Interesting to see more updates! I have a variegated monstera (it doesn't have that much white on most leaves though) and I'm thinking if I should take some cuttings from the upperpart because it's getting pretty high... Not sure yet what would be the best method for this, I've always just took cuttings and put them in water and they've been fine!

It's officially been 5 months! So here's the 30 May update:

Let's start with the good news

This guy looks luscious



And ROOTS!!!!!!


I don't want to get ahead of myself but this looks like it's going to turn into a new leaf!!!!




I'm so happy that this guy is alive and well!!!!
(Big thanks to @gina1960 )


Ok now for the more troubling news





I'm so happy that I did the "how long will these things last" experiment with the sacrificed white leaf. The first symptom I saw was a sort of shriveling. Which is exactly what this leaf is doing. In the photo you can see how it's curling backwards. I upped the watering schedule, but he doesn't seem to be improving. He lasted for 5 months with no roots (side note, THAT'S INCREDIBLE!).

I'm going to pray that this little guy makes it through 🤞 I'm going to just water and leaf ( ) him alone for another month or so. If there's no progress and he starts to go the way of the leaf sacrifice I'm going to stick him in water as an experiment.

I feel sometimes like I'm updating into the void. So if you're out there and reading this or if it's helpful let me know! 💗

This is such a fantastic thread. I bought a cutting in May and luckily with no rotting on the stem. It was also propagated in water with lots of water roots and I placed it in the orchid bark, perlite and charcoal mix straight away. I found it so useful to see your progress after experiencing the dreaded rot :-(. I'm excited to see when your first stem will start to grow as mine seems to be neither growing or doing badly.

I've been following!!

Just realize that until they really get going, variegated monsteras seem to be a lot slower growing than the green form. This is true of the propagations I have made over time. Sometimes it seems like they will never begin to pinnate, and once they do, it still takes a goodly amount of time between new leaves on fresh propagations. My old old mama plants make new leaves at a very fast rate.

8 JUL update!

Cutting No.1 is doing great, as is about to have a baby leaf! So far it looks mostly white but personally I'm hoping it's got some green. This guy also got a pot upgrade and has been moved outside to enjoy the summer humidity!



Now on to cutting No.2 if you've been following the thread you know that this cutting hasn't been doing well. You could see moisture loss and a leather texture on the stalk and the leaf. I believe I wasn't watering it enough. Sadly at this point even if I upped my watering schedule there was no change. It started going the way of the white leaf so I thought if it was going to die anyways might as well experiment.

So I plopped that guy down in a jar of water for a few days to see if he'd rehydrate.

Nothing.

I thought maybe recutting some of the stem might help it absorb.

Nothing.

Cut a little more until there was no more black left on the stem. Put him back in the glass.

Two days later his leaf unfurled and he came back to life!!! Rehydration success!!



He's also got a root! I'm going to keep him in the water because he still needs to rehydrate a bit more. I'm going to keep a close eye on it. Once he looks properly hydrated. I'll start moving him over to a soil mixture.

I'm so happy that I started experimenting or this baby would be toast! I mean he still might not make it, but at least right now there's some hope!

I literally made an account just to let you know that this is the most suspenseful Garden post I've ever read lol. I truly enjoyed it.

I just got myself a variegated monstera cutting. When i bought it the roots looked very thick and healthy but when it arrived they were shriveled and dry. Do you think there is a chance of revival? I'm about to pot it in a mixture of pearlite, soil, charcoal, and orchid bark but just a bit sad and am wondering if anyone has come back from a similar situation?

Not only are your roots shriveled but so is your cutting. It lookalike it has undergone extreme heat stress. Please tell my you didn't buy it from Thailand. If it was from a seller here you should send photos and ask for a refund. But in the meantime it needs to have extremely high humidity to make up for the fact that it has no viable looking roots. I would put it into damp sphagnum instead. Make a little tent around it (but don;t totally enclose it) and put a light over it (not too close just something to help generate enough heat to make humidity from the damp moss. Keep the moss damp not wet, see if it revives. You should trim the roots back to where you see they are not desiccated and mushy/collapsed.

Thank you! I have read about rooting on spagnum moss and bought some but wasn't sure which directing to take considering the circumstances. I have trimmed the roots, tented the glass, and placed him next to my humidifier. I will be sure to keep everyone posted and if anyone else has advice please keep it coming!

I do hate to bring this one other point up, but I had not seen your leaf before. I know it is gorgeous and you love it, but, in truth, for the best possible conditions for your cutting, you might should cut it off. That is a large leaf, and you have no root system to support it. It freaks me out that sellers will send the leaf intact, but not include enough roots and nodes to make the leaf salvageable

Thank you Gina! I'm all for chopping off leaves to promote growth. I would rather have a viable plant than one pretty leaf. Where do you recommend chopping it off? Right under the lead blade to the stem cutting?

To answer your earlier question, I did not buy from Thailand but from a personal seller who hadn't had much experience shipping and selling plants. I got it for a really good price and am hopeful for a successful recovery. I have a grow light on it now in addition the humidifier!

Thank you for all your responses and advice , I appreciate it greatly 😊!

I would just clip it half way down the petiole. Don't get too far down, you want to leave the viable meristem issue near the old cataphyll.

11 JUL Update


I can't tell quite yet but it looks like it's going to be an all white leaf 🍃 crossing my fingers for some green in there!!!!! This cutting is LOVING the Virginia humidity! He's located in a place where he gets a lot of diffused light, and not direct sunlight. I've seen more growth since I moved him outside in a few days than I've seen in 5 MONTHS!!! I have now relocated 3 of 5 monstera plants to spend the summer outside <3

Also moved all 4 fiddle trees, a few yuccas, & one tacca chantrieri (black bat flower plant, he's a jerk and the hardest plant I've ever owned) all out for some summer sunshine! Multiple neighbors had to be enlisted to help!

Update 14 JUL: I'm hoping that the previously cut off white leaf will be the same as the leaf unfurling. It's got a TINY bit of faint green in the top left corner. If you look at the original leaf I cut off it has the same pattern so maybe some green will develop!!!!!!! PLEASE!!! He's also got a small green stripe emerging from his stem. Praying this guy can produce another leaf. These all white leaves, while beautiful, are stressful! Hopefully some green and some new leaf babies happen!!!


Pale green stripe is hard to see but it's there! Hopefully it darkens!

can you take close ups of your meristem?

17 JUL Update: The Drama Continues...

I've read in my research that sometimes when a highly variegated cutting produces an all white leaf, said leaf may not produce more leaves I can't verify this but maybe @gina1960 can help us out!

There's a light green strip at the top of the leaf and a light light green very tiny strip on the new stem (meristem). But it's very faint. If you click and zoom in on the photos it's a bit more visible. I moved the plant to a much shadier location hoping that it might help a tiny bit.






My other guy has been re-trimmed and moved into moss!

The meristem on your first plant has a LOT of pure white. But it does have the capability of translating sufficient green as evidenced by your first leaf. You are just going to have to wait and see what happens with subsequent leaves. The plant won;t stop producing leaves, but if it persists in producing all white leaves, it may not make it because it will not be able to photosynthesize.

What you usually need to do in that case is to completely cut the stem back (like you are taking a top cutting) at the last node on the stem that produced a normal leaf. But since your plant is already a small cutting you may not have room to do that

21 JUL Update:

Thanks @gina1960 you are correct if it keeps producing all white leaves there might not be enough to cut back.

There's a little good news today the small green spot on the white leaf is getting a tiny bit darker and there will be a new leaf right where the green strip is in the meristem.



Keep your fingers crossed 🤞🥺

Hi everyone!
@PlantLove8 great just discovered your story and it gives me hope!
Congrats on the progress of your babies!
@Gina1960 thanks for all thé tips!!

So here's my story:
Please note, I'm a newbie and this was my first time trying to make something toot!

I bought a stem with a mature leaf with loads of aerial roots via facebook's marketplace. I went to pick it up and it looked healthy! The girl told me to put it in water for a couple of weeks so that some new roots would shoot.
So, just like someone else said, that's what I did, because that's what I'd been told and that's the info I found online. Until now. (Mind you, there were a lot of posts saying that you could also put straight in potting soil mix)

Here's what it looked like when I got it






So after a while I started noticing the longest root was getting mushy and there was some white fluffy stuff growing around what looked like might have become a new leaf ...
my first thought was fungus
I struggled to find info. I would sometimes find info on root rot but nothing on monsteras rooting in water... until now.
This is what it looked like at first






So after some investigation, I decided to cut some of the dying root and add some chlorine into the water. I'd also read about hydrogen peroxide but took me a while to get that.

Unfortunately, the rotting is persisting. The white stuff is coming back and doing a lot of damage (when I remove it and clean it, I notice the area where it was is going black)
I also noticed the new roots' tips were turning brown so I cut them (the tips)
And I also just noticed that the leaf seems to be curling....
So I got some hydrogen peroxide and did the whole process again.
Cleaned it. Put it in water with chlorine. Rinsed it. Then put it in water + hydrogen peroxide.
After reading this thread, I've decided I need to put it in soil mix now (although I'm not sure I can find everything you suggest using - I'm in europe so I need to see what I can get)
I'll just let it stay a bit longer in the water mix so that the hydrogen peroxide can do its magic (hopefully)

So is there hope for me?
Am I on the right path?