The victim:
https://preview.redd.it/vh2hma0s05rc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6077474aff2424be4adc30531157641a7452b8d5
Currently soaking it in my bathtub atm
Update:
A massacre has occurred.
https://preview.redd.it/fxna6bc095rc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e6fcdd270328c179df70973b939ea63141c2defa
Minimal progress has been made, but the painstaking cleanup process is foresighted.
As I try to untangle roots, I keep thinking to myself “why the bathtub and not outside?”.
I’m grown, but I think my mother might still beat me over this.
Sooo it was all suppose to stay in a container, obviously that didn’t happen, I guess now it’s just in a bigger container lol. I did make sure the plug is down and I will be scooping the dirt and white balls out with a fish net I have. I also have an aquarium siphon I can probably use to get the water out with.
Everything will be ok 😊(maybe 🥲)
I do a lot of crazy plant shit from my 2nd flr apt tub. A few minutes with a plunger really can get most anything like this down. Baking soda + hydrogen peroxide also is great at helping clear anything out.
Ive literally plunged out a few pounds of halved potatoes from my toilet.... dont ask.... also, dont absue substances
Lol the person on the first floor might be though.
I'm just imagining your downstairs neighbor calling the plumber and they pull sprouted potatoes out of their drain. "I swear those aren't mine!"
I used to live in a two story old house and sometimes clearing a issue upstairs would push it downstairs lol
I work long hours, so I do food prepping.
That week I was being exceptionally lazy, so rather than dicing potatoes for my stew I said fuck it and I halved them.
Queue a week later and I hadnt finished it. Manic cleaning episode while drinking pretty heavy. Dumped the half full slow cooker.... Flushed.... 2 seconds later "hmm... probably was not smart, why did I do that?"
LOL i did that once with pistachio shells and the garbage disposal. thought i was being efficient. realized after the shells were down the drain that huh. hard shells might not mix with mechanical gear. oh well. too late. turned on the disposal and broke the disposal. lesson learned? maybe.
Another update:
This one is less about the roots themselves and more about whats within.
I found a tiny spider and let him live. I felt bad about evicting him, but at least he can find a home somewhere else.
As I dig deeper into the roots, more creatures are starting to show themselves. Like an earwig. I tried to grab him too but he saw my attempts as danger and chose the murky water instead. I guess he’d rather go down with his ship 🫡
Saw some weird worm thing, not sure where he went. Seemed chill though.
Now I must carry on questioning every time I feel a tickle “was that a root or a bug?”.
Update 3:
The plants are broken up. There ended up being six of them. I started off being gentle and then reached a point where I just wanted to burn everything to the ground. Still, I made sure the larger roots survived even if they had to witness the murder of the thinner ones. I think I salvaged enough for the plants to be okay, but I shall see. I can definitely mark surgeon off future career possibilities.
I’m going to put 1-2 of the smaller ones in my 40gal aquarium and see how they grow in there. Hopefully they grow some more roots in the water as they got a bit more disemboweled than the others.
As for the larger ones, I’ll stick them in some pots and play a fun game of “Do I have more plants than pots or pots than plants?” Even though I know the answer to that one 😔
https://preview.redd.it/7mklgqitz5rc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=11e1c245364eae2adf22f295037e551e532b3a0f
The bathtub cleanup is actually going well. I covered the drain with a net to let all the water out without clogging it up. Scooped up the dirt, perlite, and roots. Now I just need to scrub and sanitize 👍🏻
I just used kitchen scissors to cut a root that was connecting two plants together and that was all. Everything else was pried apart, massaged apart, and may or may not have been stabbed by a screwdriver.
I did this to a rather entwined pot with three plants in it. Like you, I started gentle and ended up ripping them apart in frustration after about an hour. I had even less roots on 2/3 and damn near none on 1/3. They looked a bit sad for a while, but give them lots of bright light and they’ll bounce back!
honestly you could just cut off about an inch of the roots with a bread knife (like a root pancake) to encourage new growth and just repot the entire root ball into a pot 2-4” larger. good luck!
Yep. It's great for repots if you want to keep plant in the same size pot. Just chop off bottom third with a bread knife and repot with fresh soil into old pot.
I put mine in a larger pot, 4 inches larger. I did nothing to the roots, just plunked it into the pot and put some dirt around it. It was very root bound like this, and it did fine. Better then fine. These monsteras are very resilient. They're practically weeds
Correct. I took it out of the nursery pot and put it in a pot just a tad larger than what it came in! Added some soil, plopped her in and filled around the sides!
Sooo there’s like maybe 6 monsteras in the pot. I was too scared to take it on so I just left them as is. In just the last week and a half the ones in pink opened and the ones in blue are the current openers. The other new ones I’ve lost track of because this thing is seriously going wild! And that’s not counting all the little baby leaves at the bottom either! And I’ve only watered her twice!
https://preview.redd.it/wjhns098ycrc1.jpeg?width=2100&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=545afb2e2c92770b5de01cbbed3e2f02366d66cd
thats amazing! your plant looks beautiful. do you fertilize often? this is my first ever monstera so i'm not completely sure if im doing the right thing or not haha
I have not fertilized it yet! I do mist its leaves every night though with one of these!
https://preview.redd.it/qlhkomupsdrc1.png?width=2527&format=png&auto=webp&s=6bb7d5264b1b92fc36a3ca0803f298344914ceaf
Hey OP, I did this same thing a year and a half ago right on my living room floor. Today I have three healthy plants.
https://preview.redd.it/rl8a85lbearc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=adec31750410b757b05eb79244290ee783c629b5
Here’s the largest of the three which needs a repot itself now.
Oh yes that was my assistant during the operation. Her contributions included knocking over one of the freshly potted plants and a container of water. It’s all good though, she’s new lol.
https://preview.redd.it/kiwg1lew6brc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=28eb23d115f5c1e2e3f0b6c9f176e626a7386d94
Her name is Daisy and she showed up at my house the beginning of this month acting hungry and abandoned. I fed her for a few nights until she walked up to me and was THE SWEETEST THING EVER! I stayed on the front porch for hours with her laid on my chest and I just couldn’t bare to leave her out there. So I snuck her into the house while my parents slept and now shes ours lol!
She went to the vet Tuesday and was confirmed to be pregnant. She’s still a baby herself and early enough in her pregnancy to get spayed and have a kitty abor-, sorry, termination. Other than that, she was healthy and the vet described her as a “unicorn cat” because she was so well behaved. The cat distribution system worked its magic!
Basically plants don’t get as large if they are closely competing with other plants. Putting all these plants into a bigger pot will keep it bushy but ultimately small with small leaves. As a monstera fan part of the fun is having the biggest leaves with the most holes which you absolutely cannot accomplish indoors without separating these plants. This is a bigger deal in gardening/farming- like if you have two cabbage plants right next to each other neither of them will form a cabbage head- but if you provide proper spacing you’ll get two huge cabbages with the same exact amount of time/water/nutrients. Kinda like a goldfish growing as large as it’s bowl.
i admire your patients lol. but i do recommend looking into trimming your roots next time in the earlier steps in order to minimize time and confusion. it can be scary but ive done it to all my plants when i repot w no issues!
When doing things lately that are very difficult or time consuming or messy I’ve tried asking myself first, WHAT IS THE POINT? And if it’s something I can achieve with under 100 bucks, I usually just save myself the time… for an hour of cleaning up I could just buy another plant 😩😪 my time is too valuable lol
The victim: https://preview.redd.it/vh2hma0s05rc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6077474aff2424be4adc30531157641a7452b8d5 Currently soaking it in my bathtub atm
Can you keep us updated? I’m interested in seeing how this turns out, fingers crossed!
Update: A massacre has occurred. https://preview.redd.it/fxna6bc095rc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e6fcdd270328c179df70973b939ea63141c2defa Minimal progress has been made, but the painstaking cleanup process is foresighted. As I try to untangle roots, I keep thinking to myself “why the bathtub and not outside?”. I’m grown, but I think my mother might still beat me over this.
Don’t let it down the drain, it’ll clog.
Sooo it was all suppose to stay in a container, obviously that didn’t happen, I guess now it’s just in a bigger container lol. I did make sure the plug is down and I will be scooping the dirt and white balls out with a fish net I have. I also have an aquarium siphon I can probably use to get the water out with. Everything will be ok 😊(maybe 🥲)
I hope you just put the net over the drain instead of doing all that
That is exactly what I ended up doing and it worked out perfectly. It was a pretty easy cleanup, surprisingly:)
Nice! I'm glad it worked out, twas a beautiful mess tho I bet
Put a coffee filter over the drain. Make it easier to scoop dirt out once liquid has drained
I do a lot of crazy plant shit from my 2nd flr apt tub. A few minutes with a plunger really can get most anything like this down. Baking soda + hydrogen peroxide also is great at helping clear anything out. Ive literally plunged out a few pounds of halved potatoes from my toilet.... dont ask.... also, dont absue substances
Just because you have doesn’t mean you should 🙃
For sure. Just saying they aren't fucked
Lol the person on the first floor might be though. I'm just imagining your downstairs neighbor calling the plumber and they pull sprouted potatoes out of their drain. "I swear those aren't mine!" I used to live in a two story old house and sometimes clearing a issue upstairs would push it downstairs lol
You said don't ask, but I'm here asking how the hell halved potatoes ended up being flushed down your toilet 🤨
I work long hours, so I do food prepping. That week I was being exceptionally lazy, so rather than dicing potatoes for my stew I said fuck it and I halved them. Queue a week later and I hadnt finished it. Manic cleaning episode while drinking pretty heavy. Dumped the half full slow cooker.... Flushed.... 2 seconds later "hmm... probably was not smart, why did I do that?"
LOL i did that once with pistachio shells and the garbage disposal. thought i was being efficient. realized after the shells were down the drain that huh. hard shells might not mix with mechanical gear. oh well. too late. turned on the disposal and broke the disposal. lesson learned? maybe.
This is both very sad and slightly hilarious……
Another update: This one is less about the roots themselves and more about whats within. I found a tiny spider and let him live. I felt bad about evicting him, but at least he can find a home somewhere else. As I dig deeper into the roots, more creatures are starting to show themselves. Like an earwig. I tried to grab him too but he saw my attempts as danger and chose the murky water instead. I guess he’d rather go down with his ship 🫡 Saw some weird worm thing, not sure where he went. Seemed chill though. Now I must carry on questioning every time I feel a tickle “was that a root or a bug?”.
Update 3: The plants are broken up. There ended up being six of them. I started off being gentle and then reached a point where I just wanted to burn everything to the ground. Still, I made sure the larger roots survived even if they had to witness the murder of the thinner ones. I think I salvaged enough for the plants to be okay, but I shall see. I can definitely mark surgeon off future career possibilities. I’m going to put 1-2 of the smaller ones in my 40gal aquarium and see how they grow in there. Hopefully they grow some more roots in the water as they got a bit more disemboweled than the others. As for the larger ones, I’ll stick them in some pots and play a fun game of “Do I have more plants than pots or pots than plants?” Even though I know the answer to that one 😔 https://preview.redd.it/7mklgqitz5rc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=11e1c245364eae2adf22f295037e551e532b3a0f The bathtub cleanup is actually going well. I covered the drain with a net to let all the water out without clogging it up. Scooped up the dirt, perlite, and roots. Now I just need to scrub and sanitize 👍🏻
Wow. I honestly didn't think this was possible. Nice job! Could this have been prevented by RE planting the suckers when they sprout?
They're not suckers. This is the result of throwing a bunch of seeds into the soil. It's how these are produced for market.
what did you cut the roots with. I am so invested in your process.
I just used kitchen scissors to cut a root that was connecting two plants together and that was all. Everything else was pried apart, massaged apart, and may or may not have been stabbed by a screwdriver.
I did this to a rather entwined pot with three plants in it. Like you, I started gentle and ended up ripping them apart in frustration after about an hour. I had even less roots on 2/3 and damn near none on 1/3. They looked a bit sad for a while, but give them lots of bright light and they’ll bounce back!
I took a cutting from my monstera and put it in the filter (HOB) of my 55 and it threw out a new leaf in just a few weeks!
I took a cutting from my monstera and put it in the filter (HOB) of my 55 and it threw out a new leaf in just a few weeks!
I am cracking up over your writing style. You’re hilarious. Please share more of your botanical endeavours with us in the future!
I second this! OP provided such great commentary that I felt like I was there.
honestly you could just cut off about an inch of the roots with a bread knife (like a root pancake) to encourage new growth and just repot the entire root ball into a pot 2-4” larger. good luck!
You can do that and it won’t hurt the plant?
Yep. It's great for repots if you want to keep plant in the same size pot. Just chop off bottom third with a bread knife and repot with fresh soil into old pot.
Some root pruning can be beneficial to the plant.
I put mine in a larger pot, 4 inches larger. I did nothing to the roots, just plunked it into the pot and put some dirt around it. It was very root bound like this, and it did fine. Better then fine. These monsteras are very resilient. They're practically weeds
Same. I got mine a month ago and it was so root bound. I just put it in a larger pot with new soil and it’s already gotten 7 new leaves.
I need to do this. So just to confirm, you didn't touch the roots, right? Just put in a bigger pot with new soil?
Correct. I took it out of the nursery pot and put it in a pot just a tad larger than what it came in! Added some soil, plopped her in and filled around the sides!
Thank you! Will try this. 💕
girl SEVEN???? i repotted in feb and just got its first new leaf :(
Sooo there’s like maybe 6 monsteras in the pot. I was too scared to take it on so I just left them as is. In just the last week and a half the ones in pink opened and the ones in blue are the current openers. The other new ones I’ve lost track of because this thing is seriously going wild! And that’s not counting all the little baby leaves at the bottom either! And I’ve only watered her twice! https://preview.redd.it/wjhns098ycrc1.jpeg?width=2100&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=545afb2e2c92770b5de01cbbed3e2f02366d66cd
thats amazing! your plant looks beautiful. do you fertilize often? this is my first ever monstera so i'm not completely sure if im doing the right thing or not haha
I have not fertilized it yet! I do mist its leaves every night though with one of these! https://preview.redd.it/qlhkomupsdrc1.png?width=2527&format=png&auto=webp&s=6bb7d5264b1b92fc36a3ca0803f298344914ceaf
Hey OP, I did this same thing a year and a half ago right on my living room floor. Today I have three healthy plants. https://preview.redd.it/rl8a85lbearc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=adec31750410b757b05eb79244290ee783c629b5 Here’s the largest of the three which needs a repot itself now.
But why? Not necessary imo
Probably because there are 6 individual plants in there, and OP wanted to separate them. But what do I know, I'm only mostly literate. Haha
Cat tax please! I saw their little tail and now I must see the rest 😅
Good catch! Yes, cat tax!
Oh yes that was my assistant during the operation. Her contributions included knocking over one of the freshly potted plants and a container of water. It’s all good though, she’s new lol. https://preview.redd.it/kiwg1lew6brc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=28eb23d115f5c1e2e3f0b6c9f176e626a7386d94 Her name is Daisy and she showed up at my house the beginning of this month acting hungry and abandoned. I fed her for a few nights until she walked up to me and was THE SWEETEST THING EVER! I stayed on the front porch for hours with her laid on my chest and I just couldn’t bare to leave her out there. So I snuck her into the house while my parents slept and now shes ours lol! She went to the vet Tuesday and was confirmed to be pregnant. She’s still a baby herself and early enough in her pregnancy to get spayed and have a kitty abor-, sorry, termination. Other than that, she was healthy and the vet described her as a “unicorn cat” because she was so well behaved. The cat distribution system worked its magic!
She is an angel 🥹 so happy you found each other and you are getting her spayed! Trust the system 💪🏻😂
Like untangling Christmas lights on LSD. Good luck!
Is it really necessary to untangle root balls? I always just put it in a bigger pot with more soil, while keeping the shape.
Basically plants don’t get as large if they are closely competing with other plants. Putting all these plants into a bigger pot will keep it bushy but ultimately small with small leaves. As a monstera fan part of the fun is having the biggest leaves with the most holes which you absolutely cannot accomplish indoors without separating these plants. This is a bigger deal in gardening/farming- like if you have two cabbage plants right next to each other neither of them will form a cabbage head- but if you provide proper spacing you’ll get two huge cabbages with the same exact amount of time/water/nutrients. Kinda like a goldfish growing as large as it’s bowl.
That was so educational, thank you for this explanation! I now know the answer to my question on my original comment lol
They specifically wanted to separate the 6 individual plants.
i admire your patients lol. but i do recommend looking into trimming your roots next time in the earlier steps in order to minimize time and confusion. it can be scary but ive done it to all my plants when i repot w no issues!
🙏🏼
I am planning to do the same with my instant noodle-like monstera roots next week. Wish me luck!
When doing things lately that are very difficult or time consuming or messy I’ve tried asking myself first, WHAT IS THE POINT? And if it’s something I can achieve with under 100 bucks, I usually just save myself the time… for an hour of cleaning up I could just buy another plant 😩😪 my time is too valuable lol
But but but that is just not as satisfying and rewarding. Is the sadist in me.
I just got six monsteras for $12. Felt worth it to me but I see your point lol.
lol I honestly would have done the same thing but I saw your bathtub and know I would definitely have regrets 😪