My newly purchased monstera producing a new leaf and yesterday I did give her a bath. The water drain pretty good then I put it outside while it drains the water out of the soil (i tilted a little bit so the water comes out faster). The monstera got exposed by a dawn sunlight a little bit, it's not hot but it's direct.

This morning I see the new leaf got browning as seen in the picture. Is it reversible? What should I do? When i touch the new leaf, the water drips a little.

Should I cut on this red line or what should I do at this point?

Well that is certainly a surprise leaf. It appears to be an all white leaf on a monstera that looks to be a non-variegated Monstera. And what is even stranger is that the meristem does not appear to show variegation either.

Don;t cut it iff, just leave it. Let it develop and see what happens. I know you think it ruins the 'perfect' appearance of your plant but there is no real reason to remove it yet.

I would be interested to see what it looks like once it's opened. You can always cut it off later if it's too badly damaged.

Gina1960 said:Well that is certainly a surprise leaf. It appears to be an all white leaf on a monstera that looks to be a non-variegated Monstera. And what is even stranger is that the meristem does not appear to show variegation either.

Don;t cut it iff, just leave it. Let it develop and see what happens. I know you think it ruins the 'perfect' appearance of your plant but there is no real reason to remove it yet.

Alright, I'll wait until it opens and I'd be very surprised if I actually get a variegated monstera as you can see mine is just a normal one. It's so sad to see all the inside is browning like a overcooked pancake 😭

Well the reason it is browning is because it looks to be completely without chlorophyll. That is why I say wait till it opens, and hardens off, to see if it has any green patterning or if it is truly albino. Which would be very bizarre in a plant that is to the eye anyway obviously non-variegated. But if your plant originally came from a plant that was variegated, and was pruned off because it was all green, it could still potentially hold some of the genes for variegation, and they might start expressing themselves.

This happens tp me all the time with ALocasia macrorhizza albo-variegata. My plants will throw out all green pups, which I remove and plant elsewhere. Sometimes those all green plants will again start throwing our variegated pups! Because they have the genes for variegation, but sometimes they are weak or too poorly expressed until a certain plant comes along that has a higher concentration of them

My first reply was deleted but... I just wanted to say I can't wait to see how that leaf turns out! And I sure hope your Monstera turns variegated

Speaking of that alocasia, including a photo of my newest leaf here!

Please keep us posted on the Monstera! I think there's almost nothing sweeter than a new Monstera leaf unfurling.

I was also drawn to this post because I'm also having issue with my variegated leaves browning - and help with this? Should I avoid getting water on the leaves? Same issue on my yellow standleyana but not on my white one 💝

(These are in our entryway so easier to get nighttime photos without my grow light but u can still see it on my little new white leaf, lol)

Your alocasia is a bit over potted. Don;t overwater that. The all white leaf may be an issue. If it stops putting out variegated leaves and only produces white leaves it could spell trouble.
I have been growing the variegated alocasia for 15+ years, its a great plant that kind of got forgotten about in recent years. Some of mine

Thank you Gina

Yes, the place I purchased it from said in the notes it needs a pot no smaller than 10inches, it looks totally dwarfed in there! So I only water near the center

Will I need to pull that leaf if the following are only white? What would you do in that case?

These plants can get up to about 5 feet tall if they are very very happy. No, I wouldn't remove that leaf yet. Hopefully it will be the only one. The leaves on this alocasia are exceptionally variable in their variegation. An all white leaf can be followed by and all green non-variegated leaf or by a leaf of exquisite variegation pattern.

If you get offsets that start coming out all white on 3+ leaves or all green on 3+ leaves, remove those from the pot. You can pay the green ones up separately, sometimes they will put out pups that are variegated. The all white ones usually just die.

Update: I'm so sad that this new leaf is really burnt and now I'm confused that many said that this could be a variegata monstera by the new leaf. I'm attaching the picture of the leaf and the new stem. It's not really white, it's like very light green.




I also attach a new cutting of monstera from a different plant that has new leaf and it's surely green and expected.



Let me know what you think

Yes your second leaf will be green. Your first still looks white, it may have been what is called MINT which is a transient variegation that occurs in plants (a good example is Philodendron 'Florida Ghost' which has leaves that start off white or cream, transition through 'mint' and then turn green).

Your plant still may have the genes for variegation, all be it weak ones. Don't remove that leaf if you haven;t already, keep it and let what remains of it harden off and see what color changes it goes through. Then wait for your next leaf and see what it does.

If your plant does have the gene for variegation, I would not expect it to be strongly variegated, they must be weak.

Gina1960 said:

Your plant still may have the genes for variegation, all be it weak ones. Don't remove that leaf if you haven;t already, keep it and let what remains of it harden off and see what color changes it goes through. Then wait for your next leaf and see what it does.

If your plant does have the gene for variegation, I would not expect it to be strongly variegated, they must be weak.

I won't remove the leaf as you suggested even though it's sad every time I see it. I talked to a local nursery (not 100% sure if it's true) that the green regular monstera foliage won't be burnt like that even if I put it under the sun. But the albo monstera can have browning like that just because the water that is stuck in the foliage. Is it true?

I've been eyeing for a monstera variegata as well and it's so darn expensive. 20-50x more expensive than the green one. I'm really wishing what I have now is ended up a variegated one, just a wish.

I'll update this thread once the leaf has fully unfurled and harden. #crossingmyfingers

The white parts of leaves do deteriorate a lot more easily than the green parts because of their lack of chlorophyll.

Noobsnoot,

Please don't be too sad when you look at the leaf! An unfurling leaf is a wonder of nature, even if she gets stuck there

I think you should see that leaf as a great point of pride and joy. It could be a sign of something really remarkable in your plant. Let's see what happens

I'd love if you can look at it and don't just feel sad but joy! I have been rooting albos for months now, and almost all of mine have browning leaves. I came to this thread because I wanted to know how to prevent that. I still haven't found any answers, but the plants are still exquisite even though they are not perfect.

Plants are quite remarkable, even when they're not particularly photogenic

Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us! Can't wait to see what she does next

Lacecha said:Noobsnoot,

Please don't be too sad when you look at the leaf! An unfurling leaf is a wonder of nature, even if she gets stuck there

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Wow.... What a great encouragement from you. Thank you so much.

It's just because of my friend's "poison" telling me and showing me the monstera variegata, now I can't stop looking for it. The price is insanely high in here, even some would just sell a stem, no root no leaf. I wouldn't touch that as I don't know what it may end up.

But everyone I show my burnt leaf, most of them asked me if mine is a variegated or even an albo. I super wish it is but as Gina said, it might have a very light variegation in the gene. But we'll see...

The unburnt parts are showing a light green colors now, the other half is totally gone burnt.

Looking forward to seeing what she does!

Don't worry about getting another albo for now, you might have one there! Plus it's always good to have aspirations, there's a lot of science out there saying that we actually get more joy from wanting something than from having or owning it. I don't think it's always the case, but I do generally notice that sometimes the sweet anticipation of something is even more remarkable than getting it.

How long have you been addicted to plants? Lol, I built up to getting my albo, it was an aspirational plant for me for a long time. I think with something like that it'll be good to either trade for it one day, receive it as a gift, or maybe save up for it. But no rush instagram is so great with the pics anyway.

Are your friends plant collectors too? Online or in person friends? I don't have any serious plant collectors in my friend group, but I wish I did! I'm very grateful for this community though

Lacecha said:

Looking forward to seeing what she does!
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Are your friends plant collectors too? Online or in person friends? I don't have any serious plant collectors in my friend group, but I wish I did! I'm very grateful for this community though

Yes, I got a few friends have become planters since covid19 stay at home period, myself included. I just become a planter for about 2 months and learning new things everyday. Many plants died on my hands, many has been grown from seeds (mostly vegetables and flowers) and now I'm doing monstera and ficus elastica propagation. I have a thread about my propagation on a different sub-topic.

What makes me wanting it so bad is because (high-likely: hype) I got one with reasonably good price but still way above what I usually pay for a plant. Been searching a lot and asking lots of sellers, seems like the one I saw in person is one of the handsomest one.





Others are asking for more expensive price but yeah, I don't know if I can pull out that much money, I almost did but I wasn't at peace buying it (maybe it's due to too expensive for me yet).

Some also sell just a stem with a root, cheaper but it's like a blind dating (even worse as you can't guarantee it might live) you don't know what it might become aside from the stem has white or yellow line on it.

The problem with the one called albo-variegata is that they can always revert to green at any time. When you are looking at an albo the think to look at is the meristem. The patterning of variegation arises from the meristem. If the stem is highly variegated, the its the best chance that the leaves will be and continue to be highly variegated.

The also form of variegation is considered unstable. Not transitory, but unstable. Its a genetic mutation, and like any genetic mutation, the plant can decide to mutate again and get rid of it.

You have 2 leaves that are not highly variegated and one that has a decent variegation. Hopefully it will continue.

Gina1960 said:The problem with the one called albo-variegata is that they can always revert to green at any time. When you are looking at an albo the think to look at is the meristem. The patterning of variegation arises from the meristem. If the stem is highly variegated, the its the best chance that the leaves will be and continue to be highly variegated.

The also form of variegation is considered unstable. Not transitory, but unstable.

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Gina, do you have any image of the meristem which considerably stable variegation and which are not? As for the one I'm showing in my previous post, that's not an albo, is it? It's not even a full flag pattern, and yes there's 2 almost all green leaves.

Is this one can be a stable one and maintain the variegation?

Or should I just go with thai constellation as it's man-made so I assume the variegation is more permanent?

What do you think? I wish the small one that I will (hopefully) buy can turn into a mature monstera variegata just like in the pictures in the internet, just beautiful.