Monstera Deliciosa – A-Grade Hydroponics

Monstera deliciosa

Requirements: pH range 5.0-6.0 – EC range 1.2-1.8

Feeding frequency: High

The pH & EC ranges are as intended as guide only, if you feel your Monstera needs a little more food then increase the dosage accordingly and correct pH as required.

For consistency, I will be using Plagron Terra Grow during the seedling phase then once a little larger I will start them on the Plagron Terra Bloom. As a tip if your Monstera Deliciosa are looking a little chlorotic (pale leaves with green veins) I’d suggest increasing the food by 25% gradually or until you can see the chlorosis subsiding. Temperature can also affect this, always ensure the root-zone temperature is above 18c to prevent the plants metabolism shutting down. 

Product: Plagron Terra Grow.

Dosage: 5ml to 1L of water.

pH of tap water BEFORE adding nutrients: 6.89

pH of tap water AFTER adding nutrients: 5.81

EC: 1.28

Temp: 24.2c

After adding the dosage, I found the pH was a little too high so to remedy this and put the nutrients within range I used a little pH down to correct the issue. You can also see that the EC is on the lower end of requirements which means I have selected this EC for feeding to match the relative size and growth of this particular Monstera, as this plant is still quite juvenile. I will always opt for the lower end of EC readings to see what how the plant will respond before increasing to a higher EC / nutrient dose.

Note: that pH down is a very concentrated form of phosphoric acid, the recommendation here would be 1 drop at a time when working with volumes 5L or smaller. If you are adjusting the pH of a 50L tank or greater the manufacturer suggests adding 1ml of pH down to 1L of water then adding that into your 50L solution.

The final pH after adding pH down is now 5.03. This just means for this type of plant the food is best up taken/absorbed at the lower (more acidic) end of the pH scale. 

In most situations, this feeding approach only needs to be performed once a Month. If the substrate/growing media is of a different porosity then the frequency of feeding will more than likely increase to once fortnightly, with plain pH water feeds in between if needed.

Monstera love humid growing conditions, always check what humidity their current environment is, you can do this using a simple hygrometer and placing the probe at plant canopy height for a more accurate reading. If the humidity of the environment is too low, Monstera will over transpire causing an over-excessive uptake of nutrients and water potentially causing nutrient lockout issues.

• The ideal Humidity (RH%) to grow Monstera should be between 60-75%

 

  

The chart above shows us how different elements are available at different ranges. Each type of plant has a specific pH range, think of feeding a plant that’s not in range like you drinking a milkshake and someone squashing the straw, by lowering or lifting the pH impacts how food is travelling through the plant.