It is a month later and they look fabulous! Still short to the ground but flush with leaves and new buds. Perhaps this was not such a bad idea after all! Have started my first ever batch of alfalfa tea and will feed them that this weekend. Thanks to those of you who gave advice (as opposed to making snarky comments about my husband) ;-)

Here's a post from a couple years ago. It has some good ideas in it. Best of luck. I really hate fire ants. After all of this rain maybe they will wash away. Here is a link that might be useful: Fire ants

It looks like it was planted too low in the soil. The petioles of the lowest leaves look like they're emerging from the soil, when they should've been above the soil line. On top of that, it also looks like it's not getting watered enough; being in such a coarse, fast-draining mix. These plants love water. They just don't like soggy soils (which you don't have to worry about). The soil mix looks fine, and isn't much different than the mix I use for mine. It just needs to be watered more frequently. The leaf issues aren't from being "overwatered." It's from the petioles being under the soil line. Only the actual stems of the plants should be emerging from the soil. These plants have earned their monster reputations because they are tough plants. They couldn't care less about having their roots disturbed from being repotted. When I repotted mine, its roots were so tangled up that there was no hope of trying to separate them. So I hacked away roughly three-fourths of its roots, and it didn't phase my monstera one bit. It just grew newer ones to replace them. Mine stays outside for most of the year, where it grows like a weed. I brought it into my garage to place its pot in a bucket and let the whole root ball soak in some diluted fertilizer. I did this just yesterday, and my monstera has been soaking for a whole day. I meant to only let it soak overnight, but didn't get around to draining it just yet. Though I will first thing tomorrow. Not only will I drain away the water, but I'll immediately flush the whole pot out again with plenty of fresh water. After all of that, I'll let the excess water drain away. Does this mean that my plant was overwatered? No. Seeing as how it's potted in a coarse, fast-draining mix (just like yours), I never have to worry about "overwatering" my plants. Overwatering plants isn't about how much water you give them, but rather how much water remains in the soil after you've watered your plants. In their natural habitat, these plants grow close to water sources, and get rained on all of the time. So they're no strangers to water. But they're epiphytes, which means that they grow up the sides of trees. Which is why they don't like soggy, water retentive soils. I almost never let my monstera go dry. In the wintertime, I'll cut back on how often I water it, but when I do water it, I always flush out the whole entire pot with more than enough water. If you want proof, then just take a look at my plant. I repotted it back in the springtime, and since then, it has already filled in the whole entire pot with roots. Not to mention the aerial roots that are growing out in every direction. Even on its plant stand, its aerial roots are already laying on the ground, with no signs of stopping whatsoever.^ As you can see, I have it soaking in water with diluted fertilizer added to it right up to the soil line. After I drain the soil, I'll flush it out with plenty of fresh water. If I were to leave this plant soaking any longer than this, then it would most definitely begin to suffer from "overwatering." Once it's sufficiently drained, plenty of fresh air will rush into the soil to let its roots breathe in the oxygen they need to function properly. Another thing you'll notice is that only the actual stems are emerging from the soil. All of the petioles to each of its leaves are well above the soil line. The stems are where the aerial roots are emerging from. The petioles are what hold up and support the leaves. Those are what you are holding in your hand in your last photo. They suffered from being potted under the soil, not from being overwatered. If there are any other petioles still under the soil line, then I would repot the whole plant to raise them up above the surface of the soil. Don't worry about disturbing their roots. These monsters couldn't care less about that. ^ Here is where I keep it in my front yard, which faces north. The morning sunlight is shining on it in this photo, but my roof shades it from direct sunlight throughout the rest of the day. Monstera deliciosas are very thirsty plants. They soak up and require lots of fresh water. I have mine in a self-watering pot, which has a small reservoir at the bottom to hold water. I will soak my monstera in the evening and fill up that reservoir before nightfall. Then the very next day, that reservoir will be empty. But my monstera is outside, and it's summer, so it goes through a lot more water than a monstera that is being grown indoors.

@ci_lantro we “could” fit a table when needed, it would just be the first thing you’d see when entering the home (you enter and the kitchen is on right and the living room is on left…it is a metal building with 1583sq ft living quarters) and to me, makes it feel crowded and I am a major minimalist, so anything feeling crowded will drive me mad. I totally understand what you are saying and again, push come to shove I can put one there :)