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 aureum
Common Names: pothos, devil’s ivy, money plant, golden pothos
Hardiness 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
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.
You can also propagate African violets from leaf stems by rooting them in water or potting mix.
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 ♛
How to Propagate Pothos From Cuttings
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.
Tamela Henderson-Williams says
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.
Melissa J. Will says
Hi Tamela,
Just try it. Sometimes a node is there but you can’t really see it. Time will tell. 🙂
Tamela Henderson-Williams says
Okay! Thank you, kindly!
Steph Wigg says
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 😊
Melissa J. Will says
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. 🙂
Stephenie Wigg says
Well, I’ll ’dig right in’ and give it a go 🤞🏼
Tara Martin says
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!!
Melissa J. Will says
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.