Thursday, April 18, 2013

Plant Propagation: Pothos (Devil's Ivy)

Pothos is another easy to propagate plant.  Cuttings from a mature plant can easily be rooted in water, and then planted in bunches to make a new, full potted plant.  These are the steps I took to propagate my pothos plant (I am in no way an expert in this field!). 


1) Select a few strands of pothos for cutting.  People generally recommend cuttings around 6 inches long and having a few leaves on each cutting (I did manage to successfully root and grow a plant from a cutting that only had one leaf on it, but that might not always be the easiest way to go about it).  You will want 3-4 clippings to plant in a pot to make it look good. 

2) Cut vines a quarter inch or so below a root node.  These are the little brown bumps that occur every few inches on a pothos vine.  Remove leaves from the bottom few inches of the clipping, but make sure you still have a few left!  If you have a long vine, you can cut it up into multiple pieces as long as each segment has a root node.   


3) Place cuttings in water, making sure the root node (or nodes) are submerged and the leaves are not.  Place the cuttings in filtered light (they don't do well with a lot of direct sun light).  Roots will grow out from the root nodes.  Add water if you notice the water level getting low while the roots are growing.

4) Once roots are 1-2 inches long (this will likely take a couple weeks), carefully plant in regular potting soil.  The roots are fragile, so be careful placing them in the dirt or they may break off!

5) Water often for the first few weeks while the roots establish.



This is my new plant made from three cuttings.
For all my plant propagation posts, click here 

9 comments:

  1. HI! I love the post about root cuttings. I have aplant that i left in water for a few weeks before I was able to transfer it to soil. It has very looooong roots, the leaves have grown strong and healthy. I'm curious about cutting the actual root system back since the root it has now takes most of a 1 to 2 cup pot. I'm not committed to cutting the root, I'm just wondering if it'll grow faster above the surface. And if it's ok to do.

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    1. I've never tried cutting roots back. I think cutting the root would slow the growth above the surface, if anything, but I've never actually tried it!

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  2. While the roots are growing in the water, should I be changing the water? It seems as though something fuzzy has grown in the water and the stems and leaves are not looking very good right now

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    1. This is an exceptionally slow reply, but yes, if something appears to be growing in the water I would change it out just to be safe

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  3. Can you just plant them in soil without rooting in water

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  4. Can you just plant them in soil without rooting in water

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  5. There are some plants that do ok with just going straight into (very moist) soil, but I've not actually tried it myself.

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  6. I have tried clippings in water several times. They just seem to rot.

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    1. Hmm, I haven't had that happen to me yet. Make sure there are no leaves submerged in the water?

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