How to Prune a Pothos for Healthy Growth

The Pothos plants are generally regarded as overachievers because they grow beyond their reach. They have different varieties of the Pothos plant, with the color of the leaves ranging from green to variegated.

While they are an excellent plant for your garden, indoors or outdoors, you will have to prune them to maintain their health and beauty. Besides pruning, they are easy to maintain and can grow in various environments.

However, if you must prune the plant, you should know when and how to help the plant. Like most plants, they are sensitive to the period and how they are pruned.

Why You Should Prune Your Pothos Plant

pothos plant ready for pruning

Before you jump right into how and when to prune your Pothos plant, you must understand why you should do this:

  • Pruning will improve the health of the plant. With pruning, you will help the plant create room inner part to access air and sunlight. And this will improve the health condition of the plant.
  • If you notice that your plant is fading and the beauty is not as pronounced, then pruning may help the plant. Pruning Pothos will help reinvigorate the plant back to life. A once seemingly fading plant can become filled with vigor with pruning.
  • Pruning will help keep the Pothos plant in shape. The plant can become overreaching and grow out of your desired shape. To maintain the decor of your home or garden, it is best to Prune it and keep It in shape. It helps keep your space tidy.
  • With pruning, you can keep the plant away from the reach of children and pets at home. The Pothos plant looks lovely and impressive in a hanging pot, but you must prune it to ensure it maintains that structure and protects the plant.

When To Prune the Pothos Plant

The Pothos plant will need pruning because it will grow beyond its reach. You do not want the plant to start grabbing and growing in different parts of your home. And to keep it contained, you must snip the plant’s growth.

From my experience, there is no specific time for pruning the Pothos plant. But it would be best if you did not do this during the winter, for the stem may only grow leaves in spring. Avoid pruning in winter unless you want a skeleton flower structure.

I will advise you to trim or Prune the plant while it is still active. And their active period is the springs when they can grow back from where you cut.

How to Prune the Pothos Plant

Prune Pothos

Before we go into the process of pruning the Pothos plant, you have first to define your purpose of pruning. Do you want to reduce the length of the plant or encourage it to grow branches, thus making it bushy?

You will use the point at which you cut back the plant to determine any of the purposes. To Prune and grow more branches, you will cut the vine close to the node; fresh branches will grow out of the node, and the plant will grow more leaves.

To reduce the length of an overgrown Pothos plant, you must cut off the over-extended vines.

Either way, we will be using the same method for pruning as shown below:

  • Get and sterilize your cutting tools to prevent infection and disease from spreading. You can use a pair of scissors or secateurs to make a clean cut.
  • To make the plant bushy, make a sharp cut below the crown to shorten the stem and encourage the growth of leaves.
  • While discarding the infected vine or reshaping it by cutting off over a ruly vein, cut off the vine.
  • Leave at least two nodes above the soil if you are pruning the Pothos plant deep. The nodes will make the plant rejuvenate fast.
  • Cut the leaf at the junction of the petiole and the stem to remove dead or brown leaves.
  • Or you can pick up dead leaves at the tip with your cutting tools.

As you can see, pruning the pothos plant should be done regularly, from picking up dead parts to reshaping and managing the size of the plant.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to throw the cuttings after pruning?

The cuttings can be helpful in propagation, especially when they are healthy. You can use them, sell them or give them out.

Can Cutting Rejuvenate the Pothos Plant?

Pruning and removing dead parts or leaves competing with healthy ones can help the plant, promoting health and ensuring the plant’s growth.

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