How To Become A Propagation Expert & Make Your Pothos Plants Multiply

Propagation allows us to harness plants' natural ability to regenerate. It involves removing a part of your greenery so it can regrow into a new plant pal.

Darryl Cheng of House Plant Journal considers propagation a somewhat magical way to help special plants continue to thrive over time. For example, Cheng's family continues to propagate the golden pothos centerpieces from his wedding three years ago.

After "Plant Kween" Christopher Griffin gives their overgrown pothos a trim, they often gift the cuttings to friends. "My pothos is all over Brooklyn," Griffin jokes.

Get your scissors ready, making sure they're as clean as possible. "It's the same as surgery: If you cut it with a dirty knife, it's possible to introduce pathogens," Cheng says of why it's important to keep things fresh.

Then, grab your healthy pothos. The better condition your starter plant is in, the better likelihood of successful propagation.

Pothos plants regrow new roots from their nodes: Tiny brown bumps that grow on their stems. Cut the stem at a 45-degree angle so that your cutting contains at least one of those nodes. That's what you'll be sticking in water.

Ideally, your cutting will also contain one or two leaves—though "sometimes you can even propagate if there are no leaves at all," says Cheng. "If it's just the stem with the nodes, that by itself can grow new plants."

Fill your clear vessel with a few inches of tap water and place your cuttings into it so their leaves are sticking up. If any leaves are submerged in the water, you can cut those off using your clean scissors. The nodes and stems are what you want to leave soaking.

Once your cuttings are submerged in water, place them in a bright spot in your home: next to a window that doesn't get too much direct sunlight is ideal.

"[Pothos is] a plant that can tolerate lower light levels but it will always thrive in bright, indirect light," Betsy of the Betsy Begonia YouTube channel says.

Then, you're off to the races: Let your plant do its thing, replacing its water every two to three days or whenever you notice it getting murky. The water will create ideal conditions for your roots to start forming.

Over time (about one to three weeks, depending on your plant and light conditions), you should notice little white strands start to stick out of your nodes: Those are the new roots.

When the roots are about half an inch long, you can remove your cuttings and get them ready to transfer to soil.

No need to break out the measuring tape to see if you're at that half-inch mark: Since you can theoretically place cuttings directly in soil, the length of the root isn't super important. Likewise, you can leave your cuttings in water for a while, until their roots are much longer, and they should still thrive once you put them in soil.

Once your cuttings have rooted to your liking, remove them from the water. Put a bit of soil at the bottom of your pot. Then, with one hand holding the cuttings in the middle of the pot, pack your new soil tightly around your cuttings so they sit snugly.

Once your pothos cuttings are in soil, they can be treated like any other pothos plant, says Betsy. "Just put them in bright, indirect light—the brighter the better, but not full sun—and water them when the potting mix feels dry about a third of the way into the pot," she says. "I just stick my finger in the pot... If it feels dry, water."

She says that drooping leaves can be a sign your pothos needs water. A bunch of yellowing leaves usually signal you've overwatered.

There are a variety of types of pothos plants, all of which respond well to this stem-cutting propagation method. (However, Betsy adds that neon and variegated varieties might grow a bit slower.)

This means that if you have a few different types of pothos plants at home, you can take a cutting or two from each and put them in the same pot to grow a fun composite plant.