There is no guarantee that you can preserve the variegation on a variegated Monstera unless you buy a Thai Constellation.
There are things you can try, but chimeric variegation is the result of a genetic mishap. Your Monstera doesn’t have any strong feelings about it (it can’t see how pretty it looks – it has no eyes!) so once the decide they’re going to pursue the all-green route…there’s actually not a lot you can do about it.
How to preserve variegation in Monstera deliciosa
If you’re new to houseplants and Monstera, then I highly recommend that you buy a Thai constellation, especially if you’re on a budget. They’re much cheaper and don’t revert.
Buy a cultivar that doesn’t revert
There’s a bit of snobbery around Thai Constellation – some people don’t consider them to be ‘proper’ variegated Monstera because they’re man-made. In my opinion, it’s a bit like the lab-grown diamond debate – you’re getting essentially the same product without any of the downsides.
Thai Constellations are created by tissue culture, and can be grown in their thousands. Monstera deliciosa albo can’t be reliably cloned (which is basically what tissue culture is) – their variegation is very ad-hoc, so whilst you can clone the plants, they’re not guaranteed to be variegated.
The benefits of Thai Constellation over Monstera deliciosa albo are:
- They’re cheaper – prices go up and down, but you can get a small plant for under £100
- They don’t revert
- They’re all large-form, so they’re genetically predisposed to grow massive leaves with a lot of holes
There are however downsides:
- The variegation is creamy rather than white, though good light will make it whiter
- Thai Constellations have a weird predisposition for root rot. There was a theory that they were all infected with a pathogen, but that proved to be false. They’re just…prone to root rot.
Look after your variegated Monstera well
Let’s assume you already have a Monstera albo and you want to preserve the variegation as much as you can.
First off, there are no guarantees.
Being variegated doesn’t give the Monstera any advantage – it’s actually a hindrance since it reduces the amount of chlorophyll in the leaves (because the white parts don’t have any) which reduces the plant’s ability to photosynthesize.
All you can do is care for the plant as well as you can. Ensure it has great light, humidity, a healthy root system, and you’re feeding it well.
Staking it up will also make it feel more at home. Monstera climb trees in wild so giving it something to climb will encourage larger leaves and faster growth. This sense of achievement won’t hurt the chances of variegation. Will it help? It’s basically impossible to tell.
These articles will help you give your Monstera the help it needs:
Cut back to variegated growth when necessary
Every now and again your Monstera may produce a non-variegated leaf.
Some people like to cut back to the last node that produced a variegated leaf as soon as all-green leaves start emerging. Others recommend waiting until you’ve seen four non-variegated leaves in a row.
It all depends on the variegation on the stem. If the stem isn’t variegated, cut it back to a point where the stem was variegated.
If the stem is all green, you’ve got a Monstera with sport variegation, and every leaf you have is going to be a mystery until it unfurls.
Can variegation return on reverted Monstera?
There is a LOT of information online about the chances of you being able to convince a reverted Monstera to produce variegated leaves again. What there isn’t a lot of is actual research. Information about houseplants tends to come from hobbyists like me, and there’s no real incentive for big labs to research reverted Monstera deliciosa.
The people who hold the money in the houseplant business are sellers, and there’s no financial incentive for them to research reverted Monstera – it’s better for them to sell us new ones.
In short, we don’t really know. Variegation can return, but it’s just as likely to disappear forever.
Does light affect Monstera variegation?
Good light won’t necessarily cause a reverted variegated Monstera to produce variegated leaves again.
However, keeping your variegated Monstera in good light will make it less likely to produce all-green leaves. It’s prevention rather than cure.
Good light gives the plant more energy because it can photosynthesize more effectively. As well discouraging reversion it helps the plant fight off disease better, and grow bigger and faster.
Pruning to encourage variegation
As I mentioned earlier, pruning Monstera back to the last variegated leaf can encourage it to produce a variegated leaf. Again, it’s not guaranteed, but if you combine it with high light volume, you could get lucky.
How to preserve existing variegation
One of the battles we have with variegated Monstera – both Thai Constellation and Monstera albo – is keeping the white parts white. The lack of chlorophyll shortens the lifespan of the white part of the leaf and they can brown pretty quickly.
If your variegated Monstera starts producing all-white leaves, it’s prudent to chop it back to the last green node to see if you can get a balance back. All-white leaves brown quickly.
High light volume
High light volume is necessary to keep the white parts of variegated Monstera white, but high light intensity can burn the leaves, as the white parts are more delicate. Chlorophyll protects the leaf from UV damage, so the white parts are more sensitive to sun.
To achieve high light volume but low light intensity, you need to keep your Monstera in bright, indirect light for long hours – preferably around 14 hours a day.
Here in the UK my Thai sits right in a south-facing window and her white parts last really well. She’s currently getting a little crispy because the days are shorter, but in summer I don’t have an issue with browning.
For grow light users, a powerful grow light (like a Mars Hydro) a few feet away from the plant is ideal. Be sure to acclimate it over a couple of weeks so it doesn’t burn.
Humidity can also help with keeping the white parts plump BUT it can be a bit of a double-edged sword because too much humidity whilst the leaf is unfurling can result in browning because moisture can get trapped.
Additives such as silica
Silica is an additive you can add to your water. It strengthens the cell walls of plants and gives them extra protection from bright light and pests.
It’s not something I’ve tried (purely because I already have so much stuff) but every houseplant Facebook group is full of people singing silica’s praises. Silica Gold is recommended a lot.
Avoid shock
I mentioned that my Thai is currently sporting a couple of crispy tips, and I think it’s due to the shorter nights and low temperatures. Though winter isn’t shocking to me, it is to a tropical plant that’s used to growing year-round.
There isn’t really a lot you can do to stop minor shocks causing browning on variegated leaves. The only course of action is to try to keep everything as consistent as possible. I could add heat mats and grow lights, but I’m happy to just accept a couple of brown tips.
Try to minimise shock as much as you can – don’t disturb the roots when repotting, try not to move it around too much – and you should be ok.
That’s it for this article! I hope you found it interesting, though I appreciate that it’s annoying that there’s no concrete way of preserving/reviving variegation – especially when variegated Monstera are so expensive.
Before you go, you might find these articles useful:
- How to tell if your Monstera is variegated
- Planet Houseplant’s Monstera Guide
- Grow lights for Monstera
From my totally unscientific research, it seems that pruning back green foliage on a variegated plant helps simply because green leaves will outgrow and eventually block variegated leaves from the sun. If you chop them off, all those ‘green’ cells can no longer divide and conquer the rest of the plant– but the ‘albino’ cells can. So to answer your question, yes, the plant does forget that it put out green leaves. Or maybe it remembers that the green leaves met an untimely end. Either way, hope this helps!
Ooo that makes sense, thanks! I like the idea that we possibly scare our plants into producing pretty leaves by chopping off ones we don’t like.
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It’s right at the top of my wishlist – I’m just waiting to for all the gang to be spider mite free!
I was curious the reason why they revert back to green and found this!
Q. Why does variegation sometimes revert?
A. Variegated plants can revert or turn green for a number of reasons. It can be a reaction to extremes of hot and cold or a reaction to low-light levels. Some say it could also be caused as a survival technique, as the plant is stronger when it has more chlorophyll. When this happens, the best thing to do is prune out the affected leaves because if you don’t, the plain green can actually take over the plant because it’s got more chlorophyll and vigour than the variegated foliage.
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Thanks! Yeah, I get why plants value survival over aesthetics (I mean, who wouldn’t), bit it’s still sad!
Have a marble queen.Pruned it few times & now don’t know why it’s putting out the leaves with little to no variegation.Should i remove them or prune the vine again?
You need to remove all of the non-variegated leaves. I’d also put it in a brighter spot to encourage it to put out more variegated leaves – increasing the humidity will also help the plant grow faster.
I don’t think it’s the light itself that increases the variegation, I think it’s more that the healthier the plant is, the more likely it is to put out variegated leaves, since it doesn’t feel the need to panic-produce chlorophyll.
Pruned the non variegated leaves few days back.Lets see how it does.Not worried about the light cause mine kept in balcony which get good afternoon sunlight.Have few other indoor plants there that seems to do fine.
This was the perfect blend of very chill and slightly petty. I made an account just to say thank you
That’s me in a nutshell 😀
We do can make plant variegated 🙂
All that we need is to buy a bottle of variegata hormon.
It’s only $10 in my country.
NO WAY! DO you know which hormone is being sold? I think there are a few.
Some unscrupulous sellers do sell non-variegated plants as variegated ones that will revert as the hormone wears off.
You may read this and think ‘who cares? If it’s got white patches it’s variegate – who cares how it got them?’
And the answer is that it’s personal. Would you rather have a knock-off designer handbag, or a real one? A painting by a specific artist or a great forgery?
People covet variegation because it’s rare. Naturally variegated plants will always have their market, and so too will hormone-treated ones.
How to maintain varrigation of the plants
More light, cutting back unvariegated stems and luck!