See How Most Plant Parents Use Water Propagation Methods You need to move your plant from water to soil in a way that allows it to thrive and grow healthily. Some plants are likely not going to survive in soil; so, an alternative is to let them first develop roots in water.
As long as you make sure that the water has a decent nutritional balance, and that you did not harm any roots, most plants should easily switch over to growing roots in water. The point of first establishing the plant’s roots in the water is to make sure the plants survive, as opposed to planting them directly into the soil.
Before you move, you will want to tug on the stems gently to ensure the plants are rooted in the soil. Once the correct size pot has been prepared, and the soil has been prepared, the next step is to remove the rooted plants from the water for transferring. You will want to transfer plants from the hydroponic water quickly into the soil, so get ready with the number of pots needed before starting. Fill half a pot with soil, and then place the cuttings roots of your cuttings from the plant in a pot. Gently push your cuttings from your cutting into the top, pull up the roots, and transfer your cutting to where it is supposed to be.
As it grows stronger and your propagated plant cutting gets used to the soil, you can begin to let go a bit of water. Once you have identified some inches of roots, you can usually turn a cutting over to the soil immediately. If you have been propagating your monstera cutting in water, you should aim to transfer it to soil in a couple of weeks, once the new roots reach about three to four inches in length. If you do not want to take that long, you can leave the Monstera cutting in water until your plants roots get about four inches long, but do not leave it for much longer, or the plant will begin struggling to get enough nutrients.
Hopefully, new roots will begin to pop up, and a Monstera plant should be growing provided that you keep your soil adequately moist. Once you have got your soil and containers just right, fill up a container to two-thirds full, and then pull your plant out of the water and into potting soil, being extra careful about your roots. Do not move the Monstera plant to a simple potting mix; it is very likely to die, particularly if the soil becomes compacted over time. If you want to skip the watering step, you might be wondering whether it is possible to propagate a Monstera plant right into the soil, instead of having to grow in water and then transplant.
You have had the plant cuttings in the propagation station for several months, and by that time, they should be ready to move into the soil and be potted. Moving the cuttings from water to soil is one step of the Water-to-Soil Propagation Process; during the early part of this process, then all we need to do is monitor our plants to ensure that they are not shocked by their new surroundings. This is really important because remember, we are moving plants from water to soil, so we want to make sure that soil is moist, to avoid shocks from happening too much on our plants.
The proper time to move your plants from water to soil is when your roots are around 1-2 inches in length. The plant should be transferred as soon as the roots have reached about 1-2 inches in length, as that is when the roots are not fully developed, but they are developed enough that they can adjust and survive the transition to soil. For plants coming from hydroponic systems, water roots are very delicate, and transferring them into soil is nearly inescapable, creating a degree of shock.
Any soil you leave on a plant or the roots will create a bad buildup within your hydroponics system and may pass along diseases or insect eggs. If you have too much room in a container, it is easy to get wet soil all over the roots of the plant. Size is important here, as we will generally gravitate toward more frequent irrigations when moving plants into larger containers with more soil.
Once your root system is longer than your cuttings, you may want to place your plants right in the 3-inch pot with soil; however, going from one extreme to the other may stress out your plants, and they will be at greater risk for death than they would if you were slowly adding soil over water.
In a couple of weeks, if you decide to check on your recently replanted cutting, you will see that your wimpy water roots are growing into long, thick, soil roots. When you move a plant that is growing fast from water to soil, the roots are not ready to seek out the nutrition of the soil, and the plant will suffer, and may even die because it cannot receive adequate nutrients.
Once your plants are out of the soil, you can place the plants into a mesh planter or another container that allows water to pass through. Place the plant that you removed from its current pot onto a new pot fresh mix layer, making sure the plant is in the middle, and add pot mix around the plant until secure. Pot a cutting into a plastic container that has good drainage, then set inside a decorative pot, taking it out as needed so that it can drainage is adequate.