I kept a huge cheese plant for eight years untill the cat killed it... Anyway, mine used to get those creepy looking alien tendrils poking out from amoung the foliage, since they're ugly to me I just chopped them at the main stem and everything was fine.

However, I since heard they're designed to grow in to gaps to suck up water. Putting them in a jug of water might improve the health of your plant? You could use plastic ties to trail them down the moss pole in to the jug out of sight, or even in to the soil to help collect more water.

Bry wrote:

I kept a huge cheese plant for eight years untill the cat killed
it...Anyway, mine used to get those creepy looking alien tendrils poking
outfrom amoung the foliage, since they're ugly to me I just chopped themat
the main stem and everything was fine.

However, I since heard they're designed to grow in to gaps to suck
upwater. Putting them in a jug of water might improve the health of
yourplant? You could use plastic ties to trail them down the moss pole
into the jug out of sight, or even in to the soil to help

Yes they are standard ariel roots as on many plants.. They stabilise,
cling, and absorb moisture. Monstera are designed to be
climers/ramblers up and over trees. They are basically 'vines' in the
broadest sense. In the UK they have a tendancy to be neglected and get a
bit messy or take over the area that theyou grow in simpley because they
are not suited as houseplants, being forest plants in their native
environment.

//
Jim

I suspect they're more likely to be upright creepers in the wild
because I saw this picture once of a giant swiss cheese plant that had
grown to what looked like a hundred feet or more by winding its way up
the trunk of a massive tree (somewhere in a rainforest in central
america).

So I hope you live in a tall house...regards, Ewald Schroder

I understand that they're really crawling plants rather than upright ones
and that they grow horizontally instead of upright.

Ours do ...

Mary

Pam in Bristol

In article , Ewald
Schroder writes
I suspect they're more likely to be upright creepers in the wild
because I saw this picture once of a giant swiss cheese plant that had
grown to what looked like a hundred feet or more by winding its way up
the trunk of a massive tree (somewhere in a rainforest in central
america).

So I hope you live in a tall house...regards, Ewald Schroder

Gordon Rigg at Walsden used to have one in the space between two of his
greenhouses. It was like a jungle in itself. It went up, down, sideways
and everyway.

John
--
John Rouse

I'd agree, they grow in a very messy sprawling kind of way. The large dark leaves suggest they get little sunlight, and the ariel roots (aka alien tendrills...) suggest they like humidity, so they're certainly a forest plant. The one I used to have was weaved in and out of the railings at the top of my stairs, it must have been 15 foot long before the cat decided to dig all the soil out the pot and broke the main trunk...

I recently bought myself a new cheese plant (only £5 at Tesco, who stock a few commonly used house plants). Anyway, this time I went for the type that is grown as a clump of leaves sprouting from the pot, not the ones grown up a pole. I find the pole plants look good for a few years, then they lose the lower down leaves and start to rush upwards quickly overflowing their support and looking messy. I expect the plants grown as a clump will keep their shape better and hopefully when leaves drop off it won't show.

Anyway, would a cheese plant grow outside? I've never seen them outside, but aparently a lot of garden experts are saying you can even grow a yucca outside now, which was once considered an indoors-only plant like swiss cheese plants are.

In article m, Bry
writes

Anyway, would a cheese plant grow outside?

No.

I've never seen them
outside, but aparently a lot of garden experts are saying you can even
grow a yucca outside now, which was once considered an indoors-only
plant like swiss cheese plants are.

I can remember outdoor yuccas from when I was a kid.

Yes, winters are a bit warmer now, but it won't make a dramatic
difference - what you'll be seeing is that things that are occasionally
cut down by frost will survive every winter, and things which died back
in winter now may have the odd winter that they survive. And plants
which need a good summer to set a crop will do so more often. Swiss
Cheese (Monstera) is a rain forest plant, and we haven't reached rain
forest temperatures yet ;-)

It's not just a matter of heat - lack of light (short days, low sun
angle) and wetness in winter also affect whetehr plants will survive.

--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

You're quite right, after that post I made I did some research and aparently cheese plants die when the temp drops below 12 degrees. So, no chance of growing one outside and having it survive a Brittish winter.... However, I'm sure we have enough sunlight to grow them here, after all they mannage well in my house (even dimly lit corners that get indirect sunlight).