Me, too! Me, too! I have Monsteras. I loooovvvvve my Monsteras Baby monster, although not as young as it looks. :: sniff :: It has been rather neglected (all of those sad leaves are the old ones) over the last three (could it be five?) or so years, but I'm trying to do better, and it seems to have forgiven me. I'll know it has for sure when it uncurls its first split leaf! Good thing that trellis isn't glued or soldered together, because it would not be easy to get the plant off it now if I needed to; the incredibly hot and humid summer we have been having has both of my monsters producing aerial roots like mad. * My pride and joy: (The photos I've tried to take don't do this specimen justice. It's going sideways at the moment, and probably spreads about five or so feet across. It's gaining length rapidly and will look fantastic when it's trained to go up.) Amazingly great buy/rescue from Wallyworld last summer; you have to nearly meet the delivery truck to get even remotely vigorous plants on a good day, and it's practically impossible to find any sort of generic-retail-store plant that isn't merely a cutting or three recently stuck in a pot. To find a still-alive plant with such a thick crown as this was incredible: It spent last summer on my deck recovering from its ordeal, miraculously survived the winter inside, and was spitting out new leaves as soon as I upped its water and put it out on the deck again this year. The first batch of this year's leaves (six) are just over 15" top-to-bottom and still growing. Second round (another six or so) are just unfurling. Dang thing is even sending up new shoots from that dense center! Eek. I'm already planning on building it a heavy-duty wheeled base so that I can at least turn it when I am no longer able to haul it up and down the stairs (Like perhaps next year? *lol*) And I've sketched out a pipe trellisto be anchored to the ceiling, if necessary!if I chicken out and find myself unable to give it a trim. (Not that that would be so bad; I've had no trouble rooting accidentally acquired pieces of Baby M in water and might take its thickly-leaved top off on purpose. It's just that I don't really need more monster monsteras) These two plants are actually getting a few hours of direct sun every day. (The big one sits close to a bare east window with a bit of direct morning light in the winter, and Baby M will likely get a sunnier spot than where it has spent the past few winters.) The older leaves do get a tad limp in the horrible heat we've been having (couple days hit 102 in the yard, probably even higher on the deck against the house) but they perk right back up with cooler temps and a good soaking. Had to laugh at that Philodendron selloum peeking out from a couple of Dan's photos I succumbed and rescued a somewhat young one of those just the other week (no where near as much crown as The Monster, but it is sending up some new shoots in an attempt to catch up with its cousin): Is it the size and shape of the leaves that make these giants so darn attractive? For me it certainly is. * Saw a neat thing at a local garden center's greenhouse earlier this month: they simply allowed the aerial roots from an ancient tree philo to curl down and around into a giant saucer of water! (Poor thing was, however, more roots than plant.)

Hi all, Thanks so much for your responses!! I got sidetracked by a home reno I was working on but that's all finished now so I have time for plants again. I have not yet taken the monstera out of the pot and continues to have yellowing. I am making it a priority to peek at the roots this week, I'll let you know what I find!! Lauren, I wanted to ask you again about your Black and Gold Cactus and Succulent mix. I know we talked about it a couple times and last fall you had good results with it for an arrowhead. How has the plant done in the meantime? Any other good or bad news with that mix? I'm thinking it might be a more appropriate medium for this monstera and I'm even considering it for a hart's tongue fern as those need superior drainage...

Yes, a node is the bud, the bump which is usually just above the line which divides sections of the stem. In your marked picture, you've indicated the brown section division line as a node rather than the bud, which isn't correct. You did identify a bud, which IS a node. Once a node breaks and produces a new growth, it can't regenerate again if the growth dies. If that growth dies but not all the way back to the parent stem, there could be a node that could grow. This is what has happened on your stem sections 4 and 5. So look for the nodes, the bumps on the stem, rather than stem sections. The node you cut into is high and obvious, sometimes they're flat with only an encircling indentation to show you where they are. I'm not of the opinion that cutting a stem with a node away from the parent plant will encourage it to grow. By doing that you cut off energy the main stem is providing to that stem sections with the node, making it weaker. You also introduce an open wound where rot could start. So there's no benefit by cutting in my opinion and I would leave everything alone, just be patient. It will grow whenever it's ready, it might even wait until spring. It's possible node 3 could grow, it hasn't turned black so that's a good sign. I suppose it depends on where the cut is on the node, hopefully it's on one side or the other of the microscopic tissue where growth comes from. There's a node between where you indicated Node 1 and Node 2. The node, the bump, should be just above the lower brown ring. I can't tell which way the short stem with Node 4 and 5 is growing, but there is a node in the section that comes off the main stem. The next section attached to it that terminates with a cut may or may not have a node. Looking carefully with a magnifying glass for the bumps might tell you. On watering, if you can't tell for sure if the medium is damp then it's pretty dry and I'd go ahead and water. These are tropical plants and don't like being completely dry at the roots.

Dark spot on leaf. I should say I have not fertilised this plant since I got it aside from one dose of superthrive.