Your lease is about to end, you’ve bought your first house, or you’re finally moving to the city you’ve always wanted to live in. Need help moving with your monstera right now?
How do you prepare your plant for this major shift? How do you pack and move your monstera in a way that is safe? To help your monstera get used to its new home, think about what you can do.
Here are some tips for moving with your monstera plant, whether you’re moving across town or across the country.
Before the Move
You should make sure your monstera is in the best shape it can be before you move. You need to make sure that your plant gets enough water and that it gets enough light. This will help your plant transition.
In the days before you move, make sure your plant’s care routine is just right. This will help it get ready for the move.
By car
The best way to move a monstera plant is to put it in a car. Putting your plant on the floor of your car, or in a basket in the backseat, covered with a light sheet or butcher paper, may be all you need to keep it safe. Monstera plants can grow to be very big, so you might need to put them down in the backseat or the cargo area.
When you do this, make sure to tightly cover the pot in plastic wrap to keep the dirt in as long as possible. In your car, lay out a sheet, tarp, or blanket where you want to put your plant. If your plant has a moss pole, you might also want to put down pillows or small boxes to help it stay in the ground.
Plant the plant on its side carefully, moving leaves out of the way as needed to keep them from getting crushed by the soil. Finally, cover the plant with a light sheet or paper to keep it from getting burned by the sun.
The air from the AC or heat should not hit the leaves of your monstera while you’re driving. There is a sheet or piece of paper that can help with this, but try to angle the vents away from the plant.
Make sure you bring your monstera with you if you’re going to be in the car for more than one day.
In a moving van or truck,
In that case, don’t worry about it.
Make sure your plant doesn’t get crushed, so you’ll want to put it in a sturdy box with enough headroom for the leaves. If your plant is very tall or wide, you might need a dishwasher box, a tote, or another big container to keep it safe from water damage. Make sure that your box or container has holes in it so your monstera can breathe, so it can grow.
Before putting in your monstera, put pillows or foam around the pot to hold it down and keep it from sliding around the container. This way, your plant won’t move around in the box. You should pull the leaves up and wrap them loosely in packing paper to make sure they don’t get hurt as well.
You can also take your monstera out of the pot and wash most of the soil off of the root ball. You should wet paper towels and wrap them in plastic wrap before you put them in a bag.
When moving, if you think your moving van will be very hot or very cold, you can try loosely wrapping the box in moving blankets to keep it from getting too hot or cold (though not so tightly that it blocks airflow).
Putting your monstera’s box on top of other things when you pack the van will keep it from getting crushed under or between something.
A moving truck or car should be fine for a day or two. Make plans to bring the plant inside when you get there. If you’re shipping it with bare roots, open the box and spray the roots.
After the move, you will be happy.
It’s time to settle in after you move your monstera plant.
It doesn’t matter how carefully you pack and ship your monstera. There will be some damage. The leaves and stems might fall off, but that’s OK. When your monstera is settled into its new home and is happy with the way it is being cared for, it will start growing again and replace any leaves that were lost when it moved.
The most important thing is to get it back on a regular care plan. People should do these first:
Find a place with a lot of light.
Your monstera should be in a place where it will get a lot of bright, indirect sunlight. In this case, you should plant it in a pot that’s about 2-3 inches bigger than the root ball and in a pot with enough drainage.
Take care of any leaves or stems that aren’t in good shape.
Remove parts of the plant that have been damaged so the plant can focus on new growth instead of parts that aren’t working as well as they used to.
It might be possible to cut off the ends of broken stems and use rooting hormone to make more monstera plants. If the leaves are in good shape, you may be able to.
Take a hose and water your plant.
If your monstera is thirsty, give it a drink that it will enjoy. When you move your bare-root monstera, water it well.
Fertilizer should be put off for a little while longer.
Make sure you don’t feed your plant while its roots are so sensitive. It will take about four weeks before you can start fertilizing your plants with Monstera Plant Food again.
Give it a while.
As your monstera adapts to its new home, it may look tired for a few days or even a few weeks. But with regular care, it will start to look better. We just need to give it a little time and love, and we will both be happy in our new homes soon.