New leaves with no splits or holes
A monstera making plain leaves is a young monstera or a monstera in poor light. Why the splits appear, and what makes them come.
What it usually is
1 The plant is still young
| How to tell | A small plant, under about half a metre, making heart shaped leaves with no splits. Every monstera begins this way and the splits arrive as the plant matures, usually after several leaves. |
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| The fix | Nothing but time and light. Keep it growing steadily and the fifth or sixth leaf will show the first splits, then each one after that a little more. |
2 Not enough light
| How to tell | An established plant whose new leaves are plainer or smaller than the ones below, in a spot away from a window or one that has become shadier as a tree outside came into leaf. |
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| The fix | Move it to bright indirect light, near a window but out of harsh midday sun. Splitting is expensive and a plant that cannot pay makes the cheap version of a leaf. |
3 Nothing to climb
| How to tell | A mature plant sprawling sideways or trailing rather than climbing, with leaves that stay small. In the wild it climbs a trunk, and leaf size and splitting both increase as it rises. |
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| The fix | Give it a moss pole or a stout stake and tie the stems in loosely as they grow. Keep the pole damp. A monstera that is climbing makes noticeably larger, more divided leaves than the same plant left to sprawl. |
Through the year. New leaves made in the short days of winter are often smaller and less divided than the ones made in June, and that is not a fault. Judge the plant by the growth it makes between spring and autumn.
The holes and splits in a monstera leaf have a name, fenestration, and several explanations have been offered for them: letting light through to the leaves below, letting wind pass without tearing the leaf, spreading a given amount of leaf tissue over a wider area to catch the flecks of sun that move across a forest floor. Whichever is right, the plant only makes them when it can afford to, and that is the practical fact.
So the first question is always the plant’s age. A monstera grown from a cutting makes plain heart shaped leaves for its first several leaves, and there is no way to hurry that beyond keeping it growing well. People buy a small plant expecting the leaf in the photograph and are disappointed by a perfectly normal juvenile.
The second question is light. Bright indirect light is what the species wants: near a window, shaded from the hardest midday sun, and not two metres back in a corner. In poor light the plant makes smaller, plainer leaves and longer stems between them, which is the same economy described in the entry on leggy growth.
The third question, and the one people miss, is support. Monsteras are climbers. In the wild they find a trunk and go up it, and their leaves get larger and more divided as they climb, because the plant is reaching better light and can support more. A monstera left to sprawl across a table stays in a smaller version of itself. Giving it a moss pole, keeping the pole damp so the aerial roots grip it, and tying the stems in as they grow changes the plant within a season.
Two smaller notes. Feeding a monstera monthly through the growing season helps, but no amount of feed substitutes for light. And do not cut the aerial roots off: they are how the plant holds on and how it drinks from a damp pole. Tuck them into the pot or into the moss instead.
Entries that name it
What the journal says about this symptom on each plant.
| Dragon tail | Trailing rather than climbing, and probably not bright enough. Give it a moss pole. This species changes dramatically when it climbs, from small blue lance shaped leaves to large deeply cut ones. |
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| Mini monstera | Too little light, or no support to climb. Give it a pole and the brightest spot short of direct sun. On this plant the splits appear or disappear within two or three new leaves of a move. |
| Swiss cheese plant | Not enough light, or a young plant. Move it closer to a bright window. Leaves split as the plant matures and the light improves. |
| Swiss cheese vine | Not enough light, or nothing to climb. Move it brighter and give it a moss pole. The holes come with maturity, and maturity comes from climbing rather than trailing. |
Questions from the margin
- Why does my monstera have no holes?
- It is either young or short of light. Every monstera makes plain heart shaped leaves for its first several leaves, and an established plant in a dim spot makes the cheap version of a leaf. Both are fixed by time and a brighter position.
- How do I get bigger leaves on a monstera?
- Give it something to climb. It is a climber, and leaf size and splitting both increase as it rises. A damp moss pole with the stems tied in loosely changes the plant within a season, far more than feeding does.
Checked against RHS, Monstera deliciosa; Missouri Botanical Garden, Monstera deliciosa.