Philodendron Melanochrysum Care and Update ft. Philodendron Gigas 

Aw thank you💚! My orbifolia is one of my forever favorites 🙂.

Glad it was helpful!

Exciting! Enjoy it!

Thanks❤️

Be here on the 19th I got it Form a plant adoption agency still was super expensive tho😑 But sooo worth it💖💖✨✨✨

Hi! Thank you for your advice! It's in a north window in the US so it's not getting much strong direct light but I recently moved it so hopefully the new placement helps :)

💚🌱

Thanks Noemi! 💚🌱

It thrives for me during the warmer and longer months in the summer (it doesn't get that warm in San Francisco) and then dies back in the winter. Not sure if I just got one with strong genes but is basically the only calathea (or one of few) I can keep a live 😅. It gets crispy edges often.

Thanks Sherry! I didn’t see any on them but I’ll continue to monitor 🙂

Is it spider mites?

Hi Luke! Congrats on your new plant! High humidity helps it grow so a greenhouse type environment like a cloche is always good but I think this one is more tolerant to lower humidity as long as you don’t live in the desert or where it’s very dry. Bright indirect light, soil with a good amount of aeration (ex. Perlite) and water when top inch or two of soil is dry. Warmth is always good too. My “Aroid Collection” video has an update from the summer when it was thriving. It took a hit during winter though and a lot of the lower leaves yellowed and died so not sure if it was from the cold, under/over watering, not enough light, needed more fertilizer while growing etc.

@@LittleLeafSF thank you so much

Hi! As the plant matures the new leaves should get bigger (with the right conditions like humidity, temperature, light and fertilizer). I haven’t cut back my plant and the newest leaf at the moment is about 8 inches long, the plant is about 4.5 ft high. Unfortunately I don’t have too much experience cutting back my philos so I don’t know if the new growth that emerges on the mother plant stays the same size as the previous leaf (I heard the leaves get smaller after it’s cut back so if you want larger leaves it might not happen as fast if you cut it back). If you cut it, you can cut it below a node (where you see aerial roots on the stem). I find cuttings do well in high humidity in a green house environment with the node in sphagnum moss but I haven’t experimented much. Good luck!

@@LittleLeafSF thanks... yes wondering how to get bigger leaves without the plant growing 20 feet

@@growproteas1148 an idea (which I’m not certain will work) is not cutting it back yet and air layering a node. This is wrapping the node with damp sphagnum moss and tying it shut with plastic wrap. Like watering your plant, you can water the sphagnum moss too (spray so it’s damp when dry or water) and eventually add nutrients to your watering after you start seeing aerial roots grow out. When the aerial roots get big you can keep on adding more sphagnum around it and treat it like a cutting that you haven’t cut. When the next leaf grows (which would ideally be larger than the last) and the aerial roots are abundant, you might be able to take that cutting, pick as much moss off the roots and pot in your mix. The new leaf from the cutting *might* keep its large leaves since it has a large root system already from air layering. Might be a good experiment!

@@LittleLeafSF thanks

Good idea, thanks Matthew! Much prettier than a plastic bag for humidity lol. I’ve always thought of it but haven’t done it yet! 🌱💚

So the more humidity it gets the bigger the leaf ? I've seen some that are HUGE and others that look like climbing Micans......i just ordered one...praying it gets big

Lance Burley Not necessarily. Here... but not has a few big leaf aroids and his humidity are around 30-50% but high humidity does help with big leaves

@@palm0607 I would say the best way to get yours to create big leaves would be to let it climb and have good humidity.

I honestly didn’t purchase it myself so didn’t necessarily choose it after research but I think I’m seeing a good amount of growth. My melano is growing pretty quickly but I think it was even when I was only using the really weak Espoma organic fertilizer so hard to tell the change in growth rate after changing. It’s still growing pretty quickly now with some nice larger more mature leaves starting (some older leaves are dying though 😕). I think the issue with the slow release is that I don’t water as often as I probably should so the pellets may not get activated as much as they could be with the watering. I also noticed some bigger leaves on a variety of my plants so not sure if it was the osmocote that helped. What do you use? Also, thank you!

@@LittleLeafSF Well at least you’re not overwatering and killing them lol. I use a variety/mixture of superthrive, jack’s fertilizer, iron, and recently started to use liqui-dirt. Not sure if one works better than the other cause I like to rotate them on a weekly basis, but I add superthrive to every watering and I think it has some magic lol.

Good to know, thanks for sharing! I’m a hoarder and don’t want to get rid of my huge bag of Osmocote that was given to me but maybe I’ll mix in some other types of fertilizer 🙂.

@@LittleLeafSF oh wow at least you got it for free! Yeah! You should definitely check out super thrive at least. Smells kind of like umami but maybe that’s why it works LOL!

@@plantsgetthirstytoo3388 ohh umami, maybe I’ll get hungry when I use it hahah

This video compares them side to side. They look similar but the Gigas is a little glossier to me and slender with less of a sinus (part where the center part dips in). I personally like the Gigas a little more at the moment.

Thanks a lot for the reply. It is very helpful. I missed the part when you explaining them side by side. Great video.

Thanks! Right now 30/30/30 peat moss, pearlite and coco husk chips (or can use orchid bark or something similar to replace chips) with a scoop of worm castings. If you don’t want to mix yourself, you can buy a premixed cactus mix from a brand you like and add perlite for more aeration. I haven’t used a premix before but I think they like a lot of air in the soil which perlite helps with.

Yes they are on the soft velvety side 🙂

It's next to a bay window where the window extends out of the building a little so it gets some of the east sunlight covered by trees (in addition to the northern light) when the sun sets in the spring/summer, so not too much but the leaves do get warmed up during this time 🙂🌱

@@LittleLeafSF thank you for clarifying & responding to my comment. Very helpful :)

Awesome that you got one! I haven’t seen new growth for a while but it’s been pretty chilly in my place (it’s not well insulated). The east bay is usually a little warmer though so that may or may not make a difference 🙂🍀

Hi Amanda! I’ve seen that happen (I think) because 1) I overwatered my plant and/or the soil didn’t have enough drainage (they like more airy soil like with pearlite etc.) so the roots may have rotted (I think this happens more when it’s cold too) 2) it needs fertilizer (leaves yellow differently depending on the nutrient that they are lacking) or if you’re fertilizing too much leaves can burn too 3) it’s just an old leaf that eventually dies since the plant needs to use the energy for new growth. Hard to say since there can be many factors. Is it in direct sun? Leaves can burn if there’s too much direct sun too. Do you see any very very small bugs (spider mites) eating the leaf? Is it growing new leaves though? Importing and shipping may stress the plant too. Sorry it’s not super helpful, but maybe it can help you troubleshoot.

I think for mine, I’m guessing it was just shedding and old leaf to concentrate on new growth since it’s constantly putting out new leaves. Not sure how big yours is but that could be the case, another idea is needing fertilizer and I would make sure it’s getting the right amount of water (not too much or little in case there’s rot). If it’s just one leaf and others and it’s putting out new growth it might be okay but hard to say. Good luck!

Thanks for watching!

It might be excessive and unnecessary (I've heard philodendrons aren't very sensitive to water types) but I usually use boiled tap water treated with fish aquarium water treatment (removes ammonia, chlorine and chloramine). I figured if that would help fish, it could probably help plants. Tap water may be fine too (I cannot vouch) and I've heard in general for plants that folks sometimes use rain water or distilled water.