Decades ago nurseries used to sell a 4-5 inch wide slab of wood with the bark still on it in various lengths. I haven't seen those in many years but they made excellent supports to grow the climbing aroids on. Unfortunately the bark would eventually try to separate from the board and it'd need a nail or three. A few hundred years ago when I was starting in aroids, I grew a variegated pothos to the top of a 3-foot slab, so I nailed another slab the same size to the top of it. That was some pothos, when it reached the top of the 2nd slab leaves were 2 feet across with splits along the leaf edges.

I would prefer a board of some kind rather than a skinny tree branch because you want the plant to actually root to the support, not just hold it up vertically. Once an aroid roots to wood or other surface, an enzyme in the roots causes the plant to produce larger and larger leaves until they reach maximum size for the species or variety. Just supporting the vine won't cause this reaction. That said, if you used a thick tree branch of 3 or 4 inches across, basically a small log, that would work.

A rough-sawn 1 x 4 or 1 x 6 board from a lumber yard would be great, a smoother surface board is okay, they're not picky. I have some full-size deliciosa variegata's climbing the side of the house, if I try to pull them away the roots will take some of the paint with them. I don't think I'd use a treated board, it'll rot sooner but the chemicals are probably toxic.

You can also get a 1 x1 or 2x2 and wrap with long-fiber sphagnum moss, then wrap around that with cord to hold it on. Watering the sphagnum moss can help the plant root in it and also provide moisture to the plant. But they really don't need the moss, they're tree climbers.

Another method is to make a long cylinder from wire fencing, like chicken wire, then stuff this with sphagnum moss and start the plant at the bottom against the wire. It will root into the moss in the cylinder.

Do you know which monstera you have? If it's the big species deliciosa you'll need a wider and sturdier board than if you have the smaller Borsigiana variety of deliciosa. These are the most common but there are a lot of other species. If you don't know and will post a pic, I can probably tell you what it is.

Russ

I looked at the Mosser Lee extendable totem, it's on the pricey side but looks okay. Personally I would make my own, or try out that Pueblo ladder you mentioned. However, if the ladder is valuable I'd use something else since it'll be exposed to water and the roots might destroy paint, patina or whatever if they will root to it.

Russ

Russ can you post pictures of some of your plants? There is a thread titled October 2016 I'm sure everyone would want to see them!

I saw that thread when it first started, I guess I didn't post since I don't grow indoors and so didn't consider them 'house plants'. I will post some pics there, thanks.

Here is an Aroid thread with some of my aglaonemas, one of my favorite groups of plants.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/2881353/aglaonema?n=32

I have a large collection of ags, philodendrons, syngoniums, dieffenbachias and monsteras. I also love sansevierias.

Always looking for a trade and I do 'for postage' for those starting in horticulture or looking to increase their collections and don't have trades.

Russ

Thanks for the tips guys! I'm think a large wide piece of cypress would be a great support for a monstera. Especially since cypress is rot resistant.

Hope it's cool for me to share this here, thought it may be of interest. Here's a pic of a Monstera Obliqua I've just potted up, having received the plant bare rooted from Ebay. The stick is plastic with coco fibre wrapped around it. It was beginning to 'vine' pretty seriously up until now - I'm hoping the coco stick will help to induce growth of bigger leaves, based on the effect Russ describes. Do you think it will work?

By the way, the plant itself was described as a Monstera Obliqua when I bought it, but I've seen the same (or similar) plants described as Adonsii or Fredrickstalii, anyone know if these are the same plant or different ones?

M. obliqua and friedrichsthallii are both apparently synonyms for the species adansonii. I have the small one like yours as well as the big adansonii from different sources. The immature form of adansonii doesn't look like the immature form of obliqua. Adansonii is climbing, I'm going to put an obliqua on an oak tree to climb to see if the more mature forms look the same or are still different.

Good job on that mossed post!!

Russ

Monstera friedrichsthalii is a synonym of Monstera adansonii var. laniata but Monstera obliqua is still legitimate (that's today, 24 October 2016, of course). Superficially they do look quite similar. I have M. adansonii and M. siltepecana, they also look similar.

I have siltepecana as juveniles only, I've never grown them to a large size. They have the dull silver-gray areas on leaves, I believe it will disappear with size. Adansonii and obliqua juv's never have this color, but leaf shapes are similar.

Russ

Anyone know where I can buy a cutting of a variegated Monstera? The one with the oval holes. Not sure if it is called Adansonii or Obliqua or Friedrichsthalii. Or maybe something else.

There’s literally only one of those in existence that I know of, and I think that most people know of. It happened by mutation as I expect most of the time it does. The young girl that owns the plant lives in Finland I believe. She’s named it adansonii “archipelago”. I think she may have sold a couple of cuttings for hundreds of dollars. But that might be a rumor. It’s been a big deal in the plant world as it’s only recently happened.

Anyhow, it won’t be available I imagine for a very long time, if ever unless someone who could take tissue cultures or something gets their hands on it.

I've grown aroids for over 40 years and have never seen or heard of a variegated friedrichsthallii/obliqua/etc, or a variegated adansonii for that matter. Interesting regarding the pics of the monstera above, it looks like my juvenile plants of adansonii, which eventually grow enormous. I'd be interested if the variegated form above ever tries to revert to all-green. If it does, I'd be careful about paying a lot of money for it. Sometimes it's difficult to stop reverting in other variegated monstera species, such as the Borsigiana form of deliciosa.

My friedrichsthallii/obliqua plants are all highly skeletonized and never look like adansonii at any stage, and vice versa. So I'm not completely convinced that they are one and the same.

Russ