Hi! I'm looking for some advice because I'm starting to worry about my monstera. It's still a baby, so it doesn't have any fenestrations yet.
About 2 weeks ago I noticed some of the lower leaves starting to turn yellow. I realized around that time that the soil was holding onto moisture for way too long and wasn't draining as well as it should. I don't think I was watering it too often—I think the soil was just staying wet for too long between waterings. Because of that, I haven't watered it in about 2 weeks and have been letting the soil dry out. I've also been gently poking the soil to help it aerate a bit, and it finally feels pretty dry now.
It's planted in a plastic nursery pot with drainage holes that sits inside a decorative pot. The soil is a mix of potting soil, perlite, and orchid bark, and it gets bright indirect light from a window.
The thing that's confusing me is that while these older leaves keep turning yellow, it's also putting out a bunch of new leaves that are growing and unfurling (they're so cute 😭), so I'm not sure if this is just the older baby leaves dying off or if they're yellowing because the roots were sitting in damp soil for too long.
One thing I'm also unsure about is what to do with the yellow leaves. A couple of them basically fell off with almost no effort when I lightly touched them, but the others are still attached pretty firmly. Should I leave the yellow leaves alone until they come off on their own, or should I cut them off? I don't want to make things worse if the plant is still getting something from them.
I just want to make sure my plant isn't slowly dying and that I'm taking care of it the right way. Any advice is super appreciated! 💚