P. Melanochrysum Tower Trellis

Working with a medium sized Philodendron on a tower arrangement.

Making the Trellis Larger

Philodendron Melanochrysum or ‘Black Gold’ is a beautiful plant that can be deceivingly difficult to deal with. This is the reason we normally see them grown trailing, rather than climbing.

We have been growing this plant for half a year at this point, and the road has been rocky to say the least. The trellis has been the easiest part of the entire project. Humidity, soil composition, and lighting are the other variables that have been harder to figure out.

Adding in Some Extras

This plant was removed from the nursery stake and place on a corner trellis, that was about 8" tall.

Three rows of hexagons tall is what was needed initially.

This trellis is currently built in a 1x1 tower arrangement, potted in a 6” pot.

This is far more support than the plant needs at this stage, so we added in some extra plants to the trellis in order to fill out the space.

Coco coir and three 2” pots of String of Pearls are what you see in the video. 

What we should have done...

Philodendrons respond well to direct support at the top most internodes. You can see in this picture how the uppermost leaves of this plant are starting to reduce in size. This is due to the plant outgrowing the trellis. If we would have kept up on this trellis with each new leaf, we would be seeing subsequently larger foliage.

We’ll check back in on this plant in a few months to give you an update!

Philodendron Melanochrysum as of February, 2022.

In this post

Everything we used to make this happen.