Information On Caring For Pothos Plants

The pothos plant is considered by many to be a great way to get started caring for houseplants. Because pothos care in easy and undemanding, this lovely plant is an easy way to add some green in your home.

Caring for Pothos Plants
Basic pothos care is very easy. These plants enjoy a wide range of environments. They do well in bright indirect light as well as low light and can be grown in dry soil or in vases of water. They will thrive in nutrient-rich soil but do almost as well in nutrient-poor soil.

Pothos plants make a great addition to your bathroom or office because they can tolerate low light. While pothos likes a wide variety of light conditions, they do not do well in direct sunlight.

If your pothos is highly variegated, particularly variegated with white, they may either not grow as well in low light or may lose their variegation if the light is too low. Only the green parts of the leaves can make energy for the plant, so it must be able to get enough light for energy or its growth will slow or the leaves will compensate for the lack of light by becoming more green.

How To Cut Back Pothos Plants
Has your pothos plant gotten too big? Or maybe it’s not as bushy as it used to be? You can prune a pothos and bring new life to this amazing, vigorous and easy-to-grow houseplant.

Let’s take a look at how to cut back pothos.

First, you will have to choose exactly how far you’d like to prune your pothos back. You can prune it back dramatically up to about 2 inches or so (5 cm.) from the soil line if needed. Or you can leave much longer vines and prune much less.

It all depends on how much you’d like to take off. Regardless, pruning this plant will only benefit it. You may be happy with only a lighter pruning or, if your plant has lost quite a few leaves and you want to reinvigorate the plant, a more drastic pruning may be needed. A harder pruning will force new growth at the base and eventually the plant will be much busier.

Whatever extent of pruning you choose, the way you prune is the same.

How to Cut Back Pothos
Take each individual vine and determine where you’d like to prune it. You’ll always want to cut the vine ¼ inch (about 2/3 cm.) above each leaf. The point where the leaf meets the vine is called a node, and your pothos will send out a new vine in that area after you’ve pruned.

Take care not to leave any leafless vines. I’ve found that these typically won’t regrow. It is probably best to prune leafless vines completely off.

Keep repeating the process until you’ve selectively pruned each vine and you are visually pleased with the results. If you just want to just do a light pruning, you can just take tip cuttings on whatever vines are too long.

After you’ve pruned your pothos, you may choose to propagate your plant with all the cuttings you’ve made.

Simply cut the vines into smaller segments. Remove the bottom leaf to expose that node, and place that node in a vase or propagation station with water. That bare node must be underwater.

Make sure that each cutting has one or two leaves. New roots will soon start to grow at the nodes. Once the roots are about 1 inch (2.5 cm) long, you can pot them up.

At this point, you can start a brand new plant, or even plant them back into the pot that you took the cuttings from in order to create a fuller plant.

Pothos is very popular because it can be grown in water or in dry soil. Cuttings can be taken from a mother plant and rooted in water and kept in water as a houseplant. This is convenient for placing a pothos plant in hard to reach areas in a jug of water where they can remain untouched as long as water remains in the jug. On the opposite end, pothos can also be started in soil and will tolerate moderate periods of dry soil with little effect on the plant. Oddly enough, cuttings started in one growing medium have a hard time switching to the other. So, a pothos plant started in soil has a hard time thriving if moved to water and a pothos cutting started in water will not do very well in soil, especially if it has spent a long time growing in water.

You can fertilize your pothos plant about once every three months and this will help the plant grow more quickly, but most people find that their plants grow quick enough even with being fertilized.

Are Pothos Plants Poisonous?
While pothos plants are easy to care for houseplant, you do need to be aware that they are poisonous. Though rarely fatal, the plant can cause irritation and vomiting if ingested because it contains calcium oxalates. Even the sap from the plant may cause highly sensitive people to break out in a rash. It is considered toxic to cats, dogs, and children, but as mentioned, it normally will make them very sick but will not kill them.