There are a number of reasons that a Monstera adansonii might droop, and if your plant is not looking as perky as you would expect, you need to find out why.
Reasons could include:
- Lack of water
- Too much water
- Disease
- Pests
- Temperature
- Lack of humidity
- Not enough food
Monstera plants can be reasonably easy to grow, but they are not the easiest plants in the world. If you don’t look after your Monstera, it will start to wilt.
Figuring out what’s wrong with your plant can be a challenge sometimes, and if you don’t know what’s wrong, you can’t fix it.
In this article, we’re gonna go over the reasons why your monstera adansonii may start drooping and possible solutions.
Reason One: Lack Of Water
One of the most common reasons for your plant to start drooping is a lack of water.
These are rainforest plants, and they like a damp environment. However, you do need to get the balance right, because if your plant dries out, its leaves will quickly start to wilt. The leaves are usually full of moisture, and without it, they will go limp and floppy.
Make sure that you are watering your Monstera adansonii frequently. How often you need to water it will depend upon your location, and what the weather is like. In the summer, you may need to water your plant more frequently than in the winter.
As a very rough rule of thumb, you should water your plant every week in the summer, and every one to two weeks in the winter. However, this will depend on other factors, such as the size of the plant’s pot, how good the drainage is, and how dry your home is.
Reason Two: Too Much Water
It might seem surprising, but an adansonii is just as likely to go limp if you over-water it. Even though the adansonii like to be in a damp environment, they will not handle being over-watered either.
If your plant never dries out, its roots will start to rot and cannot absorb water effectively. Your plant is therefore drying out even though you are watering it lots – it simply cannot get the drink that it needs.
Make sure that you only water your plant when it needs it. The soil should be dry to around an inch down before you give it a drink. You should always press a finger into the top of the pot and check how damp the soil feels. If the soil has not dried out, wait a bit longer before supplying it with more water.
Reason Three: Disease
If your plant is sick, it will often become limp and floppy. It will struggle to hold itself up because it will not be getting the nutrients it needs.
Diseases can attack the roots or the main plant, and both problems will cause limpness in the leaves. If your plant gets a disease, it may lose the turgor pressure that helps the plant to stay upright and firm, which is why it starts to flop over.
If your plant starts to wilt, check it for signs of disease. Signs may appear as leaf spots, leaf discoloration, or root rot. Your plant might start to lose a lot of its foliage.
Look over the foliage and if necessary, take your plant out of its pot to inspect the roots and make sure that they are healthy and strong.
Root rot will result in mushy, dark brown roots, instead of the normal cream-colored roots. If it has occurred, you need to cut away the rotten roots, and then pat the remaining roots dry. Use sterile tools and clean cloths so you don’t accidentally introduce more bacteria to the plant.
Make sure you pot your plant up in a new potting medium, with plenty of drainage to stop the problem from recurring.
Reason Four: Pests
Pests can make your plant turn limp because they will steal its resources and drink its sap. If it has a lot of bugs attacking it, it will very quickly start to wilt.
As soon as you see your Monstera adansonii wilting, you should check it over for pests. There are quite a few different insects that can infest this kind of plant, and all will be destructive if they occur in large numbers.
Scale insects are a particularly big problem. These can be quite hard to see. They are small, oval insects that often look like flecks of discoloration. They generally hide on the stems or leaf veins.
Another common issue is spider mites. These will leave little threads of web on the plant, and they drain your plant of sap. You can remove spider mites with soap and water, but scale insects are stubborn and may need to be wiped down with vodka to get rid of them.
Your plant will lose a lot of water if it is constantly being attacked by pests, so make sure you are on the lookout.
Reason Five: Temperature
Temperature is important to Monstera Adansonii. These are rainforest plants and they don’t cope well with cold temperatures. You need to ensure that your plant never gets too cold, especially if you live in a part of the world that experiences frosts.
Your plant will cope in temperatures of around 50 degrees F, but if it gets colder, it will start to suffer. In general, you want to keep the plant between 65 and 75 degrees F. This will help it to grow well, and keep it strong.
If your plant is always kept cold, it may be more susceptible to disease and pests, so it’s important to be aware of this. However, you don’t want to keep it hot; it should not be near a radiator or a heater of any sort.
If your plant gets shocked by a sudden drop in temperature, you need to bring it into a warm environment – but not a hot one. Place it somewhere that it can enjoy steady temperatures, preferably over 65 degrees, and protect it from any breezes.
Don’t grow your Monstera adansonii outside if your location does not have steady temperatures for most of the year. Make sure you bring it inside for the winter if you do live somewhere cold.
Reason Six: Lack Of Humidity
The Monstera adansonii will cope in reasonably dry environments, but it is much happier if it is kept in a humid space. Anything lower than fifty percent humidity is not great for the adansonii, and its leaves may start to curl or shrivel.
Monstera plants come from damp, rainforest environments, and it’s important to try and recreate this where possible. The average family home is too dry for a Monstera, so you may need to mist the adansonii occasionally.
You can increase the humidity levels of an adansonii by getting a plant mister and gently spraying the soil or the leaves of the plant a few mornings per week. The water will gently evaporate and humidify the plant, keeping it damp throughout the day.
The plant should then be dry by the evening so that it is not vulnerable to fungal infections. It is not good to leave your adansonii damp overnight, because it may get sick.
You might be surprised to learn that Monstera plants often need more humidity in the winter. This is because cold winter air tends to be very dry, and therefore you need to mist your plant more regularly when the weather is cold.
Reason Seven: Not Enough Food
If you have checked all of the above factors and none of them seem to be the cause of the problem, you should work out when you last fertilized your Monstera adansonii. Your plant does need to be fed from time to time, or it will run out of nutrients with which to grow.
You can get a soil test kit to see what nutrients your plant might be lacking, but you can also just add some general fertilizer to your plant’s pot. The one from the picture above is an 3-1-2 fertilizer that is safe to use in your indoor plants, including Monsteras.
Synthetic fertilizers are usually more concentrated, it is best to dilute them half-strengh, to avoid over-fertilizing.Then you can pour it around the base of the plant. You can do this once a month or once every two months during the growing season.
If you are just starting out and have never fertilized your Monstera before, feed it with smaller amounts than recommended on the package and at longer intervals. If it is responding well you can then gradually increase to the recommended dosage.
You don’t need to fertilize the plant during the winter, because it will not be growing much. Over-fertilizing can burn your plant’s roots, so don’t keep adding food to the pot when the plant is not using it.
If you have over-fertilized your plant, you should flush water through the soil repeatedly to clear the excess nutrients. Allow the soil to dry out, and your plant should be fine.
Conclusion
Your Monstera adansonii will droop whenever the conditions are not suiting it well. If your plant is drooping, you should check how damp the soil is, look for any diseases or pests, make sure that it is warm enough, and think about when you last fertilized it. Give it a little humidity boost when the weather is dry.