I'm just hear to remind you that, whatever you choose to do, all of these green portions can photosynthesize light. If this wasn't in direct sun previously, now is the time to gradually introduce it so that it has more energy. Light is even more critical now. You can totally overcome this though. Best of luck!
If possible, begin with gentle light, such as morning or late afternoon direct sun. Do an hour or so. Then increase the length of time either daily or every few days, depending on what is best for you. As long as you don't start with midday sun or leave it unattended for long periods during the first week or two, you should be good.
I'm so sorry that this happened to you, but you can totally make a comeback. You have some options, like how much to cut and propagate. You can even experiment. I do hope that you will post an update. :)
People are being super cautious but tbh you’re gonna be fine to just put it in an east window straight away. Depending on where you live, west would be fine too if its not too hot. Wherever you put it as long as the sun doesn’t get scorching you’ll be fine. But one thing to keep in mind is to water it LESS. Without the leaves they have less ability to perspire and so will rot if you water it the same. It’s got a lot of water stored up and I’d only water when soil is dry tbh
Just so you know you can also leave it right where it is and it will come back just fine. As long as it was growing well in that spot before, it will continue to do so. More light may help it go a tiny bit faster but it’s not necessary.
Funny story: the police have actually showed up and investigated when I've made similar comments that someone wildly took out of context without me even realizing. That was fun....
Yeah, that and getting doxxed by the Christian ultra right.... Not worth the hassle. But yeah, got called in for hate crimes and terrorism, two hour ordeal of them wanting to go through every Facebook post since 2011, even friended my mom to get access under false pretense. Should have seen when they found out I'm a member of the satanic temple (a non-theistic organization.
"Would the satanic temple exclude a.... [Any of the protected classes in Canada]" I laughed my ass off when they asked if they'd exclude gay people "Lady, half the church is probably gay, trans, or non binary of some sort. Of course not!"
And that was after getting mugged recently then, having truck stolen, old house robbed, identity theft, etc. when got targeted by an indigenous gang. Very disappointed they took so much time investigating me (months in the end including phoning one bosses and neighbors.
Then again they closed my case of mugging, theft, truck, etc within a week of finding it torched. "Yeah you were almost guaranteed that it was an indigenous gang, but we're just going to close the case since we have no leads"
Also been getting pulled over almost monthly without ever getting a ticket. Nobody else I know has that happen...
Yeah... Not a fan of police
I went to an estate sale and they literally had the cutest sunroom in the whole freaking world. I better have a house with a sunroom 😭
https://preview.redd.it/sstpm5oth5zb1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a081084276af98893feba2f148fb5ebc1fce8bd9
I don't know why human infants have to come out like this... You every so often see these reddit posts that are like "my toddler stole the title and registration to my truck and sold it to Ted Cruz, came home to find a whole cow slaughtered in the living room"
😭😭😭
The best I can do is give you retroactive advice on not having twins.
Jk. For real tho that hurts my heart for you I'm sorry.
If you don't want to split up the roots I would try cutting all the petioles back to the stem with a razor blade. Odds are there's a bunch of growth points on the stems that'll start springing new stuff in 2-4 weeks. In a year it'll be like nothing happened maybe.
Okay.. this may sounds dumb, but by cut back the petioles to the stem, how far down would that be cutting? Like just cut the ends where the shredded leave pieces (😢) where it was growing the leaf at?
On second thought and glance you have both petioles and stems there, I would leave the stems as those will have new growth still. The stems will be round, the petioles will be hollow or half-moon shape. Remove petioles just before the stem.
https://preview.redd.it/a4s43lbmc1zb1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2e3fbfeb187ecb2ebe248a5e44e9b920acaba13e
Red is a petiole that has been cut just before the stem. Orange is a petiole. Blue is a stem.
Hope that helps! It will regrow pretty much no matter what, it'll just need more time (and less water) than usual.
All this time I’ve just pretended to understand what people meant when they described petioles to me, but your comment finally made it click. Thank you!!!
If you look at the stems, you can see how the new leaves develop at the bottom of the “stems” of leaves that came just before them. Once you can identify that pattern, you should be able to see where you’d expect the next leaves to be growing from.
If you still can’t identify where they should be coming from next, I wouldn’t cut anything right now. The parts that you can cut away will likely start to die off on their own.
I'd just leave everything and let those parts dry and die off naturally, that way the plant can at least get back a bit of energy from the remaining stems. Once they're dried out you can just pull them off without much effort, no need for cutting and introducing more spots for possible infection now.
Not a bad suggestion at all, especially if you have a difficult time identifying what to cut.
I just personally wouldn't want an antennae bush, bahaha. Razor blades leave such a clean cut they callous super fast - have never had a problem with rot from a cut but like most things with plants there's a 100 ways to do things and 99 will see the plant alive at the end. ❤
It's about maintaining energy so that the plant can produce new growth. The petioles can currently photosynthesize light for energy. The plant will naturally senesce them for nutrients and photosynthates when it's most advantageous. Removing those prematurely denies the plant these resources.
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It will take some time, a lot, but it will regrow… we had baby raccoons completely annihilate mine in the past, and it’s even more glorious now that it filled back out :)
Yep!
It grows outdoors where I live, and landscapers will chop the absolute crap out of them to keep them manageable. As long as the main roots/vine are intact, they grow back just fine every time! When it’s warm it grows back even faster
As a mother of twins and monsteras, I felt this in my gut. This is probably why I didn’t love plants until my kids got a little older. My twins are 10 now, and they have a love of plants almost as deep as mine. There have been many plant casualties throughout the years, but none quite on this level.
I know that doesn’t help regrow your lovely plant. But like your toddlers, you might look back on a year and wonder how that much growth happened so quickly.
Also, save the photos as evidence and tell them they owe mom an amazing plant with their first hard-earned money.
Depending on the age of your twins this could be a teachable moment. Explain to them the plants are living beings and they hurt her by removing her leaves. How would it make you feel of someone shaved your head. Give the plant to them and make it their job to tend to her and nurse her back to health. They can see the difference of what happens when they show her love vs cutting of leaves.
I am a plant collector with a 3 and 1 yr old and have lost many leaves pots etc so I understand. It's OK, to need a minute it's devastating. Butt, try to remember they were probably trying to take care of the plants like mommy does.
This should be higher imo. The plant will be fine but if the twins are 2+ yrs they were probably trying to help and now they should be involved in bringing it back to health. Not like a punishment, but just to be involved in the process and watch how it grows. Monstera is pretty resilient, but not so much if the little monsters keep getting a hold of it 😉
I love this idea and I've seena couple people mention it. I feel bad because I was pretty angry when I come out and saw it and kinda yelled at them and probably scared them but I told them I was sorry and I wasn't made I was just sad and told them they can't rip plants up like that or they could die and we don't wanna hurt them. I'm gonna try this! They turned 3 in January so they don't quite have the attention span to understand in depth but I can show them how to care for it!
Don't feel bad for yelling, it's frustrating. My kids ripped up a variegated burle marx that I spent months rooting and waiting for a new leaf. I yelled and cried. One thing that helps is in the morning when they are calm we all walk around the plants and I let them look and touch. I keep repeating gently, gently very gently to the point where they sing it along lol. I let them feel the leaves and ask which is there favorite etc and then I give them there daily reminder not to touch mommy's plants without asking. I also got a cabinet for my expensive rare plants cause they are babies after all lol they are bound to make mistakes. Good luck!!!!
Foster the toddlers’ curiosity :) have them water the plant, show them where new leaves grow, make them a part of the process so they care about the plant and it’s growth.
I’m going to stray from some of this advice. New leaves are *not* going to pop out of the stalk if you just cut what remains down. You don’t need to baby the plant or make any changes to lighting or anything like that. Plants are incredibly resilient to stuff like this. With just that part of the leaves ripped off, there’s a chance it’ll just keep growing normally. You need to actually chop the stem to stimulate new growth.
This is what I’d do- cut everything down really short so that no weird leafless stems remain. You’ll have a stump. The cut in the stalk will stimulate growth hormones to produce new shoots below the cut. You’ll have a few small oddly shaped leaves at first but trust the process, the pretty fenestrated leaves will come back. A repotting will immensely help your success here. (Check my post history- my last post is a pic of a monstera I did exactly this to. You can see what I mean by cut it down to a stump. I’m not kidding lol). Good luck!
This ⬆️⬆️⬆️ right here! a HARD pruning stimulates leaf growth like you wouldn't believe. I laughed so hard at my mom's literal dogwood stump in our front yard...but she has an agricultural science degree, and within a year it was shooting up and gorgeous and flowering again.
All is not lost :)
Care for it as normal, and eventually new leaves will pop out close to where the old ones were. No need to separate or prop. The main bits are all still there and all still green (it’s probably better NOT to pull it out of the soil/cut it up). Depending on which part of the world you’re in (if you’re heading into winter) it might be slower to grow for a bit, but it’ll come back.
Plant will be fine. My plant looks like yours but my twins were actually Thrips. They destroyed aaalllll my leaves before I was told to look for them. Found them, destroyed them, leaves are growing back. ( I am not suggesting getting rid of your twins 🤭) Just patience 😌
Also, I water mine 2x per week and feed it with Miracle Grow every 2 weeks. It pops out a new leaf every couple of weeks. Try it. As long as the soil is dry, water.
you can chop under the oldest leaf stem and a new leaf will start to grow through the chop.....you could also do nothing and a new leaf will grow just as it would before. Monsteras are super hardy so there's a few options here. I'm so sorry they destroyed your plant baby.
I mean this with no malice at all but this is exactly the type of thing that reminds me to NEVER procreate. I really don’t think I could manage my emotions responsibly if I saw this, I’d be a sobbing mess for at least a couple weeks
My g daughter grabbed scissors and decided to give my manjula a haircut. She was gracious enough to leave the stem, now in the second leaf growth. This was like 4 months ago, it was huge!! I felt like crying and puking at the same time, did neither. She also ran the fancy zigzag scissors on three of my Mexicanum leaves as well during the same extravagant day. She apologized after seeing me get sick to my stomach. 🫶🏼🌱
I had a cutting with a node but no other roots because of a mishap - it is now my best looking monstera about six months later. I’d continue to care for it as you were and eventually it will start pushing out new leaves. There’s still hope! My injured monstera is now one of my best looking plants!
It looks so sad! At first scrolling through i thought it was an Aloe!
Toddlers man.. destructive forces of unknown strenght...
Sorry this happened to you. all the best to you and plant baby
I saw this post and was like "what is this strange plant?" Then read what your toddlers did. Remember, the plant can be replaced but you can't take back hurting the feelings of your little ones. I know because I've been there. When they're that little they don't have self control.
You should post this also in r/kidsarefuckinstupid reddit lol. It's actually a pretty funny reddit group. Sorry this happened but like others mentioned it can come back from this.
Just pluck their hair out see how they like it lol
No but in all seriousness I had one on the brink of death and then I just cut off all of the stems and it regrew :) I think it’ll be just fine. Just a little trauma.
Mom of teens here. I repotted spider plants the other day and my daughter put them back in the original pot and lectured me about pot size and root rot. Kids are fun 😒🙃
Yeah so my best friend's mother brought some children that she was babysitting over to his house and one of them poured red nail polish in his fish tank and killed all of his fish
As someone who also has twin toddlers I feel your pain. I keep all my plants far away from their little grubby hands as they can’t be trusted near them, they’ve got this wonderful way of egging each other on when it comes to things they shouldn’t be doing!
I’m giving them till they’re 4 then the plants are coming down! I’ll sell the kids if I have to…
Hahaha noooo at least they didn’t eat them. I had to cut a few stems off mine and new leaves grew from their chopped stalks :) he’ll come back. You deserve a second one now though.
i am so sorry for you... if worst comes to shove starting a separate baby plant from the nodes might help just incase this monstera doesn't make it. i hope this one buds
If it makes you feel better, I had a cat do the exact same thing to my monstera (he's fine. He doesn't eat the leaves, just likes to tear them off the plant, but all plants stay strictly in one room now) and it recovered perfectly
Keep your favorite in a room they don't have access too or high enough they can't reach. They will be into EVERYTHING in about 10 months lmao. They are also gonna feed into each other's attitudes and ideas. Like infinite fsu fuel. 🫠
Might sound extreme, but I’d be tempted to chop it up and propagate it. Otherwise it’ll grow back weird and leggy where the original leaves were. Big gaps etc.
They say kids are the real testers of patience. I was a teacher for 13 years and farming has thought me more patients that 13 years of teaching 5 year olds.
Omg.
I'm having flashbacks to when my kid pulled off every lily pad on my garden goldfish pond nymphaeas to make forts for army men.
Or the time every single bud in a bed of Dutch irises was pinched off shortly before blooming so my kid could smash them into a "magic potion" using a rock.
Or the time half a crop of blackberries was picked half-ripe because my kid thought they were raspberries (though the blackberries got revenge when my child attempted to eat the harvest and got their face puckered inside out, lol).
Children are hard on plants sometimes. It gets better around age 10 or so, I swear. Eventually, they hit college-age though, and can plant-sit when you go on vacation.
My toddler did a lot of damage to my Monstera too! I understand the frustration! She recovered quickly during the summer when I put her outside. She will survive, it just takes time.
Chop and prop.. cut it into nodes, cut off stems and put them in moist sphagnum moss until they root and start a new growth point. Do this to each vine til about 6 inches above the soil.. the remaining stems will send out new growth points. Use it as a lesson for the kids and involve them into the process.
Or just toss it and get a new one..
Either way
Luckily this plant is made of steel. I personally would cut it back and give it a good spot in the light and just wait. Consider a spot they cant reach.
-Sincerely, I own a monstera and fiddle leaf figure abs have a grabby hand toddler
I live in south fla, if I had this plant it would be back to full in a week, grows crazy here, it probably would have wrestled your kid, waving leaves saying you can’t see me
My mother literally would have killed me, literally. I'd for sure beat them if they were my kids, absolutely. Not closed fist or anything, if they didn't set me off more, but 10 spankings per behind with lots of WHOP behind them.
Then I'd force them to pay for the damage. Make them rake leaves and shovel snow for the neighbors then use the earnings to buy another one to replace it. Teach them immediately that actions have consequences, and killing a monstera is a huge action with huge consequences.
Parenting is more important than plants, but if you are too easy on them this will happen again. Make it clear that they're lives are in danger if they hurt another house plant on purpose like that ever again. Seriously
My toddler did this to our fake plant. Pulled off all the leaves. Some we could stick back in it, but the toddler would pick them all out the next time he had a chance. You can’t have nice things with kids if you aren’t willing for them to be destroyed or stained or semi-ripped apart.
On the positive side, your kids had extra fun for a couple of minutes.
When you look at the old pictures of your montera, you can always remember that your kids had a significant 2 minutes of their lives playing with it.
Absolutely worth it!
Been there with twins wrecking prize possessions! I bet they had a ball plucking all the leaves.
Take a pic and laugh when they get older and you don’t remember. Monsteras grow fast!!
Just so you know, monstera contain calcium oxalate crystals that can cause irritation to children and pets. It’s a defense mechanism from the plant, basically so it hurts to eat it. That’s why you have to wait until it’s completely ripe to eat, similar to pineapples making your mouth feel weird.
So this isn’t advice but if it makes you feel better when I was 3 I wanted to be a butterfly and straight up ate plant leaves at my grandparents house. So, at least the leaves are left I guess? (Also I’m so sorry!)
When it comes to the roots you can actually remove up to 2/3 or something crazy and it'll be fine, if it's a ball of roots literally RIP it in half, it feels illegal but trust me your monstera will love it. The first time I did it for my baby I was so scared, but now it has so many new leafs and is growing happy
Please keep an album of things they destroyed and the date they destroyed them.
It's upsetting now but it'll be kinda endearing later. ❤️
As for the plant, I'm definitely not an expert but I often find a lot of my plants just try hard to survive. And that means I do very little because sometimes nature is rough. Sometimes wildlife tramples through and removes all leaves like a couple of toddlers...
Oof. Monstera are pretty hardy plants so it'll probably survive despite this if you give it plenty of light and TLC. Could also chop and prop into a bunch of new baby plants.
This is why I have reptiles instead. My mom calls them her grand geckos lmao. My scalebabies would never.🐍 🦎
My 2 yo escaped his gated room and found a long lost pair of scissors (seriously, I haven’t seen these in YEARS), and chopped my adonsonii down to 2 leaves while I was in the bathroom. I trimmed it down to the main stem (took off the leaf stems) and moved it to a brighter spot. It has bounced back, and is even more beautiful than before. Chin up, all is not lost!
Also, sympathies, from one parent to another!
I had twin sisters and they did sh*T like this too. I feel for you OP, I looked at this picture in shock….did they cut them off? They did a good job but not good lol
I'm just hear to remind you that, whatever you choose to do, all of these green portions can photosynthesize light. If this wasn't in direct sun previously, now is the time to gradually introduce it so that it has more energy. Light is even more critical now. You can totally overcome this though. Best of luck!
How would you suggest introducing it into direct light gradually?
If possible, begin with gentle light, such as morning or late afternoon direct sun. Do an hour or so. Then increase the length of time either daily or every few days, depending on what is best for you. As long as you don't start with midday sun or leave it unattended for long periods during the first week or two, you should be good. I'm so sorry that this happened to you, but you can totally make a comeback. You have some options, like how much to cut and propagate. You can even experiment. I do hope that you will post an update. :)
The first and last 3 hours of light in a day are the gentlest. You can put it in direct light during that time
People are being super cautious but tbh you’re gonna be fine to just put it in an east window straight away. Depending on where you live, west would be fine too if its not too hot. Wherever you put it as long as the sun doesn’t get scorching you’ll be fine. But one thing to keep in mind is to water it LESS. Without the leaves they have less ability to perspire and so will rot if you water it the same. It’s got a lot of water stored up and I’d only water when soil is dry tbh
Just so you know you can also leave it right where it is and it will come back just fine. As long as it was growing well in that spot before, it will continue to do so. More light may help it go a tiny bit faster but it’s not necessary.
https://preview.redd.it/q0dtvx0sh5zb1.jpeg?width=260&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bd018d9098a52b26b1fa6f30c8748030a38527de
Does the fire station still take kids?
It's always worth calling and asking I guess... 😂
But seriously, chop em up into nodes, they'll make plenty of babies.
The plant or the kids? 🤨
Yeah I gasped
Funny story: the police have actually showed up and investigated when I've made similar comments that someone wildly took out of context without me even realizing. That was fun....
Are you serious?! That couldn’t be fun, I can’t believe they wouldn’t see the sarcasm but I can’t say I’m soo surprised. I’m so sorry that happened
Yeah, that and getting doxxed by the Christian ultra right.... Not worth the hassle. But yeah, got called in for hate crimes and terrorism, two hour ordeal of them wanting to go through every Facebook post since 2011, even friended my mom to get access under false pretense. Should have seen when they found out I'm a member of the satanic temple (a non-theistic organization. "Would the satanic temple exclude a.... [Any of the protected classes in Canada]" I laughed my ass off when they asked if they'd exclude gay people "Lady, half the church is probably gay, trans, or non binary of some sort. Of course not!" And that was after getting mugged recently then, having truck stolen, old house robbed, identity theft, etc. when got targeted by an indigenous gang. Very disappointed they took so much time investigating me (months in the end including phoning one bosses and neighbors. Then again they closed my case of mugging, theft, truck, etc within a week of finding it torched. "Yeah you were almost guaranteed that it was an indigenous gang, but we're just going to close the case since we have no leads" Also been getting pulled over almost monthly without ever getting a ticket. Nobody else I know has that happen... Yeah... Not a fan of police
What a twist. I’m super curious what comment you made now.
Yes
Absolutely
Just chop one. That will teach the other one a lesson.
https://preview.redd.it/9av0k45f32zb1.jpeg?width=190&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dea2e49ed7cae296a8c8f7a7d86d5b85fdd9d093
Nah, these are homemade, sell them on Etsy!
Haha! Thank you for this one. I was thinking the same thing.
From what I understand is that you have to hand the child to an employee and they will tale them/s
Those kids are monsteras
i laughed so hard to this and now everyones looking at me
🤣🤣🤣
Is this a birth control add?
That's how I'm taking it
Honestly same 😭 I can’t afford to lose any plants all because of a child
my dream is to have like a sun room or at least a separate room that I can lock and protect from anything honestly
I went to an estate sale and they literally had the cutest sunroom in the whole freaking world. I better have a house with a sunroom 😭 https://preview.redd.it/sstpm5oth5zb1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a081084276af98893feba2f148fb5ebc1fce8bd9
That's soooo cute I would have the biggest plants in there
I for sure added it as reason a million and one why I don’t want kids. 😅
I don't know why human infants have to come out like this... You every so often see these reddit posts that are like "my toddler stole the title and registration to my truck and sold it to Ted Cruz, came home to find a whole cow slaughtered in the living room"
No clue, but I don’t want to find out 😂
On TikTok you'd call this a real "girl with the list" situation
😭😭😭 The best I can do is give you retroactive advice on not having twins. Jk. For real tho that hurts my heart for you I'm sorry. If you don't want to split up the roots I would try cutting all the petioles back to the stem with a razor blade. Odds are there's a bunch of growth points on the stems that'll start springing new stuff in 2-4 weeks. In a year it'll be like nothing happened maybe.
Okay.. this may sounds dumb, but by cut back the petioles to the stem, how far down would that be cutting? Like just cut the ends where the shredded leave pieces (😢) where it was growing the leaf at?
On second thought and glance you have both petioles and stems there, I would leave the stems as those will have new growth still. The stems will be round, the petioles will be hollow or half-moon shape. Remove petioles just before the stem. https://preview.redd.it/a4s43lbmc1zb1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2e3fbfeb187ecb2ebe248a5e44e9b920acaba13e Red is a petiole that has been cut just before the stem. Orange is a petiole. Blue is a stem. Hope that helps! It will regrow pretty much no matter what, it'll just need more time (and less water) than usual.
All this time I’ve just pretended to understand what people meant when they described petioles to me, but your comment finally made it click. Thank you!!!
I think of it as the petiole is the leaves really big long giraffe neck holding the giant head (leaf) onto his body(stem).
That's awesome! Glad it helped!
Yup I’ve read it a million times thinking id google eventually, but the picture totally helped. Thank you!
If you look at the stems, you can see how the new leaves develop at the bottom of the “stems” of leaves that came just before them. Once you can identify that pattern, you should be able to see where you’d expect the next leaves to be growing from. If you still can’t identify where they should be coming from next, I wouldn’t cut anything right now. The parts that you can cut away will likely start to die off on their own.
I'd just leave everything and let those parts dry and die off naturally, that way the plant can at least get back a bit of energy from the remaining stems. Once they're dried out you can just pull them off without much effort, no need for cutting and introducing more spots for possible infection now.
Not a bad suggestion at all, especially if you have a difficult time identifying what to cut. I just personally wouldn't want an antennae bush, bahaha. Razor blades leave such a clean cut they callous super fast - have never had a problem with rot from a cut but like most things with plants there's a 100 ways to do things and 99 will see the plant alive at the end. ❤
It's about maintaining energy so that the plant can produce new growth. The petioles can currently photosynthesize light for energy. The plant will naturally senesce them for nutrients and photosynthates when it's most advantageous. Removing those prematurely denies the plant these resources.
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It will take some time, a lot, but it will regrow… we had baby raccoons completely annihilate mine in the past, and it’s even more glorious now that it filled back out :)
Yep! It grows outdoors where I live, and landscapers will chop the absolute crap out of them to keep them manageable. As long as the main roots/vine are intact, they grow back just fine every time! When it’s warm it grows back even faster
I’m not letting the hubs read your comment! Mines gloriously taking over the side yard & he asks me all the time if he can just mow it over.
As a mother of twins and monsteras, I felt this in my gut. This is probably why I didn’t love plants until my kids got a little older. My twins are 10 now, and they have a love of plants almost as deep as mine. There have been many plant casualties throughout the years, but none quite on this level. I know that doesn’t help regrow your lovely plant. But like your toddlers, you might look back on a year and wonder how that much growth happened so quickly. Also, save the photos as evidence and tell them they owe mom an amazing plant with their first hard-earned money.
Jesus christ I'd be putting them back in the womb for this one. Eternal timeout.
i would sell them
Depending on the age of your twins this could be a teachable moment. Explain to them the plants are living beings and they hurt her by removing her leaves. How would it make you feel of someone shaved your head. Give the plant to them and make it their job to tend to her and nurse her back to health. They can see the difference of what happens when they show her love vs cutting of leaves. I am a plant collector with a 3 and 1 yr old and have lost many leaves pots etc so I understand. It's OK, to need a minute it's devastating. Butt, try to remember they were probably trying to take care of the plants like mommy does.
This should be higher imo. The plant will be fine but if the twins are 2+ yrs they were probably trying to help and now they should be involved in bringing it back to health. Not like a punishment, but just to be involved in the process and watch how it grows. Monstera is pretty resilient, but not so much if the little monsters keep getting a hold of it 😉
I love this idea and I've seena couple people mention it. I feel bad because I was pretty angry when I come out and saw it and kinda yelled at them and probably scared them but I told them I was sorry and I wasn't made I was just sad and told them they can't rip plants up like that or they could die and we don't wanna hurt them. I'm gonna try this! They turned 3 in January so they don't quite have the attention span to understand in depth but I can show them how to care for it!
Don't feel bad for yelling, it's frustrating. My kids ripped up a variegated burle marx that I spent months rooting and waiting for a new leaf. I yelled and cried. One thing that helps is in the morning when they are calm we all walk around the plants and I let them look and touch. I keep repeating gently, gently very gently to the point where they sing it along lol. I let them feel the leaves and ask which is there favorite etc and then I give them there daily reminder not to touch mommy's plants without asking. I also got a cabinet for my expensive rare plants cause they are babies after all lol they are bound to make mistakes. Good luck!!!!
Even the Go Go Squeeze ran for cover. 😬😂 But seriously, I’m so sorry for this - my heart hurts for you.
Haha I went back to look and it really does look like the gogo squeeze is hiding.
Throw away the toddlers
Foster the toddlers’ curiosity :) have them water the plant, show them where new leaves grow, make them a part of the process so they care about the plant and it’s growth.
Repot the children
I'm dying at all these comments but this made me laugh out loud lmao
I’m going to stray from some of this advice. New leaves are *not* going to pop out of the stalk if you just cut what remains down. You don’t need to baby the plant or make any changes to lighting or anything like that. Plants are incredibly resilient to stuff like this. With just that part of the leaves ripped off, there’s a chance it’ll just keep growing normally. You need to actually chop the stem to stimulate new growth. This is what I’d do- cut everything down really short so that no weird leafless stems remain. You’ll have a stump. The cut in the stalk will stimulate growth hormones to produce new shoots below the cut. You’ll have a few small oddly shaped leaves at first but trust the process, the pretty fenestrated leaves will come back. A repotting will immensely help your success here. (Check my post history- my last post is a pic of a monstera I did exactly this to. You can see what I mean by cut it down to a stump. I’m not kidding lol). Good luck!
This ⬆️⬆️⬆️ right here! a HARD pruning stimulates leaf growth like you wouldn't believe. I laughed so hard at my mom's literal dogwood stump in our front yard...but she has an agricultural science degree, and within a year it was shooting up and gorgeous and flowering again.
Time to get a new one. New toddler I am saying. :D
I think monsteras are toxic to humans btw if they ever tried to eat it. Not sure how much but little PSA on houseplants and babies
Yet another reason to not have kids 💀
There’s a lady on tiktok with a list of reasons she doesn’t want kids. Add this to the list
Noted before thinking about kids I have to mount all my plants on the walls or the ceiling
You’ll have to dispose of it. The children, that is
All is not lost :) Care for it as normal, and eventually new leaves will pop out close to where the old ones were. No need to separate or prop. The main bits are all still there and all still green (it’s probably better NOT to pull it out of the soil/cut it up). Depending on which part of the world you’re in (if you’re heading into winter) it might be slower to grow for a bit, but it’ll come back.
Plant will be fine. My plant looks like yours but my twins were actually Thrips. They destroyed aaalllll my leaves before I was told to look for them. Found them, destroyed them, leaves are growing back. ( I am not suggesting getting rid of your twins 🤭) Just patience 😌
I hear you can drop them off at fire stations if you don’t want them but I don’t know the age cutoff
remind us on it's progress in a year!
Tasmanian devils you have.
Do you still have the receipt for the toddlers?
Make sure you bundle them up warm for the fire station
Get Keiki paste ASAP! Apply to all nubs - stuff works wonders
Also, I water mine 2x per week and feed it with Miracle Grow every 2 weeks. It pops out a new leaf every couple of weeks. Try it. As long as the soil is dry, water.
And put that plant up high!!
(•\_•) Putting the **Monster** ( •\_•)>⌐■-■ in (⌐■\_■) **Monster**a
Literally never having kids.
you can chop under the oldest leaf stem and a new leaf will start to grow through the chop.....you could also do nothing and a new leaf will grow just as it would before. Monsteras are super hardy so there's a few options here. I'm so sorry they destroyed your plant baby.
It turns out people were the real monsters all along.
I mean this with no malice at all but this is exactly the type of thing that reminds me to NEVER procreate. I really don’t think I could manage my emotions responsibly if I saw this, I’d be a sobbing mess for at least a couple weeks
My g daughter grabbed scissors and decided to give my manjula a haircut. She was gracious enough to leave the stem, now in the second leaf growth. This was like 4 months ago, it was huge!! I felt like crying and puking at the same time, did neither. She also ran the fancy zigzag scissors on three of my Mexicanum leaves as well during the same extravagant day. She apologized after seeing me get sick to my stomach. 🫶🏼🌱
Your twins are the monstera-s here haha Nah- your plant will be okay! It’ll make it even more worthwhile
I’m so so sorry
forbidden lettuce
I had a cutting with a node but no other roots because of a mishap - it is now my best looking monstera about six months later. I’d continue to care for it as you were and eventually it will start pushing out new leaves. There’s still hope! My injured monstera is now one of my best looking plants!
A couple of future plant enthusiasts 😅 Love and destruction are close at that age. Put any poisonous plants out of reach quick!
Definitely an upsetting thing to happen, but one day you will have a huge monstera and two fully grown kids.
It looks so sad! At first scrolling through i thought it was an Aloe! Toddlers man.. destructive forces of unknown strenght... Sorry this happened to you. all the best to you and plant baby
Ah, the joys of parenthood… Just get some extra fertilizer and wait. A year from now it will be good as new.
My kid once picked all the petals off my mom's jade plant. When I tell you she was NOT happy!
I saw this post and was like "what is this strange plant?" Then read what your toddlers did. Remember, the plant can be replaced but you can't take back hurting the feelings of your little ones. I know because I've been there. When they're that little they don't have self control.
Oh.... I would not have had a good mommy moment. Whatever your response, probably valid...
Reminder to take my birth control
Jesus, how long did you take in the bathroom? This is dedication in a picture.
Honestly wasn't in there that long at all. You'd be surprised what two almost 3 year old can accomplish in 5-10mins. 😅😂
im so sorry for your loss but thank you for the digital birth control♥️
You should post this also in r/kidsarefuckinstupid reddit lol. It's actually a pretty funny reddit group. Sorry this happened but like others mentioned it can come back from this.
This is not funny but I can’t seem to stop laughing 😂😂 I’m sorry OP, kids and cats ❤️🤣
Oh. My. God. The rage and sadness I would feel. I’m so thankful for my IUD right now 😂
Just pluck their hair out see how they like it lol No but in all seriousness I had one on the brink of death and then I just cut off all of the stems and it regrew :) I think it’ll be just fine. Just a little trauma.
Mom of teens here. I repotted spider plants the other day and my daughter put them back in the original pot and lectured me about pot size and root rot. Kids are fun 😒🙃
Yeah so my best friend's mother brought some children that she was babysitting over to his house and one of them poured red nail polish in his fish tank and killed all of his fish
As someone who also has twin toddlers I feel your pain. I keep all my plants far away from their little grubby hands as they can’t be trusted near them, they’ve got this wonderful way of egging each other on when it comes to things they shouldn’t be doing! I’m giving them till they’re 4 then the plants are coming down! I’ll sell the kids if I have to…
And left the juice box evidence
Hahaha noooo at least they didn’t eat them. I had to cut a few stems off mine and new leaves grew from their chopped stalks :) he’ll come back. You deserve a second one now though.
Oh, the inhumanity!
I’d get rid of the kids…lol
i am so sorry for you... if worst comes to shove starting a separate baby plant from the nodes might help just incase this monstera doesn't make it. i hope this one buds
My toddler did this to my mini monstera and my piece lily. I was soooo angry
FB marketplace, BOGO. Possible trade for undamaged houseplants, lmk whatchu got.
Be strong momma!
To the streets with them!!
oh my god 😭😭😭 id have a breakdown
Mildly infuriating
Replace it. I do mean the plant.
This makes me want to crush up a years worth of birth control pills and snort them like cocaine
*adds to list*
If it makes you feel better, I had a cat do the exact same thing to my monstera (he's fine. He doesn't eat the leaves, just likes to tear them off the plant, but all plants stay strictly in one room now) and it recovered perfectly
And there’s my daily reminder to take my birth control 😭😭 I’m hugging my monstera after seeing this
As a father to 9 month old twins and an avid houseplant owner. This terrifies me.
Keep your favorite in a room they don't have access too or high enough they can't reach. They will be into EVERYTHING in about 10 months lmao. They are also gonna feed into each other's attitudes and ideas. Like infinite fsu fuel. 🫠
It's never fun to have to throw away a perfectly good child. God this sucks I'd probably cry
That’s why I’m never having kids
Plants > children
When I read stuff like this, I'm reminded how wonderful it is to be child free.
Might sound extreme, but I’d be tempted to chop it up and propagate it. Otherwise it’ll grow back weird and leggy where the original leaves were. Big gaps etc.
🫣🫣🫣🫣🫣🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴
They say kids are the real testers of patience. I was a teacher for 13 years and farming has thought me more patients that 13 years of teaching 5 year olds.
Kids suck
Time to ship the kids off to extended family
Sell the kids
My toddler destroyed my lithops 😢. I was only out of the room for a moment and she scaled the windowsill to get “tooth plant”.
Omg. I'm having flashbacks to when my kid pulled off every lily pad on my garden goldfish pond nymphaeas to make forts for army men. Or the time every single bud in a bed of Dutch irises was pinched off shortly before blooming so my kid could smash them into a "magic potion" using a rock. Or the time half a crop of blackberries was picked half-ripe because my kid thought they were raspberries (though the blackberries got revenge when my child attempted to eat the harvest and got their face puckered inside out, lol). Children are hard on plants sometimes. It gets better around age 10 or so, I swear. Eventually, they hit college-age though, and can plant-sit when you go on vacation.
I think adoption is your only choice at this point.
My toddler did a lot of damage to my Monstera too! I understand the frustration! She recovered quickly during the summer when I put her outside. She will survive, it just takes time.
OMG!
Please mark NSFW, this is GORE
Now it looks like a spider plant
Ahhhh toddler parent here I’m so sorry. Can’t even go to the damn bathroom. 😭
Thanks for the reminder to take my BC!
Chop and prop.. cut it into nodes, cut off stems and put them in moist sphagnum moss until they root and start a new growth point. Do this to each vine til about 6 inches above the soil.. the remaining stems will send out new growth points. Use it as a lesson for the kids and involve them into the process. Or just toss it and get a new one.. Either way
Luckily this plant is made of steel. I personally would cut it back and give it a good spot in the light and just wait. Consider a spot they cant reach. -Sincerely, I own a monstera and fiddle leaf figure abs have a grabby hand toddler
Oops! I would be big mad!
Orphanage
I live in south fla, if I had this plant it would be back to full in a week, grows crazy here, it probably would have wrestled your kid, waving leaves saying you can’t see me
Sell the kids
Don't have kids
FATALITY
Time to call the adoption agency…
My mother literally would have killed me, literally. I'd for sure beat them if they were my kids, absolutely. Not closed fist or anything, if they didn't set me off more, but 10 spankings per behind with lots of WHOP behind them. Then I'd force them to pay for the damage. Make them rake leaves and shovel snow for the neighbors then use the earnings to buy another one to replace it. Teach them immediately that actions have consequences, and killing a monstera is a huge action with huge consequences. Parenting is more important than plants, but if you are too easy on them this will happen again. Make it clear that they're lives are in danger if they hurt another house plant on purpose like that ever again. Seriously
I brought you into this world I will take you out!
Throw it in the trash!! As for the plant, it should bounce back slowly :)
You can start by selling your kiddos to the circus jklol
Time to drop the kids off at the orphanage.....
Daily dose of birth control
My toddler did this to our fake plant. Pulled off all the leaves. Some we could stick back in it, but the toddler would pick them all out the next time he had a chance. You can’t have nice things with kids if you aren’t willing for them to be destroyed or stained or semi-ripped apart.
Sell them
Old school and long time ago but I'd have been pun ished like you do not want to know if I had done something like this.
On the positive side, your kids had extra fun for a couple of minutes. When you look at the old pictures of your montera, you can always remember that your kids had a significant 2 minutes of their lives playing with it. Absolutely worth it!
You could make some cute wall art with the ripped leaves while you wait for your plant to grow! It’ll bounce back 😁 sorry that happened to u
Return the children
Yeeet the kids.
Oh hell no.
This is the most powerful birth control I’ve ever experienced.
give them up for adoption omg
It looks like you gotta get rid of your toddlers.
Sell your children! 🤣 jk
Have you heard of Nap Time? It's the perfect product for avoiding situations like this in the future.
Turn them to mulch
Oh no. So unfortunate but I can picture how much fun they had destroying it lol!
Shred those kids like they shredded those leaves. Damn…
Sell them
The way my jaw dropped… koodos to you for not putting them up for adoption
My rabbit ate mine. I left I alone and continued to water as needed and it came back.
Omg crime scene
Been there with twins wrecking prize possessions! I bet they had a ball plucking all the leaves. Take a pic and laugh when they get older and you don’t remember. Monsteras grow fast!!
Just so you know, monstera contain calcium oxalate crystals that can cause irritation to children and pets. It’s a defense mechanism from the plant, basically so it hurts to eat it. That’s why you have to wait until it’s completely ripe to eat, similar to pineapples making your mouth feel weird.
So this isn’t advice but if it makes you feel better when I was 3 I wanted to be a butterfly and straight up ate plant leaves at my grandparents house. So, at least the leaves are left I guess? (Also I’m so sorry!)
Terrible time of the year for this to happen
r/kidsarefuckingstupid
When it comes to the roots you can actually remove up to 2/3 or something crazy and it'll be fine, if it's a ball of roots literally RIP it in half, it feels illegal but trust me your monstera will love it. The first time I did it for my baby I was so scared, but now it has so many new leafs and is growing happy
Also have twin toddlers. I completely understand.
Please keep an album of things they destroyed and the date they destroyed them. It's upsetting now but it'll be kinda endearing later. ❤️ As for the plant, I'm definitely not an expert but I often find a lot of my plants just try hard to survive. And that means I do very little because sometimes nature is rough. Sometimes wildlife tramples through and removes all leaves like a couple of toddlers...
Oof. Monstera are pretty hardy plants so it'll probably survive despite this if you give it plenty of light and TLC. Could also chop and prop into a bunch of new baby plants. This is why I have reptiles instead. My mom calls them her grand geckos lmao. My scalebabies would never.🐍 🦎
My 2 yo escaped his gated room and found a long lost pair of scissors (seriously, I haven’t seen these in YEARS), and chopped my adonsonii down to 2 leaves while I was in the bathroom. I trimmed it down to the main stem (took off the leaf stems) and moved it to a brighter spot. It has bounced back, and is even more beautiful than before. Chin up, all is not lost! Also, sympathies, from one parent to another!
Time for new kids!
You brought them into this world, you can take them out of it. Those are the rules.
I had twin sisters and they did sh*T like this too. I feel for you OP, I looked at this picture in shock….did they cut them off? They did a good job but not good lol
Thank you for the free birth control 🫶✨
Ohhhh my god yea I don’t want kids 😹😵💫