How to Care for a Golden Pothos

Golden pothos, also known as devil's ivy, is an ideal houseplant; it's attractive, hardy, tolerant of many lighting conditions but fond of low light, fast-growing, pest-repellent, safe around children and pets, and almost impossible to kill. They even improve the air quality. You've seen them in restaurants, offices, malls, movie theaters and other places where the interior gets very little direct sunlight.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

1. Place your golden pothos in partial sun. Golden pothos, unlike most other houseplants, are low-light plants. They prefer locations with ambient daylight or screened light (like light falling through sheer curtains), but do not require direct sunlight to thrive. However, give your plant an hour or two of direct sunlight each day, since direct sunlight causes the golden streaks that give golden pothos its name.

2. Keep the soil moist, but not wet. Watering every other day or every few days is probably enough. Watering too often is unlikely to do much harm to the plant, but it encourages midge flies to grow in the soil, so if you see midges around the house, water your plants a little less. Test whether your golden pothos has enough water by gently bending a leaf. A healthy golden pothos has crisp, springy leaves. An underwatered golden pothos's leaves are rubbery and feel wilted.

3. Feed your golden pothos plant food once or twice a month. Any commercial plant food is fine. The plants are resilient, and don't need frequent, or even regular, feeding.

4. Check occasionally for rooted vines. The vines of the golden pothos put out little root nubs that will, in time, grow into full roots if you let them. Check that your golden pothos is not rooting into your carpet or running vines up your walls.

5. Trim your golden pothos from time to time. The vines of the golden pothos grow rapidly, so if you don't trim them every now and then, you'll find the tips of vines eight or ten feet away, curling between your books or snaking under the TV stand. Trimming will also encourage your golden pothos to stay bushy. When you trim a vine, make the cut right after one of the knots of leaves and roots along the length of the vine. The vine will begin regrowing from this knot, so trimming close to the knot will prevent an unattractive stub of useless stem from sticking out the side of the regrowing vine.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't worry about repotting your golden pothos as it grows. The pant enjoys being slightly rootbound, and will thrive even in pots that look far too small for them. Golden pothos will happily grow up trellises or your walls.

• Don't let pets or children chew on your golden pothos. Pothoses contain a chemical that burns the mouth of anything that bites it. It's physically impossible to eat enough of a golden pothos to poison oneself, which is why the plants are considered nonpoisonous, but it's still not a good idea to let your pets or small children go around gnawing on it.

References

• Plant of the Week: Golden Pothos, Devil's Ivy
• Pothos Versatility Makes It the #1 Houseplant
• Images of the Golden Pothos in its Native Environment, Hawaii

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish