Monstera dubia propagation
Monstera,  Propagation

Monstera Dubia Propagation

Our guide to monstera dubia propagation with step by step instructions for leca and soil propagation, as well as water prop. We cover bulk propagation of dubias with sphagnum moss in another article: Monstera Dubia Propagation In Moss.

See also: Monstera Dubia for a full guide to caring for this plant, as well as our other posts: Monstera Dubia Mounting, Monstera Dubia Frame, Monstera Dubia Propagation In Moss.


What You’ll Need

You will need:

  • A monstera dubia that is big enough to take a few cuttings from.
  • Sphagnum moss.
  • A tupperware/takeout container with a lid.
  • Plastic cups or glass jars.
  • A big plastic storage box.
  • (You’ll need cardboard and bbq skewers later on when they are rooted for them to grow up).

To propagate monstera dubia you need to take a cutting with one leaf and one node. This will mean cutting your nice dubia! What you can do is wait until the plant is big and growing the to the end of it’s pole and then trim it down nd use the trimmings for cuttings. The node is really close the leaf, behind it, you need one leaf and one node.

Then when you have a cutting or more you can set them aside for a few hours so the open wounds heal over.

How To Propagate Monstera Dubia In Water

You can propagate them in water, but it is a bit tricky as the nodes are so close to the leaves. But it is possible. I’ll cover it first as it is possible and I use it before I propagate them in leca too, which is also covered later in this post.

Take a cutting from your dubia. You want them to be a few nodes long as they need to have nodes both under the water and out of it.

cutting a monstera dubia

Here’s a couple of the cuttings I took, they both have a lot of nodes.

monstera dubia propagation cuttings

You then want to strip the leaves from the bottom node or two (the ones that will be in the water).

trimming down the cuttings

As I mentioned before it can be tricky with dubias as the can fall into the water, I prepare a jar ith string or a rubber band to stop this happening.

I tie some string around the top of a jar and then tie it across the jar a couple of times, so there are 2 or 3 tight bits of string across the top of the jar, which will support the cuttings. Or you can just use a rubber band as I have in this picture.

A rubber band holding the cuttings in place in a jar.

Fill the jar with water and put the cuttings in so that the nodes are under the water and the leaves are out.
It can take a month or so for roots to develop. You want to keep the water topped up well during this time but try to stop the touching the water to much as they can rot.

You could keep them in water ongoing and give them a wooden support or moss pole tied to the outside of the jar, but I would move them to soil or leca to be honest they will grow much better there.

How To Propagate Monstera Dubia In Leca

Step 1:

When propagating in leca I water propagate the cuttings first and then tend to take well (see the section above for this).

Step 2:

Then wash some leca well by rinsing it and changing the water a few times, then let it soak for a few hours.

Step 3:

You can then get a plastic cup or jar and put a BBQ skewer in it at the back, this will hold the wood or carboard mount for the plant to climb up. Then fill it half full with leca.

Step 4:

Hold the cutting in the middle of the pot and then fill in around it with leca.

monstera dubia propagation in leca

Step 5:

Then you can give it some water (about half an inch or 2 cm at the bottom of each cup).

monstera dubia propagation in leca

Step 6:

Get some cardboard or thin plywood and add it to the skewer so the plant can climb up it. Once the plant starts to shoot you should attach it to the cardboard as soon as you can, or it will put out a long thing runner instead of a nice stem with big leaves. Make sure the cardboard is not touching the leca, it should be slightly above it or it will get really wet as the leca will wick water up to the cardboard and soak it. In the image below I did not do this! The cardboard should be a bit higher.

monstera dubia propagation in leca

Step 7:

Keep the plant topped up with water at the bottom (the bottom half inch / 2cms) and it should do well.
You need to be really careful with it until roots as the cutting is not firmly in the leca and can come out.

How To Propagate Monstera Dubia In Soil

Soil is a great medium for growing dubias in, you can propagate them in soil to begin with and then grow them on from there.

You can use water propagation as mentioned above and then transfer your cuttings to soil once rooted and give them a wooden or carboard mount to climb up. You can also use sphagnum moss to root in, then move to soil, see our guide on using moss here.

When they start to put out stem growth from the top of the plant you can move it its own pot of soil and give it a piece of wood or moss pole to climb up, as in the image below. You want to plant the cutting as close to the board as you can. We go into much more detail on this in our guide to mounting dubias here: Monstera Dubia Mounting.

monstera dubia propagation in soil

Bulk Propagation In Soil

Or you can propagate them in bulk using soil by getting a tupperware or take-out container full of soil. I put a layer of leca in the bottom so that water can drain through the soil. There are no holes in the bottom of the container. You can take the cuttings and place them on top of the soil until they root. Keep the lid slightly off so that air can move a little, or put a few holes in it.

monstera dubia soil propagation box for young cuttings

As soon as you see the cuttings putting out shoots you want to move them to their own pot with soil and a mount as we ran through above.

Here’s one of my soil prop boxes that I left a bit too long and it got over grown! Make sure you move them to their own pot as soon as they sprout.

Further Reading

You might also like our other articles:

Monstera Dubia, Monstera Dubia Mounting, Monstera Dubia Frame, Monstera Dubia Propagation In Moss.

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