Why are my Monstera leaves curling?

Monstera leaves curl from thirst or from roots that aren’t drinking. Curling leaves with dry, light soil mean thirst: water well and they usually open within a few days. Curling or drooping leaves with soil that’s still damp point to too much water or cold. A finger in the soil settles it.

Why does a Monstera curl its leaves?

A Monstera (Monstera deliciosa) curls a leaf to show less surface to the air and lose less water. It’s a defence. So faced with a curled leaf, the right question is: is the plant short of water, or does it have water it can’t use?

Two clues nearly always answer it:

• The weight of the pot. Lift it. Very light means thirst. Heavy, with dark soil, means too much water.
• A finger in the soil, down to four or five centimetres. Dry means thirst. Cool and damp means something else.

Dry soil: the plant is thirsty

Hard soil shrinking from the pot’s sides, leaves curling at the edges and stems a little droopy. The plant has used up its reserves.

What to do.

1. Water slowly and fully, until water appears in the saucer.
2. If the water slips down the sides without soaking in, leave the pot in a basin of water for twenty minutes, then let it drain.
3. Empty the saucer once it has stood for a while.
4. Give the plant time. Leaves usually recover within a few days; the worst affected may take longer, and some never quite return to what they were.

To keep it from happening again, it helps to know your plant’s rhythm. At an east-facing window, in a 16 cm plastic pot, a Monstera needs water every 6 days in July, and that shifts a lot with light and pot — the watering guide explains it all.

Damp soil: the roots aren’t drinking

This is the one that fools people. The leaf curls and droops as if thirsty, and the natural move is to water. But if the soil has been damp for days, the roots are starved of air and have stopped working — more water only makes it worse.

Other clues: a musty smell, fungus gnats around the pot, lower leaves turning yellow, a soft stem near the soil. It can also be a pot much too big for the roots, where the soil takes ages to dry, or too little light: in many houseplants, curled or puckered leaves come from too much or too little water just as much as from poor light.

What to do. Hold off watering until the top few centimetres of soil dry out. Tip out the saucer and make sure the pot has a drainage hole. If it hasn’t improved in two weeks, slide the plant out of the pot: sound roots are firm and pale, rotten ones dark and soft. Snip those off with clean scissors and repot in fresh, airy soil. The other half of the story is in why Monstera leaves turn yellow.

Do heat and dry air curl the leaves?

They can. Strong midday sun can leave the foliage drooping or scorched, and on a hot day, by a sunny window, a leaf may curl slightly in the late afternoon and open again overnight, which is usually harmless. If it’s still curled in the morning, it’s thirsty. If it curls every single day, the plant is somewhere too harsh: move it back from the glass or filter the light with a sheer curtain.

The dry air from a heater does the same thing more slowly, and usually leaves brown tips: a Monstera likes medium to high humidity, and suffers beside a radiator. If that sounds like yours, read why Monstera leaves turn brown.

Can a cold night make leaves curl?

It can. A night beside a cold window, or near a door that keeps opening, can make leaves droop and curl: draughts are a well-known problem for houseplants, particularly in winter. Cold roots drink less. Find the plant a steadier spot and don’t compensate with extra water.

Could it be pests?

Spider mites and thrips suck the sap and can distort new leaves, which come out crinkled or curled; mites multiply above all in warm, dry air. Look for dots, fine webbing or silvery patches under the leaf. Wipe the leaves with a damp cloth, give the plant a lukewarm shower and, if they persist, try insecticidal soap, keeping the plant away from the others.

Is it normal for new leaves to come out rolled up?

Yes. A new leaf emerges rolled up, like a cigar, and unfurls by itself, bit by bit. That’s growth, not a problem. Only worry if a new leaf opens crooked, shrunken or spotted.

Summary: which curl is this?

What you see	Soil	Most likely cause	What to do
Curled, drooping leaves	Dry and light	Thirst	Water fully, until it drains
Curled, drooping leaves	Damp for days	Too much water, suffocating roots	Stop watering, check the pot
Curls in the late afternoon, opens overnight	Normal	Heat and sun	Filter the light
New leaves rolled up	Normal	Growth	Nothing, just wait
Distorted leaves, dots underneath	Normal	Pests	Wipe, isolate the plant

Quick questions

How long does a curled Monstera leaf take to open after watering? If it was thirst, usually a few days. If it doesn’t open, the cause is something else.

Should I water a Monstera with drooping leaves? Only after checking the soil is dry. With damp soil, watering makes things worse.

Can a curled leaf flatten out again? If the damage is recent, yes. If the leaf has dried or turned brown, it won’t, and it’s better to wait for new leaves.

One leaf, two opposite requests

The tricky part is that one leaf can ask for two opposite things. The history breaks the tie: how much you’ve watered, how much light the plant gets, which pot it’s in. In Verdejar, when you tell the app what you see, it weighs that against your logged waterings and the plant’s light and pot before suggesting a next step. The rest of the care is in how to care for a Monstera, and the Monstera plant page lists watering for each spot at home.

Sources: Royal Horticultural Society · Missouri Botanical Garden · Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew · University of Wisconsin–Madison Extension · Penn State Extension · University of Minnesota Extension · University of Illinois Extension · Oregon State University Extension. The days between waterings come from the Verdejar watering engine.