Monstera Minima cuttings 🤩🤩🤩
How To Propagate Rhapidophora Tetrasperma (Mini Monstera)
I don’t like the ‘mini monstera’ nickname, but it’s a common name and (crucially) it’s easier to type than Rhapidophora tetrasperma. I’ve never used copy and paste so much in a single article.
A bit of back story: I bought my Rhapidophora tetrasperma last year, and it was very cheap. Like, a tenner. It was also in AWFUL shape, hence the price drop.
The leaves were damaged and it looked a bit like pest damage, probably the reason it was such a bargain. It didn’t have pests. In my experience, Rhapidophora tetrasperma are pretty delicate – it’s easy to damage the leaves by accident.
It was also one long vine, and I wanted a bushier plant, so I took cuttings. THe one last year just rotted, but I sucessfully rooted three cuttings this years
How to propagate Rhapidophora tetrasperma:
- Take a stem cutting with a node (and preferably a single leaf)
- Put the cutting in water for a couple of weeks
- Transfer the cutting to a jar. Cover the node with damp moss. Wait
- Pot up when the roots reach an inch or two
It’s recommended that you keep the soil moist, but mine’s accidentally dried out a few times and it’s fine.
Rhapidophora tetrasperma is not a low-light plant. They get floppy and sad very quickly. Bright, indirect light is ideal, but medium light is also tolerated.
Although higher humidity would be appreciated, mine is in a room with 45%ish humidity and it’s growing nicely.
I’ve not fertilised mine yet since it’s recently had a soil change. I’m sure a regular seaweed fertiliser would do perfectly well.
Due to it’s vining nature, you’d assume that Rhapidophora tetrasperma are easy to propagate.
To be fair, they might be for some people. It wasn’t until I saw a few people on Reddit struggling to get roots that I realised that my experience of propagating Rhapidophora tetrasperma might not have been a one-off.
Hence writing this post.
Can you propagate Rhapidophora tetrasperma in water?
Ok, you probably can. But it didn’t work for me.
You see, it takes Rhapidophora tetrasperma a long time to root. Often it takes so long for the roots to form that you end up with stem rot. Or the leaf will die. It’s not unusual for the leaf to die, but it happens much quicker if you root in water.
It’s not impossible to root your cuttings in water, it’s just more difficult. I start my cuttings in water, and then move them after couple of weeks.
Can you propagate Rhapidophora tetrasperma in soil?
Again, probably, but I really wouldn’t recommend it.
When I tried to propagate in water, the battle wasn’t the actual rooting process, it was keeping the rot at bay because rooting took so long. I have tried rooting a cutting in soil but it just rotted and the leaf died really quickly.
It’s not something I’d try again, purely because it withered away so quickly.
How to make Monstera Minima cuttings
Rhapidophora tetrasperma don’t root from leaf cuttings (as far as I’m aware) so you’ll need a bit of stem.
Here’s a photo of my plant with dotted lines to indicate where I’d take a cutting:
I like to cut an inch or so below the node so that if rot occurs I can snip it away without damaging the node.
Rhapidophora tetrasperma nodes are easy to see – they usually grow one leaf and an aerial root per node.
They’ll only deviate from this pattern if you take a cutting, so if you want a bushy plant, you’ll probably need to take cuttings.
In short, I put it in moss.
Now, I don’t like using moss, because it’s bad for the environment. I’m pretty sure it’ll work in damp perlite too, but I haven’t tried it (yet – I’ll update when I do).
The only reason I tried it was that I had a bag of moss in the shed that I didn’t want to waste. I’m interested to see how long I can get away with reusing it.
How I potted up my Rhapidophora tetrasperma
I’ve potted my three rooted cuttings in one pot, and eventually I want them to be in the same pot as their mother.
To be perfectly honest, the roots weren’t as big as I’d have liked – maybe an inch long, but only just.
I have no excuse – I’m just impatient. If you want to see updates, follow my Instagram. I’ve not done much propagation yet this year, but my Golden dragon babies are doing super well.
If anyone has plants that they’d like me to try to propagate, let me know. I’m game.
I used these ones from Amazon because they’re my fave. They come in a pack of ten, they have drainage holes, they come with a saucer, they’re pretty, and they’re cheap.
I used my regular homemade potting mix. I make it in bulk because it’s easier. If there’s a way to break up coir blocks, please let me know.
The potting mix is
- 3 parts coir
- 3 parts orchid bark
- 3 parts perlite
- 1 part horticultural charcoal
- 1 part worm castings.
My mother plant is in the same mix and seems to like it. It’s pretty much the mix I use for all my plants, and no one’s complained.
How to make Monstera Minima cuttings more full
RT grow in a vine-like way, and they only tend to have one growth plant per plant.
This means that if you only buy one vine, you’ll end up with one long string of leaves.
The only guaranteed way to make it more full is to plant multiple plants together. You could buy several and put them all in the same pot, but I find that you can get more bank for your buck if you trim your existing plant and propagate the cuttings.
That way, you’re filling out the bottom by adding more plants BUT you’ll also encourage the plant to pick a new growth point (you know, since you decapitated the last one).
