The pothos plant, one of the most popular house plants widely available to plant parents today. The Epipremnum aureum (that’s a mouthful) more commonly known as the pothos is know for its long vines and heart shaped leaves. It is often found with green, yellow, white, and occasionally chartreuse leave. Often the feature plant in many indoor jungles the pothos provides an adorable option for privacy screening and fill for your lush jungle oasis. The question is how does one afford enough pothos plants to house a bangel tiger(or at least a normal house cat who thinks he’s a tiger)? The answer: propagation, specifically water propagation. In this article I will take you through the definitive beginners guide to water propagation for your pathos, giving you step by step instructions, identifying common mistakes, and providing tips for care of your poth
What is Propagation
Propagation is described by the Oxford language dictionary as the breeding of specimens of a plant or animal by natural processes from the parent stock. (What?) In simple terms propagation is the process of spreading, increasing, or breeding something that is new, in our case plants, specifically a pothos. In my opinion the easiest way to propagate a pothos is through water propagation. This process relies on totipotency, a big word that basically means that plant cells have the ability to develop new tissue and eventually a whole new plant. Water propagation is particularly beginner friendly as it is quick, simple, almost mess free, and provides a great visual feedback for how the root development is going.
Tools and materials needed for water propagation:
-a healthy pothos plant
-clean and sharp scissors or pruning shears
-clear jar or vase (ie. Mason jar or heck even a cleaned iced latte cup)
-filtred water (if you you don’t have a filter just fill your jar and leave it on the counter overnight, this allows time for any additives in the water to disapte)
*Remember cleanliness is key! Wash your hand, wash your scissors, wash jar, your counter, your floors, your car, your friends dog…just…use clean tools
Step by step guide to water propagating a pothos
Step one:
Identify a healthy stem, this is a stem that is green (duh) has several mature leaves and several nodes on it.
*Hey…uhhhhh…what’s a node?
Oh I’m glad you asked. If you look at your pothos vines you will see small domed “growths” protruding off your vine. These are not diseases or bug or the alien from Aliens. These areas are called nodes and this is where totipotency (hey it’s that weird word from earlier) occurs.
Step two:
Make the cut, “now I become death, the destroyer of worlds,” j. Robert Oppenheimer when propagating his pothos (probably). In reality it is not that dramatic. You only need about six inches of a clipping to make it root. It is important to cut just blow the node. The more nodes you can submerge into the water the more roots you will get so of you can two or three nodes between the cut and the leaves all the better!
*TIP* when cutting your pothos vine make sure you are using something sharp. If your shears are dull you risk crushing the end of the stem. The end of the stem is how the clipping will absorb water until the new roots grow so we want to avoid the crushed soda straw affect. Make sure you a using sharp CLEAN scissors or shears, if you don’t have any I suggest picking up a new pair here.
Step three:
Put in water…yup…that’s…that’s the whole step. Ok I guess there is more to it. You want to choose a jar that holds a decent amount of water, enough that your nodes are completely submerged in the water, but small enough that the leaves stay out of the water. Basically the Goldilocks of jars. I find that mason jars work particularly well as well as tall iced vanilla latte cups (not sure why but I have a lot of those around the house). The most important part is that the jar is CLEAN (have I stressed this enough? I’m not sure)
Step four
Wait. Put your jar somewhere warm and with a lot of sunlight…like French Polynesian, South Africa, or Australia… because thats the native range of a pothos. Make sure you top of water every other day and change the water once a week.
Step five
It’s ready to plant! Once you have roots that are roughly 2-3 inches long it’s time to pot that pathos! I prefer to plant in extremely wet soil. Like almost mud. In my opinion if the roots are used to being in water, transitioning them into solid that is super wet gives the plant the best chance to survive
Step six
Enjoy! You did it bask in your glory, take photos, post on Instagram, make your friends jealous, claim your green thumb!
Water propagation is an easy, affordable, beginner friendly way to increase your plant count. Remember to use clean sharp tools and pick healthy stems and success is just around the corner. Subscribe to our newsletter for the best plant care information and share your progress with us on Instagram, we lol forward to hearing from you
