What it is
Monstera (Swiss Cheese Plant) (Monstera deliciosa) is in the Araceae (Arum) family. The trendy split-leaf climber - give it a moss pole and the leaves develop their famous holes as it matures.
How to grow it
It wants bright indirect light, water it moderate, and give it rich, well-drained soil. Target a soil pH around 5.5-7.0. Space plants about Pot apart. Expect roughly Cuttings root at nodes. Tender houseplant.
How it's used
Monstera (Swiss Cheese Plant) is used: houseplant.
🔎 How to identify it
- Large split and holed leaves
- Climbing with aerial roots
- Thick green stems
Edibility
How to grow & propagate monstera (swiss cheese plant)
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate monstera (swiss cheese plant)
The arum family is propagated vegetatively, not from seed. The edible types (taro) grow from cormels — offsets you break off the parent corm. The houseplant members (pothos, philodendron, monstera) root from stem cuttings taken at a node; drop them in water and they'll root in a couple weeks.
Beginner's path: take more cuttings than you think you need. They're free, they cost you nothing but a few minutes, and the ones that take more than make up for the ones that don't. This is how a single plant becomes a hedge, a row, or a gift for every neighbor on the street.
Growing monstera (swiss cheese plant) in Texas
Give it bright indirect light and rich, well-drained soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
Time your planting to our long warm season and watch the frost dates at both ends; the live weather tool on this site is built for exactly that.
In a container it'll dry faster than in the ground, so check the top inch of soil daily in summer; pots on a hot Texas patio can need water every single day.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly cuttings root at nodes before you're harvesting. Pick herbs in the morning after the dew dries for the strongest oils, and harvest little and often — regular cutting keeps a herb bushy and stops it bolting. The part you're after: fruit edible only when fully ripe; plant toxic.
Making more for free
If you want more, let your healthiest plants mature fully and collect the seed once it's dry on the plant — then store it somewhere cool, dark, and dry until next season.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.