Asking for advice - how do I fix her?
I’ve had this monstera for 3 years, bought when it was 1/3 this size. It’s been loving the humidity and sun outside during the warmer months (in Georgia) the past 2 years. (Was inside a dark apartment and didnt fertilize the 1st year, I was new to plants) Last year, it was finally putting out some large beautiful leaves with fenestrations, and mid-summer I spent almost 2 hours (typical) repotting and trying to disentangle my monstera. The two stems were facing opposite each other, and I tried to make it so they both face the same way so the backs were matched up. I don’t think I was very successful. They naturally just didn’t want to change their positions. It’s now super lanky and tall and even though I tried to bury the post solidly, it still leans heavily. Over the winter I had it under its first strong grow light and that’s what made the couple newest leaves stand up so tall over the past few months….thought it was a good thing but now all the lower leaves are just drooping. It just put out a new leaf as well last week.
I just brought it back outside yesterday and was looking at it wondering what I should do about it…should I just cut it off at the bigger healthier part of the stems after the topmost few nodes and try to propagate/ start over in water? I saw a video of someone doing that successfully once but I feel like its such a huge risk. What would be the best way to go about that? Should I just try cutting one off first? And yes, that is a little baby one next to her that I propagated a while ago. It’ll be it’s first time outside this year and I hope to grow this one better. Do I give up on the big one and just go for a thai/albo instead? I don’t want to give up on her completely - I worked hard to get it to where it is now, but everything under the healthy, thicker top part is so sad looking. Its definitely time to start fertilizing again and I know it always perks up once it’s been outside for a while, but with how it looks right now, it’s not bringing me much joy anymore. Would i have a shot starting over by water propagating from the biggest healthiest nodes? Please help, any advice is much appreciated!