Now that you are a monstera owner, you probably want more! Or maybe you just want to gift a piece of yours to a friend or other loved one. While taking a knife to your favorite plant can be intimidating – and a little scary! – it is surprisingly easy to propagate a monstera.

1. Choose a sharp knife and disinfect it. You don’t want to transfer anything unclean to your plant! You can do this by washing thoroughly with soap and water, or a tiny bit of rubbing alcohol.

2. Pick which parts you want to cut. Depending on the size and maturity of your plant, you can take a large chunk with multiple leaves and nodes/aerial roots, or you can take small pieces of 1 or 2 leaves.

3. Make sure to cut directly below a node or aerial root. These are the foundations for your propagations. a. If you want, you can cut each leaf and node into individual pieces so you are left with a little bit of stem on either side of the node and aerial root.

4. Once your pieces are cut, remove any empty sheathings from the leaf stems. These will rot in the water and you don’t want that!

5. Let your pieces of monstera dry out a bit – this usually take a few minutes to allow them to heal before being submerged in water.

6. Once your cut pieces are dry, arrange them in the container of your choice. Remember that they grow roots fairly quickly, so if you choose a vase with a narrow neck, you may have a little trouble pulling them out in a few weeks!

7. When you have the pieces spaced out the way you want them to be (keep in mind how they will root and be transferred to dirt), fill your container with water.

8. Put your fresh propagations in a place with bright, indirect light and change the water out every 3 to 5 days. Roots should continue developing in about 2-3 weeks!

The whole process takes about fifteen minutes, and you are left with a very cool arrangement! Note that while monsteras can remain healthy in water for several months, it is best to plant them around the three month mark.