Pothos (Epipremnum aureum) care

Aroids · easy to keep

Pothos (Epipremnum aureum) wants anything from bright indirect to a dim corner. Water it every 8 days. Water when the top half of the pot is dry — pothos droops its whole canopy when thirsty and stands back up within a couple of hours of a drink. Pot it in standard potting compost with a handful of perlite. A balanced feed at half strength once a month in spring and summer, and repot once a year. Humidity: indifferent. Ordinary room air is fine. Toxic to cats, dogs and people if chewed — the sap carries insoluble calcium oxalate crystals, which burn the mouth and throat.

Pothos, golden pothos, devil's ivy — the plant given to people who say they kill everything. It trails, it climbs, it roots in a glass of water, and it puts up with light levels that would finish most houseplants. Left to climb it eventually makes huge split leaves, which is why a mature wild pothos looks nothing like the pot on your shelf.

Quick facts

Water: Water every 8 days. Water when the top half of the pot is dry — pothos droops its whole canopy when thirsty and stands back up within a couple of hours of a drink.
Light: Anything from bright indirect to a dim corner.
Humidity: Indifferent. Ordinary room air is fine.
Soil: Standard potting compost with a handful of perlite.
Feeding: A balanced feed at half strength once a month in spring and summer.
Repotting: Repot once a year.
Toxic to pets: Toxic to cats, dogs and people if chewed — the sap carries insoluble calcium oxalate crystals, which burn the mouth and throat. Keep it off the floor if anything in the house tastes its way through life.
Difficulty: Easy.
Mature size: Vines to 3 m indoors; leaves 8–15 cm trailing, far larger climbing.
Native to: French Polynesia; naturalised across the tropics.

Watering a Pothos

Water every 8 days. Water when the top half of the pot is dry — pothos droops its whole canopy when thirsty and stands back up within a couple of hours of a drink.

That cadence is the one PlantParlour sets for this species when you name it, and it is deliberately on the cautious side — a plant that asks a day early is safer than one that asks a day late. Log each watering and the reminder moves with the plant rather than with the calendar.

Light

Pothos is the plant that made 'tolerates low light' a cliché, and it earns it — but tolerating is not thriving. In a dark spot the leaves come smaller and the variegation fades; in bright indirect light the vines run and the pattern is crisp.

Humidity and temperature

Indifferent. Ordinary room air is fine. Central heating in winter is what turns a comfortable room into a dry one, and it is the usual reason an established plant suddenly browns at the edges or picks up spider mites.

Soil and potting

Pothos is not fussy. Ordinary compost with perlite mixed through for drainage does the job; it will also grow indefinitely in a jar of water, though a plant raised in water sulks if you later pot it into soil.

Feeding

A balanced feed at half strength once a month in spring and summer. Stop feeding in autumn and start again when you see new growth in spring — feeding a plant that isn't growing just builds up salts in the pot.

Repotting

Repot once a year. Every other spring. If the vines have gone long and bare at the top, cut them back hard at repotting time and push the cuttings into the same pot — that is how a full, bushy pothos is made.

Common problems

Yellow leaves scattered through the plant
Overwatering. Pothos is much more often killed by kindness than by neglect.

Fix: Let it dry out properly between waterings and make sure the pot actually drains.
Variegation disappearing, new leaves plain green
Not enough light.

Fix: Move it brighter. Cut back to the last well-marked leaf; all-green growth will otherwise take over, because it grows faster.
Long stretches of bare vine
Light coming from one direction and no pruning.

Fix: Cut the bare vines back to 15 cm; new shoots come from the nodes below the cut.
Black soft patches at the base of the stems
Root rot from standing water.

Fix: Take healthy cuttings from the top of the vines, root those, and start again — a rotted crown rarely recovers.

Propagation

The easiest cutting in the house. A 10 cm piece with two nodes roots in a glass of water in a fortnight. Change the water weekly.

A cutting taken in PlantParlour keeps its link to the plant it came from, so a propagation years later still traces back to the mother plant — which is the point if you ever sell or trade it.

Toxicity and safety

Toxic to cats, dogs and people if chewed — the sap carries insoluble calcium oxalate crystals, which burn the mouth and throat. Keep it off the floor if anything in the house tastes its way through life.

Named cultivars and variegations

Epipremnum aureum is sold under several cultivar names. Care is the same unless noted; variegated forms carry less chlorophyll, so they grow more slowly and want more light than the plain species.

Cultivar	Also sold as	Water
'Marble Queen'	Marble Queen pothos	every 8 days
'Snow Queen'	Snow Queen pothos	every 8 days
'Neon'	Neon pothos	every 8 days
'Manjula'	Manjula pothos	every 8 days
'N'Joy'	N'Joy pothos, Njoy	every 8 days
'Pearls and Jade'	Pearls and Jade pothos	every 8 days
'Global Green'	Global Green pothos	every 8 days
'Jade'	Jade pothos	every 8 days
'Harlequin'	Harlequin pothos	every 8 days

Questions people ask

Can pothos live in water permanently?

Yes. A pothos cutting will grow in a jar of water indefinitely if you change the water every week or two and add a very dilute feed occasionally. It won't grow as vigorously as it would in a pot, and a plant raised in water sulks for a while if you later move it into compost.

Is pothos safe for cats?

No. Like all aroids it contains insoluble calcium oxalate crystals, which burn a cat's mouth and cause drooling and vomiting. It is rarely dangerous, but it is genuinely unpleasant — hang it where a cat can't reach the trailing ends.

How often should you water a Pothos?

Water every 8 days as a starting point — that is the cadence PlantParlour sets for Epipremnum aureum. Water when the top half of the pot is dry — pothos droops its whole canopy when thirsty and stands back up within a couple of hours of a drink. Light, pot size and the time of year all move that number, so treat it as a reminder to go and check rather than a rule.

How much light does a Pothos need?

Is Pothos toxic to cats and dogs?

How do you propagate a Pothos?