This simple tutorial shows you how to take cuttings from Pothos’ houseplants (Epipremnum aureum) and root them for new plants.
There are also practical tips on how to grow African violets from cuttings.
How to adopt STEM cutting/stem tip cutting
Pothos is an iconic houseplant and has been enjoying revivals recently.
Grow them as trailing grapes or add stick-on hooks to the walls and make them work in your own way around the room.
Pothos | Species: epipremnum aureum
Normal names: Pothos, Devil’s Ivy, Money Plant, Golden Pothos
Durability Zone: 11 (tropical) | Maximum Temperature Range: 60-85ºF (15-29ºC)
Light: Accepts fairly low light and prefers medium light several feet from the window. If the light is too low, the colorful leaves lose their yellow tone.
Water: Even moisture. These people sink when the soil is dry (wildering, yellow leaves, brown spots).
Maintenance: For bushy plants, it returns some stems to soil levels, promoting additional buds.
Or grow those grapes over and over again. They can reach 30 feet in length!
Propagation: Stem cuttings (instructions below) – Also known as “stem tip cuttings,” it can be rooted in water or potted medium.
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Supplies
This is the same method used to suck coniferous trees from plants in your outdoor garden.
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Mesulpel or sharp, fine knife/snippers (4 tablespoons of bleach per quart of water, at least 1 minute) cleaned with rubbing alcohol or bleach solution. A hot water jar for rooting in water. I love these glass bulb root stands.
Or a small flower pot (for rooting and/or cultivation) with potting mix of houseplants.
Rooting media: Perlite, vermiculite, or common houseplant potting media.
Growth medium: A common houseplant potting medium. Diver or thick pencil/sharpie for drilling holes in potting mix. Pothos plant with long stems (12 inches or more in length).
Do I need to use root hormone?
If the plant is growing slowly like hardwood cuttings, rooting hormones are recommended for propagating plant cuttings.
It is not necessary for soft or rapidly growing cuttings like pothos plants.
This explains how and when to use the root hormone.
Step-by-step instructions
1Prepare supplies
Pothos plants, clean females, water in medium or a jar of flower pots. See all the consumables here.
2I’ll take your cuttings
Choose the main stem that is healthy. Count back at least three leaves from the tip/edge of the stem. Cut the stems at an angle of about ½ to 1 inch under the third leaf, at a 45 degree angle. You can remove the third (lower) leaf by holding the top two leaves and cutting them with a nice, clean cut near the stem.
What is a node?
Nodes are small bumps found on plant stems.
In some plants, the nodes may grow stems, leaves, or new roots.
In the Pothos plant, leaf nodes are areas along the stem where the leaves are growing.
By removing the lower leaves and cutting the stems below, the plant reacts by germinating the roots in that zone.
See Light Bulb Root Jar | Etsy
Where the water roots were cut with warm water, sank 1 inch above the node where the third leaf was removed.
or
Using a root diver in the potting mix, drill holes in the growing medium and fill the stem just above the node where the third leaf is removed. Water until the growth medium is moist.
Light cuts (now jars or flowerpots) are located near natural light, but indirectly keeping the plants from getting hot or dry. Two weeks later
This photo (above) was taken 18 days after the cuttings began to root.
You can see white roots growing from one node in each stem. In another month or so, the roots have side shoots and are about an inch longer. In other words, I like to switch water root cuttings to potting mix.
The photo (below) is a few months later.
3care
Water root: Water is settled every few days.
Medium rooted growth: Keeps evenly moist, not water-soaked or dry.
Tip: If you have a heating mat, use it to accelerate the formation of the roots.
Timing: Pothos usually takes about 4-6 weeks to produce roots ready for planting.
If you are rooting in water, vermiculite, or perlite, you can move the cutting into the home potting mix when the roots with side branches form.
More options
Ornamental plants suitable for cuttings on stems
In addition to pothos, there are many more tropical/indoor houseplants that can be grown from stem cuttings.
African violet sanpaulia spp.basil ocimum basilicumbegonia spp.chinese evergreen aglaonema commutatumchinese moneyseplus peperomioidescitrus citrus spp.coleus solenostemon spp.corn dracaena spp.dieffenbachia dieffenbachia seffenbachia spp.
Ficus ficus benjaminafiddle leaf figus lyratageranium pelargonium spp.hibiscus hibiscus rosa-sinensismoth orchid phalaenopsis spp.peperomia peperomia spp.philodendrum philodendrum spp.pothos pothos spp.spp.snake sansviera (Cactus for Christmas and Thanksgiving) (see tutorial)
About plant patents
Some plants are patented and asexual reproduction is not permitted without the permission of the patentee. Patents and trademarks are usually listed on plant tags.
~Melissa Empress of the Defiled
Printing procedure
I’ll pin it
How to root pothos cuttings in water
Pothos House Plants (epipremnum aureum) can be easily propagated from cuttings. Use these instructions to root them in the water.
Fee: $5
