House Plants for Beginners: Golden Pothos

I have not always been a plant person; actually, I will safely say I had a black thumb for most of my life, but in November 2018 I decided I wanted a house plant (blame Joanna Gaines). I’ve accumulated a bunch of different kinds of plants, and I figured I’d start a mini blog series about the different plants I have in my home. It only seems fitting that my first post for this series is about the first plant I bought: the Golden Pothos (also known as Epipremnum Aureum, Devil’s Ivy, or Ceylon Creeper). 

I decided to get a pothos as my first plant because they are supposedly one of the “easiest” plants to care for. I now have 2 of these plants, but they honestly stress me out more than any of my other plants. They are easy plants for people who don’t think they’ll remember to care for their plants, but I am the kind of person that pays too much attention to plants and give them more than they need. Here are some things to keep in mind with a golden pothos:

Potential Issues:

• Overwatering! This was my biggest mistake. I was watering mine once a week, which was way too much. The leaves started turning yellow and dying. However, it is not the end of the world if you overwater them! I learned that giving them a day or two of direct sunlight can help dry out the soil. Keep in mind though that too much sun can cause the leaves to get brown spots, which are “basically sunburn” to the plant. It’s a process to resurrect a pothos, but very possible! I’ve almost killed 2 and one is doing amazing, and the second is on the mend.
• Make sure they aren’t constricted! My first pothos started to lose a lot of leaves and I thought it was just the overwatering. Even with sunlight and me restricting the water, it wasn’t getting better. I wasn’t ready to totally give up on it, but I thought it was too ugly to keep it displayed in my living room, so I bought a new one that was a bit smaller. When I took the first pothos out of the pot to replace with the second one, I realized that the first one had no room and the roots were the shape of the pot. I re-potted this plant into a wider pot, and since then it has done great! It grows vertically more than long vines, but it is perfect in my office cubicle. So if your plant isn’t doing well and nothing is working, consider getting it a bigger pot. 
• Lack of Drainage! This goes along with the overwatering thing, but if you are using a pot that doesn’t have a drainage hole, you can put your plant at risk of root rot and a lack of oxygen. If the only cute pots you can find don’t have a drainage hole, put some pebbles in the bottom of the pot then put the potting soil on top of that. 

Propagating

• Pothos are great because they are cheap and can be propagated into new plants so easily!! I randomly decided to try propagating one of my pothos and it was so easy, and now I have a new plant that I’m giving to my best friend as an “apartment warming” present. To propagate do the following:
  • Cut a few leaves, with a few inches of stem, off of your pothos
  • Place them in a glass jar/cup in a well lit area
  • Every few days, replace the water with fresh water
  • Once the clippings have roots that are 1-2 inches long, replant them in a new pot 
  • I suggest keeping the new plants in a well lit area for a few weeks while they acclimate to their new home

Care Tips

• Light – Pothos don’t need to be in bright light, so they are good anywhere in your home. However, I would suggest giving them a few hours a week in bright indirect light 
• Watering- I usually water my pothos once every 10-12 days, but only if the soil is dry. Stick your finger about an inch into the soil to check if its dry. I give my larger pothos about ¾ cup of water and my smaller one gets about half a cup!
• Pruning- Pothos are climbing plants, so they will grow long vines (or they won’t like my first one). I have found success in clipping the vines to propagate, but other than that you don’t need to cut back the vines unless you want to. I also make sure to prune leaves that are yellowing and dying. 
• Fertilizing- I use this indoor plant fertilizer once every 6 months or when I repot the plant. You just mix it into the top few inches of the soil! I haven’t had my plants long enough to really know how well this works, but I’ll make sure to update y’all in the future. 

Even though I struggled with this plant at first, the pothos is a great option for plant newbies! It is the plant that I credit for turning me into the plant lady I’ve become! I bought both of mine at Lowe’s or Home Depot for less than $10, so they are also super affordable! If you get one, my best advice is to just ignore it a bit and it will thrive. 

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