It’s one of my favorite indoor plants — though in my experience, it’s not as easy-going as people often claim. I’ve seen huge, healthy Monsteras growing in pots that were either too small or way too big, planted in dense, cheap soil. Some of them were even thriving (somehow!) in terrible lighting — stuffed into the darkest corners of the room and completely ignored by their owners.

🧡 Why I Love Monsteras (Even When They’re Dramatic)

Monsteras are striking, iconic, and have a wild tropical vibe that brings a room to life. Thanks to their aroid nature, they can be trained to grow vertically on a pole, which makes them perfect even for smaller spaces. Unlike sprawling palms or bushy philodendrons that take up space in every direction, Monsteras are surprisingly space-efficient — and dramatic in the best way. But let’s not pretend they’re foolproof.

🌱 Root Rotting: A Cautionary Tale

My adventure with this beautiful tropical plant didn’t start well. I bought a healthy, bushy Monstera and, as many plant enthusiasts recommend, decided to repot it right away. It was clearly root-bound, so I chose a pot about 2 inches larger and used a “Monstera soil mix” that I’d bought, which was basically just regular potting soil with some perlite mixed in.

💧 Too Much Love: The Overwatering Mistake

I watered it thoroughly, let the excess drain, and hoped for quick growth. But after two weeks, the soil was still soggy. I waited another week — still no change. At that point, I started to worry and checked the roots. After some Googling, I suspected root rot, and unfortunately, I was right: most of the strong white roots were gone, and the ones that remained had turned brown and mushy.

🛠️ Recovery Mode: Trying to Save It

I was pretty discouraged, but I decided to try and save the plant. I trimmed off all the rotten roots, kept only the healthy ones, and repotted it — this time using a proper, chunky aroid mix in a smaller pot. I also decided to water very sparingly.

After about two months, new leaves finally appeared — but they looked sad. They were smaller than before, had brown spots, and didn’t seem healthy at all. I checked the roots again and discovered that even after ten weeks of not watering, the bottom part of the pot was still wet. That was the final straw — I gave up on that plant and decided to try again.

🌡️ Second Attempt: With a Moisture Meter

This time, I bought a new Monstera and a moisture meter to avoid repeating the same mistake. There’s a lot of debate about how accurate those meters are, but mine seemed to work pretty well. After watering, it showed a reading close to 10. Every few days, the number slowly dropped. I made a rule to water only when the meter read 1 (on a 0–10 scale). To my surprise, it took over three weeks of no watering to reach that level!

🤯 The Surprise: It Wasn’t Underwatering

At first, I was scared I’d kill the plant by underwatering it. I kept checking for symptoms — droopy leaves, dry tips, signs of stress. But nothing like that happened. In fact, I saw new leaves, looking strong and healthy — even better than before!

🧠 What I’ve Learned About Overwatering

In my experience, the biggest problem with overwatering is that it’s incredibly easy to overlook. If you don’t check the soil deeply enough, you might end up watering a plant that actually needs more time to dry out. And if you keep doing that, rot can spread beyond the roots — and at that point, it might be too late to save the plant.

Even chunky aroid mixes can retain too much moisture if they contain enough regular potting soil. Here are my tips to avoid overwatering:

• Invest in a moisture meter, if possible, and test whether its readings are consistent and reasonable.

• If you don’t have a meter, try the wooden stick method — insert it deep into the pot and check for dampness where most roots are.

• For small plants in plastic pots, the weight test can work well — just lift the pot before and after watering to get a sense of how heavy it is.

Big form vs. small form (formerly known as Borsigiana)

There’s a lot of discussion online about the two forms of Monstera deliciosa. Some people claim there’s only one true Monstera deliciosa, and that its appearance simply changes based on growing conditions. For example, suboptimal lighting can cause the internodes and petioles to elongate—and there’s definitely some truth to that. You can find plenty of photos of old Monsteras with leaves barely bigger than a Golden Pothos. On the other hand, some indoor Monsteras grown in sunny places like Australia develop absolutely massive leaves.

But growing conditions don’t seem to explain everything. I remember when I got my first Thai Constellation (which is supposed to be the large form)—it had huge leaves, and despite my far-from-ideal light levels, each new leaf came out bigger than the last. More recently, I bought a young plant with just three leaves, sold as Monstera deliciosa ‘Big Form’—and again, the leaves are huge. The newest one is actually the biggest I’ve ever had (see photo). Of course, one possible explanation is that it’s a cutting from a mature plant, which could explain the size.

In contrast, my bushy Monstera from Ikea (probably several plants in one pot) has never produced leaves anywhere near that size. That brings me to another possible factor: maybe the more plants you have in one pot, the smaller the individual leaves get. That’s why I recently separated one of them and placed it close to its “siblings.” I’ll be observing whether keeping a single Monstera on its own helps it grow larger leaves—time will tell.

💡 Final Thoughts

As a software developer, I always try to understand what and more importantly why went wrong so I can avoid the same mistakes in the future — and honestly, overwatering seems like the easiest way to kill indoor plants.

Once root rot sets in, the chances of saving your plant get pretty slim, at least in my experience with Monstera deliciosa. Sometimes it might be better to cut off everything that looks suspicious — even parts of the stem — and root what’s left in water. That approach worked great for one of my Monstera cuttings. After a few months, it had a strong root system and even started putting out new leaves.

But that’s a story for another post. 😉

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Tags: #MonsteraDeliciosa #RootRot #IndoorPlants #HouseplantCare #PlantParent #Overwatering #PlantTips