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Verdejar

Pothos care: watering and light

Pothos may be the easiest houseplant there is: it grows fast, trails down from shelves and tells you when it’s thirsty. It comes from the forests of the South Pacific.

Pothos needs water roughly every 7 days in summer and every 12 in winter (north-facing window, in a 16 cm plastic pot with a drainage hole). Before watering, always check with a finger in the soil: if it’s still damp, wait.

At a glance

Scientific name
Epipremnum aureum
Also known as
Devil's ivy
Preferred light
Medium indirect light
Difficulty
Easy
Tolerates drought
No
Tolerates shade
Yes
Where it lives
Indoors

Where to put it

Pothos does well in indirect light, even at a north-facing window. It copes with low light, but variegated leaves lose their yellow or white and turn plain green. Strong direct sun scorches them.

It looks good on top of a bookcase or in a hanging pot. If the vines get long and bare, cut them back: the plant branches and fills out.

How to water

Let roughly the top half of the soil dry between waterings. Pothos droops its leaves when thirsty and perks up within hours of a drink — but don’t always wait for that signal: done again and again, it wears the plant out.

Common mistakes

Yellow leaves, especially several at once, almost always mean too much water. Dry brown tips mean the opposite. And some good news: a piece of vine with two or three leaves, put in a glass of water, roots within a few weeks.

How many days between waterings, spot by spot

Where it livesIn JulyIn January
South- or west-facing window4 days7 days
East-facing window4 days7 days
North-facing window7 days12 days
Hallway or corner with no window10 days17 days
Days between waterings, in a 16 cm plastic pot with a drainage hole. Worked out by Verdejar’s engine, northern hemisphere.

From the Journal