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How to Root Pothos Cuttings

December 7, 2020 ♛ By Melissa J. Will

This post contains affiliate links.
Click here for the full disclosure statement.

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Jump to Instructions

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.

Pothos plant cuttings rooting in glass jars.

Pothos Growing and Propagation Tips

Pothos plant on wicker basket.

NEW! Click play to listen:

Subscribe to our free podcast here: Two Minutes in the Garden.


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
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.



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)


How to Take a Stem Cutting / Stem-Tip Cutting

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

Pothos plant vine.

Supplies

Buy Scalpel

Buy Potting Mix

Buy Glass Bulb Rooting Stand

Buy Pothos

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? No, it’s not necessary. Easy growers like pothos will root just fine without it. Rooting hormone is recommended for any stubborn or slow-growing plants or when taking hardwood cuttings. You can read more about rooting hormone here.



Steps

1Get Supplies Ready

Pothos plant, clean scalpel, jars of water or flowerpots with growing medium.


2Take Your Cuttings

Pothos cutting with 3 leaf stems and scalpel.
  • 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.
Pothos plant stem cut at 45-degree angle and scalpel.

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.

Rooting pothos plant cuttings in glass bulb jars.

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.

Light

  • Place cutting (now in jar or flowerpot) near natural light but not where it will get hot or dry out.

Two Weeks Later

Roots growing on stem node of potho plant cuttings.

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.

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛

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5 from 3 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 mins
Total Time10 mins
Author: Melissa J. Will
Cost: $5

Supplies & Materials

  • 1 Pothos plant

Equipment

Scalpel
Jar

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.
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Pothos plant cuttings rooting in jars.
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Comments

  1. Franklin says

    January 27, 2021 at 5:49 am

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

    Reply
    • Melissa J. Will says

      January 27, 2021 at 1:32 pm

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

      Reply
  2. Jusryn Ee says

    November 17, 2020 at 6:26 pm

    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
    • Melissa J. Will says

      November 17, 2020 at 7:11 pm

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

      Reply
  3. Olivia says

    November 11, 2020 at 5:08 pm

    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
    • Melissa J. Will says

      November 13, 2020 at 12:35 pm

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

      Reply
  4. Ameira says

    October 16, 2020 at 8:38 am

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

    Reply
    • Melissa J. Will says

      October 16, 2020 at 3:05 pm

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

      Reply
  5. Dee says

    October 1, 2020 at 10:44 pm

    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
    • Melissa J. Will says

      October 2, 2020 at 12:42 pm

      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
  6. Nicole says

    August 17, 2020 at 12:04 pm

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

    Reply
    • Melissa J. Will says

      August 17, 2020 at 12:09 pm

      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
      • Nicole says

        August 17, 2020 at 1:48 pm

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

        Reply
        • Melissa J. Will says

          August 18, 2020 at 10:42 am

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

  7. Kylie says

    July 2, 2020 at 7:41 am

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

    Reply
  8. K says

    May 2, 2020 at 6:03 am

    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
  9. Melissa says

    January 9, 2020 at 12:09 am

    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
    • Melissa J. Will says

      January 18, 2020 at 8:54 pm

      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
  10. Melissa J. Will says

    November 29, 2019 at 11:57 pm

    Clear simple instructions with photos showing how to propagate a pothos houseplant.

    Reply

Melissa J. Will - Empress of DirtWelcome!
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.
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