I am going to talk about Rhaphidophora Tetrasperma as known as Mini Monstera. With this post, you will be learning tips for growing a thriving & healthy Rhaphidophora Tetrasperma plant.
Some people erroneously call it the Mini Monstera. But it is not a Monstera. Because that is a completely different genus.
In my opinion, this plant is a very easy grower. But, it is challenging when it comes to propagating it. I am going to talk more about sunlight, watering, soil mix, and propagation.
The Price of Rhaphidophora Tetrasperma plant
First of all, I would like to talk a little bit about this plant. Because it’s a very interesting topic I just found out about this plant, which you may or you may not know, this plant is made out of tissue culture.
I don’t know anything about tissue culture, but all I know is, they take their gene from this plant and they multiply copies a lot. So that it is available everywhere. Because this plant used to be one of the rarest and very expensive house plants, used to be like a few years ago back.
But now, you can find them everywhere and they are so affordable which is really good news.
I have seen especially the variegated plants to be so expensive. I don’t know how people managed to buy them.
Since the plant is from tissue culture, they managed to multiply a lot of plans, so that we can buy them at a very fair price.
But the original one is always the best right? Because the leaf is thicker and also the color is greener and you know the different shape and more much nicer.
It’s Easy to Grow Plant
This plant is really easy to grow. So if you are a beginner, you can still own one of these plants. Because this is super easy.
I bought a Rhaphidophora Tetrasperma a few months ago and all I did is, I just watered them like once in like 10 days or two weeks especially.
In this winter time and they just grow like crazy and I have seen many people talk “oh my god this plant grows like wheat”
Because they are fast-growing plants. I agree this plant grows just crazy. So, I recommend this is one of the best house plants you should own, and most of the time, you can say whole 90% of them are penetrated which is unique and special about this plant.
You can also see, some of the leaves are not penetrated, this is because of the less sunlight or they are not mature enough for getting penetrated.
So that if you see this kind of leaf you can just leave it to grow. Then eventually, they become penetrated. so you don’t have to worry this is normal.
Lighting Requirements
Then it comes to the lighting, they can grow both in bright sunlight and in low sunlight. It doesn’t matter. But the east-facing window is always good for your plant.
Because the plant will receive the morning light so it is always good in the summer. You might want it to bring a few feet back from the window. Because it might be very bright sunlight. Because, if they get too much sunlight then, your plant might lose color.
But the yellow color could be because of two reasons,
- The first reason is they get too much sunlight and
- The second reason is overwater
If you don’t give it enough light it’s going to start growing very leggy meaning that the internal space or the space between leaves is going to be very long and it’s just not going to give you the bushy look.
It might also happen that if it doesn’t get the appropriate light it is going to start growing in without fenestration so it might look like this leaf over here instead of this nice leaf with the splits.
Read More – How to Pick the Perfect Pot for Your Plant
How to water Rhaphidophora Tetrasperma
When talking about watering, they love their soil to be completely dry. So 80% of the soil should be completely dry before you water them.
From my experience, this plant doesn’t like to be dry for too long. Ideally, you would like it to be a little bit moist when you water it, it can be dry when you water it. But you should not let it dry out too much. Because you’re going to have yellowing leaves at the bottom.
If you’ve had it for a while a good indication of when your plant needs to be watered is when you notice that the leaves start drooping a little bit.
If you water the plant and then you notice what it looks like when it’s watered and then you wait until it’s dry you can see the difference between them. Then over time, just by looking at it, you will be able to tell that it needs watering.
This plant isn’t that demanding. So using tap water even if your tap water is hard is completely fine.
Most importantly don’t let it dry out too much because like I said you will have those yellowing leaves and it will start to look a little bit leggy around the bottom.
I always like to recommend you use the moisture meter. Because this is a lifesaver.
But, if you don’t have it, it’s okay, you can just lift your plant and see if they are very lightweight. Then you can water them again.
Let’s say, you water today and wait about two weeks. But it also depends on which environment you live. If you live in a cold environment, then you might want to wait a little bit longer. But if you live in a warmer country, you might want to water a little bit more often.
Be Careful when you choose the Soil Mix
This plant is an array family so I give the soil exactly as I use for Monstera Deliciosa. They like their soil to be chunky & airy
So just make sure to use lots of boxes and Pearlite and a little bit of soil then they will love it.
What is the best way to propagate Rhaphidophora tetrasperma?
You know that winter is not the best time to have a propagation. So I want to make the propagation in the summer.
Propagation of all the array plants is super easy. All you have to do is find a vein and add a cat under the note and you can just grow them directly in the soil in the water.
Perlite is superior to all other propagation methods, to be honest. It’s very easy to propagate a plant without any hassle.
More Care Tips
Let’s talk about how to make sure that your leaves are big and beautiful and have a lot of slits on them. That can be achieved by giving your plant some sort of support to climb.
This plant doesn’t like to trail that much. if you try to get it to trail it’s just going to grow another way. so it’s not going to trail down. It’s just going to keep growing towards something that it can latch onto and climb.
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