The “Devil’s Ivy” is what I like to call the gateway drug (not to be confused with the devil’s lettuce) to house plant obsession. Pothos are some of the easiest and least dramatic house plants to care for! If you’re interested in dipping your toe into the wonderfully, botanical world of plants, then a Pothos is the ideal plant to start with. I know you may think a succulent or cacti would be better, but trust me, Pothos are your friends. I’ve put together this guide as a reference. You can refer to if you have any Pothos care tips questions during your plant parent journey! After all, I have 10 of these guys in my one-bedroom apartment!
General Pothos Care tips Background
One crucial step when caring for a houseplant is to know where they come from, as well as their natural growing conditions. Of course, for a plant like a pothos you can get away without knowing this type of information. However, as you grow in your plant parent journey this will become more important for more finicky plants. Pothos is an aroid plant that comes from French Polynesia. The climate in this area experience very few extreme temperatures, but does have high humidity! This is good to consider when creating a happy living space for you new Pothos friend.
Pruning Pothos
A fun fact about Pothos is they can grow extensive vines ( Like 20-40′ long!), that can even climb the walls if you let them. These are also some of the easiest plants to propagate. Out of my 10 Pothos, I only bought 2! The rest are all just propagations. You can follow my pothos plant propagation guide here, but if you don’t like all of the vines, and you’d prefer your Pothos to have a fuller look, just prune the plant back at the nodes. It won’t hurt the plant as long as your cutting tool is clean!
Sunlight
Pothos thrives in bright, indirect light. What is bright indirect light? Check out this post all about how to determine the type of light you have for house plants. Pothos can also do well in medium to low light conditions! I have 3 pothos in my apartment bedroom that has no window, and they are happy plants. I do let them “sunbathe” once a month.
Water & Humidity
One reason Pothos are great starter plants is that they are really chill about their watering needs. They are like the plant embodiment of “I’ll just drink iced coffee instead of water”. A general rule of thumb, water them whenever the top inch or two of their soil is dry. They are pretty good about handling over and underwatering. A common sign of over or underwatering is yellow leaves. If the leaves look droopy, this probably means they need to be watered! As far as humidity, they like humidity, but they can also be fine without it.
Soil
Any type of basic potting soil you can find at the store will work fine for a Pothos. As far as fertilization goes, during the Fall and Spring fertilize about once a month. If you just bought your Pothos, there’s a good chance that the nursery had already fertilized it. With that in mind, I recommend waiting before fertilizing your pothos again.
Additionally, make sure to repot your Pothos when they begin to outgrow the pot they are in. You can check this by looking to see if their roots are root bound, or circling the bottom of the pot. If you don’t want to take the plant out of the soil to check on this, then generally every 12 to 18 months is when they should move to a larger pot.
Variations
One of the neatest things about Pothos, is the fact that you can be a collector with them. They come in a lot of different variations, or more accurately,”cultivars”. While not an extensive list, below is some types of Pothos that you can find at plant nurseries:
- Golden Pothos
- Marble Queen Pothos
- Neon Pothos
- Jessenia Pothos
- Manjula Pothos
- Jade Pothos
- Silver/Satin Pothos
- Cebu Blue Pothos
There ya have it, a comprehensive pothos care tips guide! Feel free to reach out if you have any additional questions about Pothos care tips, and I’d be happy to answer! I mean, it wouldn’t be the Botanical Texan blog if I couldn’t help ya out!