My Monstera Got Way Too Big. Here's How I Dealt With It

I’ll be honest — monstera is a little overhyped. It’s a nice plant, don’t get me wrong, but nobody tells you upfront that if you take good care of it, you’re going to end up with something that takes up half a corner of your living room and starts eyeing the ceiling.

That’s exactly what happened to mine. I’d had it for a few years, kept it happy, and one day I looked over and realized it had grown into the plant next to it, one stem was brushing the ceiling, and the whole thing was just… a lot. Too much, really, for the space I had.

So I had to figure out what to do. Turns out there are a few solid options, and none of them are as scary as they sound.

Nobody Warns You How Big a Happy Monstera Gets

When people talk about monstera being a great houseplant, they usually focus on the leaves — the fenestrations, the tropical look, the way it photographs. What gets left out is that this plant, given good light and consistent care, can get absolutely massive indoors.

Mine was pushing five feet wide and the tallest stem was grazing the ceiling. It wasn’t a problem with my care — it was because of it. A healthy monstera just grows. That’s what it does.

If you’re earlier in your monstera journey and running into other care questions, Monstera Care: What the Vague Guides Don’t Tell You covers a lot of the stuff most guides gloss over. But if you’re here because yours is already enormous — same, let’s keep going.

Your Options When a Monstera Gets Too Big

You have three real choices, and they’re not mutually exclusive:

1. Prune it back — cut stems to a manageable length and let the plant branch from the cut
2. Air layer before you cut — give the cutting a head start on roots while it’s still attached to the mother plant
3. Take stem cuttings from what you remove — propagate the pieces you prune off

I ended up doing a combination of all three, which honestly worked out really well. Here’s how each one goes.

How to Prune a Monstera Back for Size Control

Pruning a monstera is not complicated, but there’s one thing you need to know: always cut above a node.

A node is the joint where a leaf attaches to the stem. It looks like a little bump or ridge. If you cut above a node, the plant will push out 1–2 new growth points near the cut. If you cut between nodes — in the middle of a bare stretch of stem — you’ve just created a dead end. The plant can’t branch from there.

So before you make any cut, trace the stem and find your nodes. Then decide how far back you want to go, and make your cut about an inch above the node you want to keep. Use something clean and sharp — dull scissors will crush the stem instead of cutting it, and that’s not great for the plant.

After the cut, the base plant will typically push new growth from near that node within a few weeks. Most of the time you get two new leads instead of one, which actually makes the plant fuller and more interesting looking than it was before. Mine came back bushier than it had been, which I genuinely didn’t expect.

One thing worth noting: the plant will look a little rough right after a big prune. That’s normal. Give it a few weeks before you decide anything dramatic happened.

Should You Air Layer Before Cutting?

If the stem you’re removing is big — like a mature stem with several large leaves — you might want to try air layering before you cut it off. The idea is that you give the cutting a chance to develop roots while it’s still getting water and nutrients from the mother plant, so by the time you make the cut, it’s already halfway to being its own plant.

I did this with the tallest stem on mine and it worked out really well. The cutting had visible roots before I ever separated it, which made the whole propagation process way less stressful.

Air Layering: The Propagation Trick for Plants That Are Hard to Cut walks through the whole process in detail — it’s worth reading before you start if you haven’t air layered anything before. The short version: you wound the stem at a node, pack it with damp sphagnum moss, wrap it in plastic to hold moisture, and wait for roots to form before cutting. It takes a few weeks but it’s pretty reliable.

What to Do With the Cuttings You Remove

Once you’ve made your cuts, look at what you’ve got. Any piece of stem that has at least one node and one healthy leaf can potentially become a new plant.

You have a couple of options for rooting them:

• Water propagation — stick the node end in water, watch for roots, then transfer to soil
• Soil propagation — plant directly into a well-draining mix and keep it slightly moist

I’ve done both. Water propagation is satisfying because you can actually see the roots forming, but the transition to soil can be rough — water roots and soil roots are structurally a little different, and sometimes cuttings sulk when you move them. If you want to go the water route, Water Propagation vs. Soil: One of Them Is Setting You Up for Failure has a really honest breakdown of the tradeoffs.

For a big monstera cutting with a couple of leaves, I’d lean toward going straight to soil if the cutting already has some aerial roots on it. Those aerial roots will get to work pretty quickly once they’re in a moist mix.

Supporting the Base Plant After Pruning

After I cut mine back, I also took the opportunity to assess how it was supported. Monstera stems get heavy — especially the older ones — and if your plant has been leaning, flopping, or pulling in weird directions, this is a good time to deal with that.

A moss pole gives the plant something to actually climb, and when a monstera can climb vertically, the leaves tend to get bigger and more fenestrated over time. That’s a separate thing from the pruning itself, but if you’re already in there doing work on the plant, it’s a good moment to set one up or replace one that’s gotten too short.

If the pot situation also needs attention — like the plant is clearly rootbound or the soil has degraded — you can repot at the same time. Just don’t repot, hard prune, and move it to a new light situation all at once. That’s a lot of stress at the same time. Pick the most urgent thing first.

How Long Until the Plant Looks Normal Again?

This is the question I had and couldn’t find a straight answer to, so here’s what actually happened with mine.

Within about two weeks, I could see new growth starting near the cuts — small, tightly furled new leaves pushing out. By six weeks, those leaves had unfurled and the plant looked like it had a plan again. By three months, I honestly think it looked better than before — fuller, more compact, not reaching desperately toward the ceiling.

The cuttings I propagated took a little longer. The air-layered cutting was doing well by week four. The regular stem cutting I put in soil took closer to six weeks before I felt confident it had actually rooted.

Your timeline might vary depending on the season and how much light the plant gets, but as a rough guide — expect a few weeks of “this looks rough” before it turns a corner.

A Few Things That Actually Help After a Big Prune

• Don’t fertilize immediately after. Give the plant a couple of weeks to settle before you push growth. Once it’s actively pushing new leaves, that’s a good time to start back up with something like HiThrive Monstera Plant Food, which I’ve been using diluted at half strength every time I water.
• Keep the light consistent. This is not the moment to move the plant somewhere new. Let it recover in the same spot it was already in.
• Don’t overwater while it’s recovering. Fewer leaves means the plant is using less water. A soil moisture meter is genuinely helpful here — you’re not guessing, you’re checking.
• Check that the pot drains well. Sitting in soggy soil after a prune is one of the faster ways to cause problems. Drainage matters a lot with monstera.

Is This Worth It, or Should You Just Get a Smaller Plant?

Honestly? If you don’t have the room, monstera might just not be the right plant for your space. I said it before and I’ll say it again — it’s a little overhyped, and “overhyped” means people get them without really thinking through the long-term size.

But if you love yours and just need to bring it back to earth a little, pruning is worth it. It’s not hard, the plant handles it fine, and you end up with propagation material you can keep, give away, or trade. Mine is genuinely happier looking now than it was when it was cramming itself into the ceiling.

Just go in with a plan, find your nodes before you cut, and don’t panic when it looks rough for a few weeks. It’ll come back.