Pothos Propagation 101
Due to being one of the easiest going houseplants when it comes to watering and lighting requirements, pothos are one of the most popular houseplants. With many different pothos varieties you can make a whole wall collection of them if you wanted to. But, lets just say you fell in love with one type of pothos over the rest, Golden Pothos for instance. You could turn that one pothos plant into a whole wall through my favorite plant hack:
Pothos plant propagation is super easy once you know all the details about where to cut and how to encourage growth. Though, there are two different ways you can go about propagating a pothos plant. The first is through a long cutting with about 3 leaves on it and the other is through a real leggy cutting that has little to no leaves on it. The second option does take a little longer because of this fact. Since the cuttings don’t have a leaf, they don’t have any means of nutrients, so they are banking on rooting themselves. Whichever way you use, make sure the stem is healthy because propagating an unhealthy leaf is a b***h.
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OPTION 1: CUTTING WITH LEAVES
STEP 1
Clean off your scissors or pruning clippers. Dirty clippers/scissors aren’t good practice and can harm the plant. Remember how fragile the plant will be, it doesn’t even have roots yet, so we want to be as careful as possible.
STEP 2
Cut just underneath the node (where the leaf is coming out of the stem) of the leaf, leaving 2 to 3 leaves on the cutting. After cutting off, remove the leaf closest to where you cut.
STEP 3
Place the cutting cut-end first into a small cup of FILTERED water. Keep in indirect bright light for ideal growth. After about a month you will see roots coming out of the end where you cut and some more growth of leaves begin.
STEP 4
Don’t wait too long until after you see roots to transfer into a pot with soil (half peat moss and half sand/perlite). If you wait too long it may take a while for the plant to get accustomed to being in the soil rather than the water. It’s simply a shock to their system if they’re left in the water for too long, then transplanted. Before you place in the pot with soil dip the plant in some rooting hormone, this will encourage quicker growth of the roots and establishment in its new home. Here are some options:
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And now the other method....
OPTION 2: Cutting with no leaves
STEP 1
Same as before, CLEAN off your scissors or pruning clippers.
STEP 2
Take a really leggy stem (with no or almost no leaves) and start cutting 1 to 2 inches on either side of the node. Do this until you can’t no more, or until you’ve cut the desired amount of nodes.
STEP 3
Create a warm and humid environment where the cuttings can thrive and will feel comfortable putting out their roots. There are a bunch of different ways to do this, with a plastic bag, tupperware container, seed starting kits, etc. Anything that’s enclosed to increase the humidity is fine to put it in, just be sure to wash it out first! Next you can pour in half perlite/sand and half peat moss/sphagnum moss, mix it up and start placing the cuttings, node side towards the soil. After a week or so you will start to see the roots grow and with a little more time (about a month) the vine will start to grow as well. Be sure to open the container every few days to give the plants some air and prevent them from rotting.
STEP 4
Just like before, take the cutting, place the roots in rooting hormone and pot them. If you wanted to, you could start this whole process with a pot full of peat moss/perlite mixture and put a cover over it so you don’t have to go through the trouble of transplanting later. This is a good idea to get a full plant quickly and without as much hassle!
After you have successfully propagated your pothos be sure to keep a close eye on it as it is more fragile than your other, well-established plants.
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Now that you're a pothos propagating pro, go put your skills to use and make yourself a whole pothos home garden!!If you enjoyed this article and want to know more about plants, or read more specific articles, such as The Top 5 Terrarium Plants or How To Turn Your Home Into A Desert Vista, click here!
If you have any questions, book a meeting with our plant expert here!
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