Monstera Deliciosa, White Magic

A House von Dehn hybrid or ‘mutant’ found in a pot sold as the Common, large form Monstera Deliciosa.

Monstera Deliciosa Sport – House von Dehn ‘White Magic’

Such mutants are known in the plant hobbyist society as Monstera ‘Sport’, a leaf or stem that randomly mutates from the original leaf (it could be colour or shape, any noticable deviate-Sean from the norm). You can see in the photo above when this mutation occured by the succession of leaves on the plant, the first is a typical Monstera leaf. In the background, One can notice a tiny speck of white at the tip of the leaf – and that’s the One that caught My eye!

There is even more variegation on the third leaf, but it was facing away from Me at the time. The featured photo is the newest growth which suggests the mutate-Sean is proving successful and Will likely continue. The petioles (stems of the leaves) are also striped with creamy white which Will Show more as the plant grows.

8″ Starting Container and Growing Medium

I have several large form Monstera Deliciosa growing in various mediums and they are all thriving, My only regret was that I Wished I had transplanted the original Monstera I purchased into larger pots from the start. They are airoids, so they prefer well draining, ‘chunky’ soil – orchid bark and hydro clay work well mixed with succulent soil (sandier and faster draining than tropical soil mixes) and a healthy amount of perlite. Perlite should be one of every plant Lover’s best Friend. I’m thing King hydro clay might be the same but I’m just getting started with it.

I Wished to make sure this plant had all the best soil conditions from the start, so I divided the four original plants that came in a single six inch pot I purchased and placed them each into their own pot. Some I’m deliberately crowding by transplanting into four inch containers, eight inches for the largest and I used what I felt was the best mix of perlite, succulent soil, and hydroclay I have come up with so far for each. I used roughly equal measures of each by volume to get the mix pictured above.

Tip – Bonus Feature

Using things like hydroclay and perlite are also really Good for maintaining moisture levels without encouraging fungus gnats. I’m quite sure every tropical plant owner Will have had some experience with them at some point or another, especially if using typical tropical soil mixes and keeping One’s plants evenly watered. Having a surface of hydroclay and perlite looks really cool and doesn’t give the fungus gnats anywhere to lay eggs, so they disappear pretty quick. For some, that can be enough of a reason to switch to alternatives from typical soil mixes.