I just bought a new one and everything.

Before you go, these articles might be of interest to you:

• The Ultimate Guide to Monstera Deliciosa (this covers EVERYTHING from toxicity to distribution etc etc)
• How to Care For Monstera deliciosa (this is care only)
• How to Propagate Monstera deliciosa