as the title states first time monstera owner , have only had pothos and snake plants so far but stumbled across this Thai for a steal on marketplace due to the previous owner making a big move and felt inclined to jump on it and really just want to do this 2yr old plant justice. now it’s made it thru transport and been about a week since moved into its new spot which is in a SW facing window that gets decent light and a 40w SANSI light above that I use for some of my others.
I gave it a small watering w/ some indoor plant feed the day after getting it but imagine w/ it being prime season that watering should be about 10 days or 1-2wks depending on soil content , which I plan on getting a moisture meter & humidity gauge here shortly to make things easier in that regard, and if there’s anything else I can do to better the plant after the move please let me know. Also I’ve listed a cpl photos of the roots , and just want to say the previous owner had said the last repot was about a year ago and in my head it doesn’t seem like it’s quite ready for another so please let me know opinions on this as I’m used to repotting new plants after getting them from say the store but I don’t want to put too much stress on this new beautiful Thai.
And to follow up on the repot statement it would seem the owner had tried to go the moss pole route as a backing for the plant to climb but it’s not quite working out and they just let it fan out by itself in its own window , and I want to fix this so please let me know the best route to try and do so. my thought process has been to do a main stake (probs just a cedar plank or some kind of wood , kinda intimidated to go moss pole due to watering as a new owner) for the back to hopefully try and climb more vertically , and then was thinking of doing individual smaller bamboo stakes thru out the plant to try and Velcro tape the leaves/main petioles up and back to hopefully train them to form more upwards. But as a new owner I’m unsure if this would even really work or make a difference so please let me know
And a big thing I’m curious about is in the last 2 photos of the roots/soil I pulled the pot a cpl days ago and noticed these few spots (circled) that I haven’t seen before and really want to know if this is some form of mold or possibly root rot ?? and seeing this should I just go ahead and repot , as I’m a little worried due to it looking quite bad at least closer up
and to follow that up , if I do go repot should I just lean the plant and root ball more vertically from that point and then just stake it in the back and go from there as I had said w/ the Velcro tape to attempt to better train it?
thanks for any insight , and excuse the rambling I just had some genuine questions and thoughts that I don’t rly have anyone else to even talk about with so any added thoughts are appreciated !