Biotope One A Study of Flora and Fauna 
Monstera deliciosa is a well-known houseplant around the world. Monstera Deliciosa Albo Variegata is a well known more expensive version. Many aroids can be propagated with plant tissue cultured at home, and with little fuss.
Making media for Monstera deliciosa is not hard to do. Full strength MS (Murashige and Skoog) media should be used in the first stages. There are many scientific papers out there about the micropropagation of Monstera deliciosa. Most of them say about the same thing. Some have expensive or more dangerous plant growth regulators in the protocol. Avoiding more harsh PGR’s is wise.
For initiation stage media full strength with 25 grams of sucrose will keep it happy. Add in 1 mg/L of BAP to get it accustomed to PGR’s and start making shoots. A small amount of NAA will help it begin to send out roots. .1 mg/L will do that well.
To help keep contamination at bay add in 1ml of PPM. PPM is Plant Preservative Mixture and helps keep bacterial and fungal contamination from taking over your cultures. Even though sterilizing media and explant material theoretically is enough, it isn’t always enough. PPM can be bought directly from their website.
There are several ways to gel the MS in the varying stages of tissue culture. Agar is easy to get and effective. 5 grams of agar per liter is usually effective at gelling to the desired consistency. Gelling agent doesn’t always have to be used but it helps structurally with the plant and makes things easier all around.
Explant material from fresh growth nodes is best because there is less contamination. Cut nodes with leaves and roots. Standard sterilization protocol is sufficient. A quick bleach solution soak and agitation should suffice. Following up with a diluted NaDCC wash and or sterile water at plate up is good measure.
In about 4 or 5 weeks there should be shoot and root growth at room temperature. Once there is enough material to split up it can be moved to multiplication media. Multiplication media for Monstera deliciosa is the same as initiation except that more BAP is added. 5 mg/L BAP will help it multiply. Some experimentation may provide acceptable results with 3 mg/L BAP.
Rooting can be done in vitro but the added work is unnecessary if left to grow out rooting. Once roots have started or plantlets are large enough remove from culture and place into pots of rockwool with bottom watering in a plastic tote. Rooting will continue provided sufficient humidity is provided with a partially opened lid on the plastic bin.
For in vitro rooting stage use 1/2 strength MS. To influence rooting add IBA 0.5 mg/L and NAA at 0.2 mg/L of media. Once rooted, move out to harden off in greenhouse conditions to start growing.
