You probably have had one of these at some point in your life....the Pothos plant or Devil's Ivy is pretty much the easiest houseplant going.
Some pothos cuttings sitting around getting roots. I found this thingy at the thrift store and I think this is what it is for? If anyone knows what it actually is called, please let me know in the comments!!
They are bright, shiny and have big almost heart shaped leaves. The Pothos plant may or may not have splashes of cream or yellow depending on the variety and the plant's access to proper light. Added bonus: they are not very demanding when it comes to caring for them!
All of my cuttings came from this momma plant
These vigorous growers do well in pretty much any environment. They do well in low, bright or indirect light. Pothos aren't even fussy about their soil...no special requirements there! Soggy soil or perhaps too dry? Lacking nutrients? No problem. They will be ok in either....you can even keep one in a jar of water practically forever!
It is easy as pie to propagate these into new plants. No need for rooting hormone, just a clean pair of scissors and a jar of water. Should you have rooting hormone, direct from the mother Pothos to soil is optimal for success.
I used this, I had some on hand from last year. It has never failed me
For either method, start by looking for vines with the root nodes on the stems right below each leaf.
These are where the roots will bust out!
Cut a 4-6 inch piece just below a root node. Try to make sure each cutting has 2-4 leaves and at least two growth nodes.
Make a clean, angled cut with clean scissors and proceed with one of the following methods.
WATER:
Simply place the cut ends of your stems in water.
A jar or glass will do, nothing fancy. Make sure at least one of the nodes is submerged.
Place the jar of cuttings in a place with indirect sunlight. In 2-3 weeks you will see the nodes begin to look like roots.
Hi baby roots!
You want to plant it now, the same way you would any other houseplant. Do not let the roots get long and out of control...the longer pothos cuttings remain in water, the harder time they have adjusting to soil.
Bury stem deep enough to cover new root buds. Deep is good, it will root along the stem over time
Bury to first leaf on this one
SOIL:
Take the cuttings and remove the first leaf above the ends.
Dip cut ends in rooting hormone, Making sure you've covered at least the first root node.
Make a hole in your seed starting mix deep enough to bury the nodes up to the first cut leaf.
Set the cuttings into mixture and firm them in. Keep the soil moist and put a place with indirect sunlight.
Ready to grow!
With either method, your new Pothos should be established and getting new leaves in 1-2 months!
I used these peat pots I had left over so I can plant them directly into bigger hanging pots in the spring. For now, they will share a tray with the ginger!
What is your favourite house plant? Use the tag #doyougrow with your gardening and plant posts and I will look for it to upvote you!
Thank you for reading! Take care of you and yours ❤
I'll be trying to propagate some pruning's from several fruit trees here soon. I have never done it before, but you made this look easy.
Plant looks like it whats to took over if you'd let it.
Sweet! We are trying that with our apple trees this year. I have also been researching grafting...really cool stuff.
Ya, this plant is out of control! I am hoping to put them in all corners of the house haha!!
How cool! I just realized I can totally put one above my writing desk! Yes!
Oh yes! You totally should! It'll grow practically anywhere:)
Fantastic!
i just started a whole bunch of cuttings last week and was going to do a post when they went into soil - great timing, great synchronicity! do you mind if i link back over to this post (if i can remember to do so!)?
For sure you can:) if you use #doyougrow as one of the tags I can check for your blog and upvote it for you!!
absolutely will do, thank you!
Re-steaming this! I really have been wanting to learn how to do this. I have a few bedraggled looking pothos plants that need my attention. BTW I love that glass vases all stuck together thingy that you found! I must google it and see where I can get one!
You can make a bunch of happy plants from those pothos! The thingy is a bud vase apparently...I found it at the thrift store and had no idea what it was either haha!
Oh thank you! "bud vase" will give me much better google results than "glass vases all stuck together thingy" LOL!
Haha! I bet!
My very first houseplant was a pothos. A friend gifted me cuttings from her own since she knew I was terrible at keeping houseplants alive and, as you mentioned, the pothos can withstand anything. My mother-in-law is graciously babysitting my plant while we are living in a tiny house. We visted her the other day only to discover the plant had taken hold of her wall! She tried removing it and it ripped the paint right off! Oops! -Aimee
Oh wow!! I have never seen that before! Crazy what air roots will do! Looks like a happy plant:)
I love that you live in a tiny house!
I hadn't seen anything like it before either! Thank you, we loved being in the tiny house until we had twins. Being in here is definitely a bit more challenging now. Ha ha! -Aimee
Oh haha!! I can imagine twins thown into a tiny house mix would be challenging!!
This is a fantastic tutorial. You definitely are far more advanced than I when it comes to propagating pothos. I basically just hack off the leggy parts and let them sit in a jar of water until I remember to plant them and then pop them in the dirt. Usually by then the whole jar is full of roots, lol. I have always wanted to use rooting hormone to improve my success rate with my African Violets. Thanks for the inspiration to do better with the pothos and to seek out more info about how I could improve other methods I use to propagate my other plants.
Ooohhh I have never tried to propagate african violets...they are so delicate! I would love to see a blog if you do try it!!
I have some rooting right now. When the new little leaves come up and they go in the dirt I will get a post up.
If you use #doyougrow as one of the tags I search it every day, I will find your post and upvote it!! I love sharing plant love:)
Will do, thanks Karen!
I forgot to say.....that is so clever to use that bud vase for propagation!! I'm gonna have to keep my eye out for one of those when thrifting.
Thats what it is!!! Thank you!
I tried to share a photo from this post I did, which apparently does not work. So here's the post, lol: https://steemit.com/greenestthumb/@phoenixwren/greenest-thumb-challenge-entry-ayla-plant
I have three pothos, the one in the post is named Ayla, and she lives ALL OVER my room. :)
I propogate pothos directly in soil with no root hormone. I just bury several root nodes in the soil and water well!
Ayla totally once propogated herself by climbing into a dragon tree pot and rooting. I didn't realize they were connected until I moved house.
I loved that post! She is a pothos beast! Something killed my last one at about 8 yrs old:(
Hopefully this girl is good for a while!! Seems happy now although I should stop trimming her haha!!
I haven't purposefully propogated in a while. The last time I did pothos was when I got an enormous cutting from a neighbor, and before that I propgated a Mother In Law's Tongue, but I am ALWAYS propgating in order to save the life of my Wandering Jew plants. They get all drapey and pretty and then CUT THEMSELVES OFF FROM THE ROOTS and will die if I don't snip the still-alive vines and root them in water. I'm always telling them to not be self destructive, but they keep doing it, and now I have several pots (and some in water), lol.
I need to find someone with a wandering jew to steal cuttings from. I haven't had one in years....come to think of it, I need to find someone to steal a lot of cuttings from....I used to grab cuttings everywhere I went lol!
I vote we call it Devil's Ivy!
Here in Florida's sub-tropical climate your mild mannered house plant takes on a wholly different appearance and behavior. That leaf you see that's only about 3 inches long grows to over three FEET down here. As long as folks keep it contained in a pot it's alright, BUT if released into the wild it becomes the kudzu of house plants. I've seen it grow to the tops of an 80 foot pine trees (complete with gigantic leaves). The vine itself is 2-3 inches in diameter. You can swing on them. I have.
But the real surprise is that they contain oxalates which you might be familiar with from similar plants like dieffenbachia (dumb cane). Oxalates are a defence mechanism of many plants (e.g. tarro) to protect them from being eaten. They are micro crystals which cause an intense burning or itching so try not to rub your eyes after you've been pinching stems.
They are pretty and easy to grow and propagate. It's one of the few plants I know that grows nearly as well in tap water as dirt. The good news for you is that they are killed by freezing temperatures. So, if y'all head south to visit us PLEASE leave the pothos at home.
Maybe I should head south and bring one back here! I can only imagine how prolific they get without a pot to bind their roots! My friend calls them swamp plants, you literally can't overwater them haha!!
Thank you for the oxalates tip, I have been lucky so far I guess! Sounds like rubbing it into your eyes would be bad news...
If you come bring a truck. We have plenty ;-)
We never grow them in dirt; too much trouble.
Just cut them and stick 'em in water. Even if you put them in the water upside down they'll live but not grow larger. I guess they only know how to grow up, not down.