Pothos is considered to be one of the best plants for beginner plant owners. They are vining plants with thick, green heart-shaped leaves, often with splashes of gold or white. If you’re a new pothos owner, you might be wondering how to best take care of your plant. One of the biggest concerns that come along with caring for a plant is how it should be watered and if it needs to be drained regularly.
Pothos plants do not need drainage. Adding drainage to their pots won’t do any damage, but they can grow just fine without it. If you’re worried about overwatering, adding drainage can help ensure that it doesn’t happen. It’s possible to overwater any plant, so make sure the soil isn’t soggy.
Because of their long, vining tendrils, many people keep these lovely plants in hanging pots, where they’ll begin to cascade downward. But really, they would look great in any room of your house, and they’d do well, too! It’s easy to keep pothos healthy as long as you regularly take care of them.
Caring for Pothos Plants
Pothos plants are very hardy and can thrive in a wide variety of environments. They can grow both in water and in soil, in low light and bright indirect light, and with frequent or less frequent watering. It could be argued that these little guys are even easier to care for than many succulents.
To know how to best care for your pothos plant, first decide how fast you want it to grow and how big you want its leaves to be. Generally, a pothos plant that is kept in bright, indirect sunlight and is watered often will grow faster and develop bigger leaves than one that is kept in low light and is watered less often. On average, a pothos plant can grow up to 12-18 inches in one month!
How Often Should I Water my Pothos?
Pothos plants should be watered about once every 1-2 weeks, depending on the season and temperature. In the winter, they tend to need to be watered less often. One experienced pothos owner noted that he waters his plants about once a month in the winter, and about once a week in the summer.
You’ll know it’s most likely time to water your pothos when the soil is dry to the touch. Water its soil until it is damp all the way through. There’s no need to add drainage to your pothos’ pot because it can adapt well to the amount of water it is given, especially if you do it regularly. Keeping pothos in a pot with built-in drainage or adding drainage won’t do any damage, though.
If you’re worried about overwatering your pothos, adding drainage to its pot can ensure that it doesn’t happen. The leaves of an overwatered pothos plant will often start to turn yellow in its leaves, while an underwatered one may begin to turn brown and brittle.
If you are fairly consistent, though, you shouldn’t have any trouble. Again, pothos plants are very hardy. Forgetting to water them every once in a while isn’t likely to kill them.
Flooding a Pothos vs. Potting a Pothos
Pothos plants are unique because they can grow in water as well as in soil. A popular way to propagate pothos plants is to take a cutting of a full-grown plant and place the cutting in a pot, glass, or jug of water. After about 4-6 weeks, the cutting will develop new roots.
From there, you can continue to grow the plant in water or transfer it to a pot with soil. It’s common to transfer cuttings that have developed roots to soil because it has more available nutrients that way. The pothos will grow more quickly if it has access to more nutrients.
Some people note that pothos doesn’t always love to be transferred from one growing medium to another, but usually they will adapt to their new environment without too much trouble.
In general, pothos plants grown in soil will grow faster than pothos plants in water. New pothos in water may take 4-5 months to develop after they root. Once they settle in, they’ll begin to grow a little faster if their water is changed often, allowing them to get sufficient nutrients. In soil, provided their other needs are taken care of, pothos plants tend to grow more quickly.
As mentioned before, the amount of water and sunlight they get will also determine how fast they grow. If you want your pothos to grow quickly and produce lots of leaves, try watering it about once a week and keeping it close to sunlight. If you don’t mind slower growth, keep it in your bathroom or office where there’s lower light.
Different Types of Pothos Plants
There are many varieties of pothos plants, and each one can have slightly different needs. Here are six different types of pothos plants and what they look like.
Golden Pothos
Also known as “devil’s ivy,” this is the most common type of pothos plant. It’s recognizable by its bright green leaves splotched with golden yellow.
Marble Queen
Marble Queen pothos is one of the more highly variegated varieties, which means it has more zones of differing colors on its leaves. Because of this, this variety tends to need more light to thrive if you want it to keep its unique coloring.
Neon Pothos
This variety of pothos has a bright, lime-green color! The newest leaves are the brightest, while the more mature leaves have a more subtle neon hue. For neon pothos to keep its bright color, it needs to be kept in brighter light. Kept in lower light, its leaves may begin to turn a dull green.
Manjula Pothos
This variety was actually created and patented by the University of Florida. The main difference between this type of pothos and other types is the fact that its heart-shaped leaves don’t stay flat – they curl! Manjula pothos can also be variegated with shades of cream, silver, white and green.
Pearls and Jade
The Pearls and Jade Pothos was also created and patented by the University of Florida. You can differentiate this variety from the others by its variegation pattern – the white patches are usually spread out towards the edges of its leaves. Pearls and Jade’s leaves also tend to be smaller and don’t grow as quickly as other varieties.
Satin or Silver Pothos
This variety of pothos has beautiful, dark green leaves with small splotches of silver. If kept in brighter, indirect light, the silver flecks will stay bright and may almost look like they’re sparkling!
