📝 Editor's Note · 2026-07-17 · by Rin Ito

Repotted my 4-year-old monstera today — a whiff of sulfur meant 1/3 of the roots had to go

Pulled my monstera Deliciosa out of a #10 glazed ceramic today after 18 months. Root ball smelled faintly like a sulfur egg — that's anaerobic rot from the ceramic holding water at the bottom. Cut off maybe 1/3 of the roots (all the mushy dark-brown ones with the smell), left the firm cream-colored ones alone.

Repotted into a plain plastic nursery pot with drainage holes — heresy for the aesthetics people, but nursery pots let me squeeze the sides to check moisture at week 3 without pulling the plant. If you're seeing yellow lower leaves + heavy pot even when the topsoil looks dry, that's your sign. Don't wait until the smell arrives like I did.