Can I Use Succulent Soil For Monstera?

Monstera plant is native to tropical forests of southern Mexico, south to Panama. It is been introduced to many tropical forests and is very widely used as a house plant.

Monstera plants like heat, well-draining soil. It will be so tempting to use succulent soil but there are many reasons why you should not use succulent soil for the monstera plants. Let’s see in this post more in detail to understand better.

The Succulent soil for the monstera plants is a bad selection of soil recipe because Succulent soil is mainly prepared to maintain dry soil, so it doesn’t maintain enough moisture required for the monstera plants. Monstera plants need a specific recipe of the soil to thrive well, that is good texture, aeration, and drainage.

What kind of soil mix is best for Monstera?

While choosing the soil recipe mix for monstera first we need to see what kind of plant monstera is. It is tropically based, where it grows in the forest. It takes the root in the forest floor and climbs up with the help of other supporting structures like trees.

The best soil mix for the monstera plant should be nutrient-rich, disease-free, good aeration, slightly acidic (PH level), and well-drainable soil. Proper drainage holes are necessary for pots to flush out the excess water, this will help the soil to retain required moisture and prevents standing water.

Monstera plants are popular choices among gardeners and backyard plant lovers, due to their low maintenance ways and ability to grow in a variety of environments and in moderate temperatures, Whether grown in a garden, backyard, or in a container inside the home.

The popular names for monstera plants are the swiss cheese plant, ceriman, Hurricane plant, Cutleaf-Philodendron, Mexican Breadfruit, and Split leaf Philodendron.

The best soil is forest soil for the monstera plants but we cannot bring forest soil home, so we can prepare a good recipes to make similar soil at home.

Components of Soil Mix For Monstera

There are two ways to get good soil for monstera plants.
1. Get good soil from a shop or online. (Usually costlier).
2. Another way is to prepare soil mix, The proper proportion of soil mix is necessary to help the monstera plant grow well.

a mixture of the potting soil and perlite in a 3:2 ratio, nothing but 3 times the soil and 2 times the perlite. This mixture gives us 60% potting soil and 40% perlite. This works for me and if your potting soil is too dense or light, you can adjust the mixing portion.

with the above mix peat, humus, leaf soil, and sand add an equal part to prepare the good mix.

This type of soil is good in absorbing liquid (water) and gives good aeration for the young monstera plant to release new roots and grow well.

Organic material for monstera plant

I suggest using coco peat or peat moss as most of the filler. these are organic and support retaining moisture without burdening the roots of the monstera plant.

Once the organic material started to break down, This also helps in controlling the PH level of the plant and also helps in releasing nutrients to the soil.

Also improves the aeration of the soil.

Small wood chips, Bark, and a chunk of organic material

As the monstera is a forest tropical plant, It always gets all these organic materials naturally but we need to provide this manually when we are growing it in the backyard or indoor plant to thrive well.

Monstera plants will try to stay roots in the ground, but it’s challenging to maintain good drainage while plant roots keep holding on to the soil. Monstera plants will keep upright if you add crushed bark means small wood chips to the soil.

Can I Use Succulent Soil For Monstera?

Succulent soil for the monstera plants is a bad selection of soil because its sandy and lacks texture, and no organic material which is more important for the monstera plant to thrive.

In Succulent soil monstera, plant roots won’t find barks or wood chips to hold the plant upright (no organic material). This is one of the biggest problems for monstera plants. we also need to maintain the ph level of the soil to 5 to 7 to thrive monstera plant well. This plant also likes acidic soil where we don’t have the same in Succulent soil.

Acidity increase in the soil helps the monstera plant to increase the absorption power of the monstera plant and it will grow healthy in less time.

succulent soil is compact in nature which is not good for the monstera plant, monstera plant roots cannot handle the root pressure as succulent roots.

An increase in root pressure in monstera plant roots increases the chances of root rot.

succulent is used to grow better on hard ground but monstera plants cannot.

Organic material helps to keep the PH level between 5 to 7 (preferably 6.5) which encourages good growth for the monstera plant. This is achieved by breaking down of organic materials like wood chips, and bark.

Homemade soil for monstera plant

Bark & Pumice: This provides good aeration and drainage. select long and small chunks of bark and black stone (pumice) to aerate the soil mix. I usually select orchid bark, bark fines, and reptile bark. Pumice is small rocks like perlite we select this over perlite because it mixes well with soil mix.

Coconut Coir: This is better than peat mass, I always use this for all of my indoor plants to hold the moisture for a long time and very less weight.

Activated charcoal: This is just a burned bark for the most effective way to remove of impurities. It acts as an antibacterial and antifungus to prevent root rot diseases.

Worm Castings: These contain nutrients and beneficiary microbes that help plants grow well.

soil mix with a ratio of 3:3:3:1:1. 3 parts of bark, 3 parts of pumice, 3 parts of coir, 1 part charcoal, and 1 part of worm castings. The easiest way to take scoops is as 1 part as 1 scoop.

Final Thoughts:

I always suggest not using Succulent soil for planting monstera plants as it doesn’t maintain enough moisture, enough nutrients, enough ph balance in the soil, and aeration for monstera to thrive well.