Propagation

You take a cutting off your Marble Queen. It roots beautifully. It grows a new leaf, and the new leaf is plain green. This is the most common disappointment in variegated propagation, and it isn’t bad luck. It’s a consequence of how variegation actually works in Pothos, which almost nobody explains before you cut. Here’s … Read more

Somewhere between four days and never, and I realise that’s not helpful, so let me do better. The honest position is that propagation timelines vary far more than most articles admit, and the ranges you’ll see quoted are usually someone’s single experience presented as a rule. What follows is mine, which is at least extensive, … Read more

Your cutting is sitting there. It looks fine. It has looked fine, unchanged, for what feels like a very long time, and you’re starting to suspect nothing is ever going to happen. Before we go through the possible causes, let’s answer the question underneath the question. Is it actually dead? Squeeze the stem. If it’s … Read more

Air layering is the technique where you grow roots on a stem while it’s still attached to the parent plant, and only cut it free once the roots exist. No cutting sitting in a jar hoping. No period where the new plant has no life support. It’s the safest propagation method there is, and for … Read more

Yes. Reliably, and with less fuss than you’re expecting. Now the useful part, which is why you’d bother, why it takes longer than a normal cutting, and why this particular technique is far more relevant to Pothos owners than the people who invented it ever intended. What a wet stick is A wet stick is … Read more

Soil propagation has a reputation for being harder than water, and it isn’t. What’s actually happened is that everyone teaches the worst version of it. The standard advice is to take a cutting and poke it back into the pot it came from. That method does work, and I’d steer any beginner away from it, … Read more

Water propagation is how most people make their first new Pothos. It needs no equipment, costs nothing, and you get to watch the whole thing happen through the side of a glass, which is most of the appeal. It’s also the fastest route to roots, provided you know the two things that speed it up. … Read more

Pothos are the easiest plant in your house to propagate. This is a plant that colonised the tropics without ever managing to produce a seed, purely by being snapped off and dropped somewhere warm. Which means the interesting question isn’t can you. It’s which method to use, and what the trade-offs actually are, because they’re … Read more