Need some houseplant advice re: loose moss pole

Cafe Society
1

I have a beautiful “white princess” philodendron in my office that I repotted not long ago. When I did, I added a moss pole to the pot.

The plant lives on a high shelf because the pot is too big for the windowsill, but I take it down to water it and sometimes just to enjoy it at eye level. I’m an inveterate plant murderer so having flourishing ones is a real novelty!

So what’s happening, I think, is that the pole shifts a little each time I move the pot and that’s compressing the soil.

I’m worried that as the plant grows it will overwhelm the wobbly pole, and I’m almost at the point where I’ll need to attach a second one (it’s a modular setup that you can keep adding to).

So what’s the best way to stabilize it? I have a vague notion that packing more soil in there is bad because very dense pockets of soil might mess with drainage. I just repotted it a month or two ago so I don’t want to do anything that will mess with its roots so soon.

What about shoving a bunch of aquarium stones up against it? Or could I build a kind of scaffolding for the pole out of something like chopsticks? That’s what I was using to hold the plant up when it was smaller.

I do have about a half-inch of clearance available in the pot so I’ll definitely add a bit more soil, which should give the pole and the plant itself a little more stability.

2

I solved a similar problem once by drilling four tiny holes around the perimeter of the (plastic) pot, and running monofilament fishing line from the pole to each hole. The fishing line is essentially invisible. This solution will be a bit trickier if your pot is ceramic. You could use a masonry drill bit, or perhaps use a dab of epoxy if you don’t want to drill the pot.

3

I’ve used bamboo garden poles for custom plant supports and stuff and some are over 10 years old now. They’re about a buck apiece in a bundle of 6 from Home Depot and fairly easily cut with a hacksaw. I use twisted wire to hold them together but zipties would probably be ok. I was going to recommend skewers for something smaller but I like the chopsticks idea better.