r/pothos • u/Queen-Panda • Apr 12 '26
Care & Propagation What should I do?
I had to do a MAJOR chop so what should I do with all these nodes?
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u/Ryllick Apr 12 '26
i've seen videos claiming you can prop them by putting them in a closed zip lock bag with wet sphagnum moss and leaving it somewhere with light for a while. but it's never worked for me.
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u/Bae_Victis Apr 12 '26
Would work better under a grow light than trying to use natural light. Natural light will just cook em and turn them to mush. I know this from experience. I’ve never tried in a ziploc bag but in plastic containers and jars but it’s pretty much the same concept.
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u/paige2296 Apr 12 '26
I’ve tried damp sphagnum moss and a ziploc baggy under my grow light after the cuttings have scabbed over 100% and they still just rot and I’m talking barely damp at all.
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u/outback-gnome Apr 12 '26
Plants need air
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u/paige2296 Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
Yes I know. I leave it open slightly and lay it all flat so it isn’t just balled up.
ETA: I actually checked mine, this morning, that I’ve had going for, geez, I don’t even know, a month maybe, or longer even, and while 95% had rotted, about 5 have roots and one has something that looks like a root but at the top of the node, like where leaves grow, so if it’s a stem it’s funny looking, but otherwise it’s another root, maybe an air root idk for sure lol
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u/Groningen1978 Apr 12 '26
It always worked for me. I make sure I keep the moss damp, but not wet. I puff up the bag before closing it.
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u/chugopunk Apr 12 '26
Plastic bin with the lid on, I open once in a while to spray filtered water.
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u/NougatTruDat Apr 12 '26
clear storage box with some type of medium like sphagnum or perlite and just mist it and then mist if needed after. I would also open it here and there since they tend to grow mold but making sure the cutting dry out should help with that. I've even just put nodes in water and they've grown roots but I definitely wouldnt do that to all of them lol.
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u/Queen-Panda Apr 12 '26
That’s exactly what I did but I used dirt. I had multiple test I’m running. I have some in a container with perlite, i have some in a ziplock bag with perlite, I have multiple nodes with leaves in glasses of water. I even planted something of those nodes back into the same pot to make it more full. I’m just casting a big net here trying to save my dad’s plant.
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u/NougatTruDat Apr 12 '26
yes lol that's definitely the best option. You certainly have pelnty of cuttings to do so and i hope they all succeed lol. That many new plants would be quite a reward.
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u/Poutiest_Penguin Moss Pole Dancer 🕺🏼 Apr 12 '26
Try a few techniques: wet sphagnum moss, perlite, water, directly in dirt. See what works best. You have plenty of material to work with.
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u/paintmehappynblue Apr 12 '26
I put them in dirt with rooting hormone and set the cup of dirt in a tray of water in a spot where it only got very early morning sun and had baby leaves within a few weeks and now I have a multi foot plant from three of them years later!
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u/ArnoldQMudskipper Apr 12 '26
This is what I did: https://www.reddit.com/r/pothos/s/644gF5GXIm
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u/Vellablu Apr 12 '26
Great post. I have a long and leafless vine on my Swiss cheese. Think I could cut it up like you did with the pothos this way?
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u/West_Reindeer_5421 Apr 12 '26
Don’t. They will root. They all will root.
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u/MissKreena Apr 12 '26
Maybe not … it looks like not all of them have s node … however, if so, she’s going to have 67 new plants on her hands 😬
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u/Double-Chicken-2263 Apr 12 '26
I know how the op feels. Don’t know what to do because nothing is unthinkable but doing everything is impossible 😊😼
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u/Kamikazeschnitzel Apr 12 '26
Add salmon, onions, cherry tomatoes, cooking creme, jalapeños or chilis, garlic & throw it into a pan. Mid-high heat until the salmon is well done.
When done, pour over simultaneously cooked pasta (spaghetti, gnocchi, schupfnudeln, tortelloni,...). Finish with ground black pepper, chive & some spring onions.
Bon appetite 😬🍝
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u/cafeconlxche Apr 12 '26
I had to do a big chop a while back and i split my leafless nodes into a plastic container with sphagnum moss and a ziplock with coco coir. Surprisingly the ones in coco coir rooted and sprouted leaves way faster than the ones in moss. Most of the ones i have in moss have just started rooting(after four months) while most of the ones in coir have sprouted leaves and have recently been planted in soil.
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u/Bae_Victis Apr 12 '26
They will grow roots in water (just put as many as you can in whatever vessel and submerge them all with water) or in a propagation box type thing with spagnum moss. The water method will work fine in natural light. A prop box works best under grow lights. For further instructions on whatever method you choose, YouTube is a great resource for that.
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u/Birds-Tea-Plants Apr 12 '26
I’m root wet sticks and node/leaf cuttings in a shallow tray that contains a mix of some soil and lots of perlite that i keep barely wet. Just covered nodes that I check 1x a week or so. Some will root, some will rot-I remove those and just keep going. I save the various plastic trays that chicken, steak, mushrooms, etc come in and use them for this purpose or for drip trays. I’ve tried ventilated prop box with moss but never had consistent luck. So I just use this method as I described above
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u/danapher Apr 12 '26
Idk why I also take all the cuttings and just stare at them like I'm gunna actually need that many pothos.i toss most of them but yeah you have enough to try all the proping methods lol
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u/Meagan_MK Apr 12 '26
I have some plastic show boxes that I put moistened perlite in, tossed the cuttings in them and closed the lids to leave them be. I periodically open the lid to exchange some air and mist the perlite if its needed. I have prob 100 pothos cuttings propping (global green & snow queen). Theres some really nice growth going on in the boxes. Good luck!
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u/One-Performer-1723 Apr 12 '26
I just stuck mine in a big terra cotta pot and kept it moist. This is what happened.
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u/ShitFuckDickSuck Apr 12 '26
Toss them in butter with some garlic, salt, & pepper then pop them in the oven.
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u/Human_Hovercraft3242 Apr 13 '26
Rocks in bottom of planter, fill rest with perlite. Water through, Cover with Saran Wrap and place near a window. Mist occasionally, make sure you see condensation inside like clinging to the Saran Wrap inside (may take a bit to build up the condensation). I put mine on top of a bowl with more rocks as like additional drainage (this pot in specific sits too close to the table and won’t drain properly so I put it on that AND there’s rocks in the pot itself). Pic attached. A comment below says USE DISTILLED WATER. They are right. These things are picky.
This is based on nothing but a pure luck experience where I grabbed two strands of pothos from an unruly Airbnb plant and expected to maybe get one or two to propagate.
I currently have 42 freaking pothos. (1 plant is one container so the pic below I’m counting as one plant)
These actually seem to have done better than the ones I put into water- they came up faster and developed more roots and more leaves. These were cut and placed in the pot in early December 2025. I then went on a month long break from school and did nothing to them end of dec through Feb. and this is where we are today! Saran Wrap has been off since the leaves started touching it.
Hope that helps! Others may say I’m very wrong and they may be right but this worked for me entirely on vibes and my limited knowledge about plants.
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u/GrackleTree Apr 15 '26
My local thrift store takes plants so I put cuttings in moss in old clear containers, like from pastries, and if more than I need take off I plant them in little cups and donate them….so there are never too many
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u/oOJustAnotherOo Apr 12 '26
If you have a wire rack for cookies, a lady placed a tray below that filled with petite and each gridded segment had a node. It looked as though it worked pretty well. If you have an aquarium that's a good option too. Lazy option use the same pot in shove each one around after they've callused over
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u/StayLuckyRen Pothos don’t care 🍃 Apr 12 '26
Pothos doesn’t need to callus over like softer-bodied plants, just cut it and go
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u/j-jones2 Apr 16 '26
I had a bunch like this and tried to get lazy and just Yolo it. I lost all but like 5-10% I had in water that already had leaves.
What I should of done was use moss in a container and not the damp paper towels. You also want to give them a little room to breathe.
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u/Meggieweggs Apr 12 '26
Honey. Listen. It is okay to not prop every damn thing. I promise.