Bringing greenery into the home is one of the easiest ways to breathe new life and freshness into living spaces.
To ensure your indoor plants thrive and look their best, it’s essential to understand their unique care requirements and growth habits.
For those looking to cultivate pothos plants, one of the most adaptable indoor varieties, managing their growth rate can be crucial to achieving the desired effect.
Plant specialist Lucian Steph, who has extensive experience with neon pothos varieties, explains that these versatile plants can either thrive rapidly or maintain steady, controlled growth depending on their care routine.
Steph shared several tips to ensure rapid plant growth
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“If you want a very fast growing plant, pothos is the way to go,” said Steph, who has achieved remarkable results with her own specimens.
For those seeking rapid pothos growth, Steph outlined the following three key strategies. Firstly, position your pothos near an east-west facing window, ensuring it receives ample light without direct sun exposure.
The second crucial factor is pot management. Steph advised sizing up the container once the plant becomes rootbound to encourage faster growth.
Consistent watering is the third and last pillar of rapid growth, though pothos can tolerate periods of dryness.
The plant enthusiast demonstrated how these same factors can be manipulated to slow growth when desired. “I decided to drop its light conditions to slow it down a bit,” Steph explained.
Despite reducing light exposure, she maintains plant health with a growing light at a carefully calculated distance. “It’s at the perfect distance where it’s not getting too much light so it’s continuing to grow very quickly, but it’s not getting so little light so that it’s declining.”
Steph’s approach to watering also demonstrates how care routines can control growth rates.
“Ideally this plant would need to be watered every two to three days,” she notes. “But if I give it that it’s going to grow even faster.”
The plant enthusiast shared footage of her photos online
YOUTUBE / LUCIANSTEP
Another effective method for limiting growth is to maintain the current pot size rather than sizing up.
Her neon pothos holds a special place in her collection. “This is my neon pothos, and I adore it. It was the first pothos that I fell in love with,” she shares.
The plant initially thrived in a south-facing window before being relocated to moderate its growth rate.
Despite these growth-slowing measures, pothos remains remarkably adaptable. Steph added: “Pothos can thrive in high light or survive in no light.”