monstera broke at thick trunk

Question

I have a humungous 15 year+ monstera plant in a large pot w/ a stake. I just moved it outside and it broke right at the thick trunk, about 12″ from the soil. The straps that secured it to the stake broke and then the plant fell on its side and broke at the trunk as mentioned. I immersed the broken trunk end in water.

I want to repot the plant but the soil seems tangled with roots of other plant shoots that were propagated by the original owner who sold me the plant about 3 years ago. How do I repot, maintaining aerial and buried roots?

Do I have to sacrifice some of these plants? It seems like there’s way too many to keep in the same pot, and I would rather keep the old “granddaddy” because of its huge leaves. I would prefer to transfer the smaller ones to their own pot. My fear is all their roots have become tangled over the years and are inseparable. I’m afraid if I remove all the smaller plants that are there I will disturb the root ball for the granddaddy. Is this true or can you advise me on a technique to take apart monstera plants that have shared the same soil for many years.

Meanwhile, the broken end is in water. I am thinking I will go buy some soil and remove all the small surrounding babies from the pot and start fresh, putting the existing granddaddy w/ the broken trunk directly into the soil.

Will it reroot? If I don’t disconnect its aerial and buried roots successfully from the babies, will the granddaddy die? This will break my heart!

please advise.

thnx,

mara

Answer 1

It is really hard to say if the main plant trunk will reroot. Typically a “cutting” that size will not be able to support itself before it can regrow roots. But, it does have aerial roots, so it may have a chance. You may want to cut the existing leaves in half across the leaf (not down the leaf) to remove the amount of leaf surface area the stem has to support while rooting.

As far as repotting, it would be a good idea to repot the remaining plants and the root system from the main plant. You can trim some of the roots of the smaller plants while separating them without hurting them. Most should be able to be repotted without any problems.