How To Root Pothos Cuttings | Empress Of Dirt

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This simple tutorial shows how to take cuttings from your pothos houseplant (Epipremnum aureum) and root them for new plants.

There are also practical tips for How to Grow African Violets From Cuttings.

How to Take a Stem Cutting / Stem-Tip Cutting

Pothos is an iconic houseplant and it’s enjoying a revival these days.

Grow them as trailing vines or add stick-on hooks to your wall and let them work their way all around the room.

Pothos | Species: Epipremnum aureumCommon Names: pothos, devil’s ivy, money plant, golden pothosHardiness Zone: 11 (tropical) | Best temperature range: 60-85 ºF (15-29 ºC)Light: Tolerates fairly low light, prefers medium light a few feet from a window. Variegated leaves lose yellow tones if light is too low.Water: Even moisture. These guys sulk if the soil dries out (wilting, yellow leaves, brown patches).Maintenance: For a bushier plant, cut some stems back to soil level to encourage additional shoots.Or let those vines grow on and on. They can reach 30 feet in length!Propagation: Stem cuttings (instructions below)—sometimes also called ‘stem tip cuttings’—can be rooted in water or potting medium.

Contents

• Supplies
• Step-by-Step Instructions
• More Houseplants to Grow From Stem Cuttings

Supplies

This is the same method used to take softwood cuttings from outdoor garden plants.

Some links show the products on Amazon.

• Scalpel or sharp, fine knife/snippers cleaned with rubbing alcohol or bleach solution (4 teaspoons bleach per quart of water for at least one minute).
• Jars of warm water for rooting in water. I love these glass bulb rooting stands.or
• Small flowerpots with houseplant potting mix (for rooting and/or growing).Rooting medium: perlite, vermiculite, or a general houseplant potting medium.Growing medium: general houseplant potting medium.
• Dibber or thick pencil/sharpie to make hole in potting mix.
• Pothos plant with long stems (over 12-inches long).

Should I use rooting hormone?

Rooting hormone is recommended for propagating plant cuttings when the plant is slow-growing like hardwood cuttings.

It is not necessary with tender or fast-growing cuttings like pothos plant.

This explains how and when to use rooting hormone.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1Get Supplies Ready

Pothos plant, clean scalpel, jars of water or flowerpots with growing medium. See all the supplies here.

2Take Your Cuttings

• Choose a healthy, main stem.
• From the tip/end of the stem, count back at least 3 leaves.
• Approximately ½ to one-inch below the third leaf, cut stem at 45-degree angle.
• You can keep the top two leaves and remove the third (lower) leaf by cutting it near the stem with a nice, clean cut.

What is a Node?

Nodes are those little bumps you see on plant stems.

Depending on the plant, nodes may be where stems, leaves, or new roots can grow.

On the pothos plant, the leaf nodes are the areas along the stem where leaves are growing.

By removing the lower leaf and cutting the stem below it, the plant will react by sprouting roots in that zone.

See Bulb Rooting Jars | Etsy

Water Rooting

• Place cutting in warm water, submerged one inch above the node where the 3rd leaf was removed.

or

Root in Potting Mix

• Use a dibber to create a hole in the growing medium and bury stem to just above node where 3rd leaf was removed. Water until growing medium is moist.

Related: How to Grow African Violets from Leaf Cuttings

Light

• Place cutting (now in jar or flowerpot) near natural light but keep it indirect so the plant will not get hot or dry out.

Two Weeks Later

This photo (above) was taken 18 days after I started rooting the cuttings.

• You can see white roots growing from one node on each stem.
• In another month or so, the roots will have side shoots and be about an inch longer—that’s when I like to switch water rooted cuttings to potting mix.

The photo (below) is after several months.

3Care

Water Rooting : Freshen water every few days.Growing Medium Rooting: keep evenly moist, not soggy or dry.

Tip: If you have a heating mat, use it to speed up root formation.

Timing: Pothos generally take about 4 to 6 weeks to produce roots ready for planting.

If rooting in water, vermiculite, or perlite, you can move the cutting to household potting mix when roots with side branches have formed.

More Options

Houseplants Suitable for Stem Cuttings

Besides pothos, there are lots more tropical/indoor houseplants you can grow from stem cuttings:

• African violet Saintpaulia spp.
• Basil Ocimum basilicum
• Begonia Begonia spp.
• Chinese evergreen Aglaonema commutatum
• Chinese money plant Pilea peperomioides
• Citrus Citrus spp.
• Coleus Solenostemon spp.
• Corn plant Dracaena spp.
• Dieffenbachia Dieffenbachia spp.
• Echeveria Echeveria spp.

• Ficus Ficus benjamina
• Fiddle leaf fig Ficus lyrata
• Geranium Pelargonium spp.
• Hibiscus Hibiscus rosa-sinensis
• Moth orchid Phalaenopsis spp.
• Peperomia Peperomia spp.
• Philodendrum Philodendrum spp.
• Pothos ivy Pothos spp.
• Snake plant Sansevieria spp.
• Schlumbergeras (Christmas and Thanksgiving Cactus) (see tutorial)

About Plant Patents

Some plants are patented and asexual reproduction is not permitted without permission from the patent holder. Patents and trademarks are usually listed on plant tags.

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛

Print Instructions Pin It 4.89 from 9 votes

How to Root Pothos Cuttings in Water

Pothos house plants ( Epipremnum aureum) are easy to propagate from cuttings. Use these instructions to root them in water. Steps10 minutes minsTotal Time10 minutes mins Author: Melissa J. Will Cost: $5

Equipment

• ▢ Scalpel
• ▢ Jar

Supplies & Materials

• ▢ 1 Pothos plant

Instructions

• Use clean scalpel to take cutting. Choose a healthy, main stem.From the tip/end of the stem, count back at least 3 leaves.Approximately ½ to one-inch below the third leaf, cut stem at 45-degree angle.You can keep the top two leaves and remove the third (lower) leaf by cutting it near the stem with a nice, clean cut.
• You are cutting below a node (the part of a plant stem where the leaves grow from).
• Place cuttings in a few inches of warm water.
• Place cutting in jar near natural light but not where it will get hot or dry out.After two weeks small roots will be forming.After six weeks, roots should be an inch or more long and your cutting is ready to planted in potting mix.

Notes

See article for pothos plant care tips. Want More?Get your free Empress of Dirt Creative NewsletterShare on FacebookShare on PinterestShare on Email

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4.89 from 9 votes

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Comments

1. Good morning!

   My name is Tamela! I am a new mommie to the planting life. Lol! My question of concern is, can you grow a full healthy pothos plant without a node being attached at the end of your stem? I have a leaf with a stem I have received from my sister to begin my plant life. But when she cut it, it wasn’t with a piece of the node from her long vine. Can my baby still grow? I am currently doing the water propagation for the process.

   Reply

   • Hi Tamela, Just try it. Sometimes a node is there but you can’t really see it. Time will tell. 🙂

     Reply

     • Okay! Thank you, kindly!

       Reply

   • Hi Melissa, thanks for this propagation wisdom 🙏🏼 Just wondering if the vine will continue to grow from where you take the cutting from? I have a single stem in a pot which has grown along the ceiling (now 7 metres long) but the leaves closest to the pot (first two metres) have turned brown yet the rest of the vine is healthy and happy. I plan on propagating from the healthy end to then plant and create another length to grow 😊

     Reply

     • Hi Steph, It seems to vary – plant may carry on straight, grow lateral shoots, both, or none! I had one form two new main shoots, side by side. Impossible to predict, I think. 🙂

       Reply

       • Well, I’ll ’dig right in’ and give it a go 🤞🏼

2. Hi! I have a happy full pothos going, I’ve had it about a year & seems to be doing great, my question is although it’s full & bushy I guess you would say I don’t have any long vines. Is there anything I can do to promote that? Does it need to be hanging? Any tips would be appreciated, Thank you!!

   Reply

   • Hi Tara, I think it just comes down to the genetics of the individual plant. Some grow long as vines, others do not. I’ve never heard of anything to entice vine growth.

     Reply

3. Excellent. Although I have already taken successful cuttings I wanted pictorial and easy to follow written advice on the correct way to take Epipremnum cuttings. Very concise and to the point. Thank you.

   Reply

4. Hi Melissa, I have a very healthy indoor pothos which I repotted in late January. When I repotted it, I cut a leaf with a node and planted it in the old pot to see if it would grow. It’s now May and that leaf is still looking happy and I think it is well rooted (its very firmly in the soil) and I’m pretty sure it’s taller than it was. How long do you think it could be until I see growth of some more leaves? Or have I done this wrong and I’ll be looking at a single leaf forever? 🙂

   Reply

   • Hi Kahla, I’ve had that happen too. You never can know. Each propagated stem has its own agenda. Some are prolific; others are not so much. It’s wait and see. I try to always propagate several at once for this reason. I hope your single leaf makes some friends. 🙂

     Reply

     • Thank you! Me too!

       Reply

5. Hi I’m so happy to have found your site. Hoping you can help. My pathos is indoor as I live in Connecticut. For some reason I can’t get the plant to ever look healthy. The leaves seem to always look week and wilted. Do you think I’m watering it to much or not enough. The stems also look sad to. Although the leaves are still green. I’m also curious usually about how often are these usually watered. I have been using a water bottle and spraying them. Maybe that’s not giving them enough. I don’t know I’m lost as ik very new to having/taking care of plants. Especially indoor ones. Thank you again for such a great informative article.

   Reply

   • Hi Crystal, There is no quick answer about watering. This explains watering: https://empressofdirt.net/watering-houseplants/ How much and how often to water depends on your plant, the potting mix, the humidity in the room, the time of year…. You also might want to get a moisture meter—they are cheap and tell you instantly about the moisture level in the potitng mix.

     Reply

6. Thank you for these simple instructions! Two weeks ago, propagated my leggy pothos and did 5 different cuttings, all in separate glasses (one blue glass because I ran out of clear). They’ve all started sprouted little roots which is very exciting (I’ve tried and failed twice before). I have 2 questions 1. I’m noticing a white, transparent flowy what looks like film around the ends of the cuttings. What is that? Is it good or bad? Is that to be expected or should I try to remove it when changing the water? 2. Once a month or so has past and the roots are long enough, can I pot all of the baby plants in one pot or should they all be in their own? How often should I water once I put in a pot?

   Reply

   • Hi Leslie, 1) Sounds harmless—can’t tell from afar what it is but the general principle is, if it’s growing fine and looks healthy, don’t worry. 2) Your choice: you can grow several individual plants or put them all together for a fuller effect. They’ll do fine either way. 3) Watering always depends on your unique conditions/circumstances. This shares how I learned to water just right: https://empressofdirt.net/watering-houseplants/ Good luck!

     Reply

7. I had a mother plant that was about 38 years old. It had dwindled down after what was probably it suffering from under watering and then over watering too many times. After doing some reading it seemed clear that root rot was the end result. There were only two salvagable pieces at this point and barely. One piece was a single leaf with a hint of another one coming alongside it and the other piece was a small stunted unhealthy looking leaf that looked not fully formed and like it was dying. I took everything out of the pot and rinsed gently. All of the roots fell right off. I left stem sections at about 4 inches and put them in water. I accidentally tore a piece off the one full leaf. That poor pathetic piece was limp but I thought it was more promising than the other because there was still more leaf surface for photosynthesis than on the other one. Later on the day it went in water it looked better. The other piece had its deformed leaf die but not before another started forming at its side. Now that is a new rather small open leaf and the stem has roots but no side roots. The piece that had the larger portion of leaf that I tore only now has a couple of barely distinguishable root bumps forming and it’s side leaf has started to open. I thought this plant was done for. It belonged to my parents who are both gone so I’m crossing my fingers that I get some part of it to survive. I’m glad I found your article before I got to the planting part. That’s what I’ve been wondering about. Thank you!

   Reply

   • That plant is quite the survivor already! I think any additional days are a sweet bonus. Thanks for sharing.

     Reply

8. Do pothos do better when growing in water if the vase is clear? I have a few amber color vases and I’m not sure if it would effect their growth or not! Thank you!!

   Reply

   • Hi Claire, Great question.

     As far as I understand, the roots will respond differently to different light colors (created by the glass) but it’s not a dealbreaker. Plus, every vase will be a little different so some may have more of an affect than others.

     The most important thing (no matter what color glass) is to grow in indirect light so the water doesn’t overheat the roots.

     Reply

9. Will the bottom of the cutting turn brown before it grows roots? Or is this a bad sign?

   Reply

   • There may be some stem below the node area (where the roots form) that will brown and rot. Always allow several weeks for roots to form regardless.

     Reply

10. Descriptive and simple to understand!

    Reply

11. Do these instructions apply to not cutting off a piece and getting roots to grow from the end of the tendril? Put another way, I have a tendril so long that it reaches where I would put another pot, can I put the end nodes under water, have roots grow and then add it to a pot? Making a monster plant?

    Reply

    • It’s a great question. In general plants have a growth direction and any propagation methods should work with it, not against it.

      The only time I’ve seen your idea attempted resulted in the main plant rotting. It is a method used for hardy, woodier stems (like raspberry canes) but not tender, tropical ones.

      But, if you’re like me (curious) and don’t mind it not working out, you could always try it yourself and see what happens. Maybe you’ll get a sweet little monster.

      Reply

12. My 5 year old Pothos isn’t well. Yellowing, dropping leaves on all of the long strands, but new growth on ends looks healthy. Can I propagate younger growth and expect a recovery?

    Reply

    • Hi Juliana, Yes, any healthy new growth you propagate should grow just fine as a new plant.

      Reply

13. Can pothos stay in water and not be moved to a soil medium?

    Reply

    • Yes. As I understand it, they can grow in water indefinitely. You will need to change water reguarly and (occassionally) add a suitable liquid fertilizer as directed on product label. I do not have a fertilzier to recommend as I have not researched this. Eventually, roots will get quite large and can be trimmed back.

      Reply

14. Can you propergate an adult leave pothos which is already big if u cut the stem with a node on it?..

    Reply

    • Yes, however, younger plant parts are always recommended because they grow more readily.

      Reply

15. I live in Houston, TX and along with the northern hemisphere, the weather is starting to cool off. Temperature here is generally 32-50F for winter (from my understanding as have only been here a year). Is there a specific time to root my marbled queen pothos? I have the mother plant outdoors currently, will the babies and mother be OK for the coming months? Thanks!

    Reply

    • You can root them any time. Keep your plants in temperatures above 60F. The lowest they tolerate for a short time is 50F.

      Reply

16. This is the most wonderfully detailed, step-by-step tutorial I’ve come across for propagating pothos! I do have a question I hope you can answer; is it okay to take a cutting if it has a baby leaf that hasn’t developed/opened up yet? Will it continue to open up if it’s not being fed by the mother plant?

    Reply

    • Yes, should be fine so long as the cutting never dries out.

      Reply

17. When transferring the propagated pothos from the water to the potting mixture, should the soil be dry or wet?

    Reply

    • Either way is fine. I like to moisten the potting mix first but you can also add the plant and water after.

      Reply

18. Hello. Your passion for plants is very contagious. I had a question. I was wanting to propagate my pothos plant and I cut just below a node and the baby plant grew well but the mother plant where I cut the baby plant from has stopped growing. What do I do for the mother plant to continue its growing? Not sure if my question make sense.

    Reply

    • If I am understanding correctly, you’re wondering if the site where you removed the cutting will regrow? This may or may not happen. It depends on the plant and there is no action to take. Happy growing, Melissa

      Reply

19. What happens to the stems that you trim on the mother plant?

    Reply

    • Hi Nicole, Is your question, what happens to the part of the mother plant where you cut off a stem? It just heals and the mother carries on.

      Reply

      • Thank you! I didn’t know if new growth would come out of the cut stem that’s left on the mother plant.

        Reply

        • It may be possible. Would be worth it to mark the spot and see if anything grows.

20. Thank you very much for these clear instructions, easy to understand.

    Reply

21. I’ve just discovered your website and it’s impressive to say the least! Thank you for this article and how you’ve explained it, very well thought out and easy to follow. I’ve been taking pothos cuttings for years and it’s always nice to see how others do it. Thanks xx

    Reply

22. My jade pothos seems to be just mainly stem and not alot of leaves, there are alot of nodes.

    I have also just repotted due to been very root bound can I bury the stem and nodes into soil?, will it grow more doing that Im New to inside plants Thank you ♡

    Reply

    • Roots can grow from any node so it should be fine. You can start it in water or soil if you are sure to keep it watered.

      Reply

Welcome! I’m Melissa J. Will a.k.a. the Empress of Dirt (Ontario, Canada). Join me as I share creative + frugal home & garden ideas with a dash of humor. More: Contact/About New here? Dig in!  |  Our Podcast

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