Having pothos plants in your home can be so rewarding. These plants look fantastic, and they’re not that hard to care for.
It’s normal to keep these plants in many different parts of your home. People often keep them in normal pots, and sometimes they’re kept in hanging planters as well.
What if you want these plants to climb, though? How should you approach training the plant to do so?
Continue reading to learn about training pothos plants to climb. This will help you to get the best results possible.
Getting Pothos Plants to Climb is Easy
Climbing is something that all pothos plants can do. If you want to get your pothos to climb, it’ll simply involve training it a little bit.
Generally, all you need to do is give the plant a surface to climb. You can then secure some of the vines to the surface using ties.
This will help the plant to grow on the new surface. It’s common for people to make pothos plants climb moss poles.
You can also buy something like a trellis to train pothos plants to climb. This will make it easier to get your pothos plant to grow up the wall.
How to Get Pothos to Trail
Getting a pothos plant to trail is simple. It’s mostly about picking a good planter and ensuring that you care for the plant optimally.
To get the right type of planter, pick one that will encourage healthy growth. You should have a good experience with ceramic hanging planters.
People also commonly use plastic or glass hanging planters. The pot needs to have good drainage to keep the plant safe.
Ensure that the planter has two good drainage holes. Also, make sure that you use well-draining soil in the pot.
Give the pothos plant enough sunlight to help it grow, too. You want to give it indirect bright sunlight to give it the best chance to trail properly.
Pruning the plant regularly helps to encourage trailing, too. So prune the plant just above a node, and you’ll encourage the plant to trail.
You can enjoy a pothos plant that will trail wonderfully if you put in the effort. Many people love keeping pothos plants in hanging planters and having them trail, but others prefer to have the pothos plants climb.
What to Do with Long Pothos Vines
Pothos vines can get a little bit too long if you don’t prune them. As you might expect, the best way to deal with long pothos vines is to cut them.
Prune the vines to ensure that they stay at a manageable length. When cutting pothos plants, make sure that you use a clean and sterilized pair of pruning shears.
Using sharp shears will make pruning the vines as simple as can be. Make the cut below a node to encourage bushy growth.
If you just want to shorten the vine, it doesn’t matter where you cut it. You might want to cut away from a node to ensure that the vine won’t grow even more.
Be sure to prune the pothos regularly so it doesn’t get out of control. These plants grow a lot faster than some people expect.
Since they’re fast-growing, they can get out of control. If you don’t want your pothos plant to start looking wild, it’ll be imperative to prune it often.
Why is My Pothos Not Trailing?
You might have issues with pothos plants not trailing when things are being done wrong. One common mistake involves putting the plant in a bad planter.
Perhaps you chose a planter that is less than ideal for trailing. The planter might not encourage healthy growth.
Another thing to consider is whether the plant is getting enough water and sunlight. You need to handle the basics so the plant will remain healthy.
These plants usually need to be watered every week or so. You’re meant to check the plant to see if the soil has dried out between watering sessions.
Pothos plants can survive in low light or medium light. However, they do best when placed in bright indirect sunlight.
So giving your plant ideal conditions will make it more likely that it’ll trail properly. It’ll continue to grow, and trailing will come naturally as the plant gets bigger.
Will a Pothos Vine Grow After Cutting?
You can use cutting as a way to encourage growth in pothos plants. Of course, cutting without putting thought into things won’t produce good results.
To encourage new growth, you want to cut the plant next to a node. A node is a small bump on the stem and it’s where the leaves grow.
You can cut the branches to encourage more branches to grow. This is a good way to make your pothos a lot bushier.
When you want the plant to have a full appearance, this method works nicely. You can encourage more branching by making specific cuts.
This method works when you’re trying to make many different types of plants as full as possible. It’s not unique to pothos plants.
Do All Pothos Trail?
There are many different types of pothos plants out there. Some of them look a little bit different and have slightly different characteristics.
They do all have certain things in common, though. One important thing that these plants share is that they can all be utilized as trailing plants.
So if you want a nice trailing plant, you can’t go wrong with buying a pothos. These plants are lovely, and they’re excellent trailing plants.
You can easily get these plants to trail if you put them in a healthy planter. Position the vines properly and give them ideal conditions so things will go as well as possible.
When Do Pothos Start to Vine?
Pothos plants grow fast, so they will also start to vine fast. They can grow a lot in just one month during the growing season.
These plants are known to grow a lot during the spring and summer. Expect the pothos plant to start vining after two or three months of growth.
How Long Do They Take to Vine?
Pothos plants are fast-growing, and they can vine well under normal circumstances. During the spring and summer, these plants will grow nicely, and they can get so long that they will start trailing.
You should notice that it will take two or three months for pothos plants to get to this point. So you will have to be a bit patient.
Even so, it helps that these are fast-growing plants. If you’re caring for the plants well, it shouldn’t take them too long to vine and start trailing how you want them to.
How to Attach a Pothos to a Moss Pole
Using a moss pole to help a pothos plant climb is very common. These poles are simple to use, and they can help you to get good results.
To get started, buy a moss pole from a garden center or order one from an online retailer. They don’t cost much money at all, and they’re rather useful to have when you’re trying to train plants to climb.
Stick the moss pole right in the soil with your pothos plant. The moss pole should be stuck into the soil around three inches away from the stem of the plant.
You do this to ensure that the roots are protected. Once the moss pole is in place, simply wrap the vines around the pole.
These vines can be properly attached to the pole using simple plant ties. This will allow the pothos plant to grow up the moss pole, and you’ll be pleased with the results.
How to Use a Trellis
A trellis can be used in essentially the same way as a moss pole. You can attach the vines to a trellis, and the pothos plant will learn to climb it.
The trellis can be placed in one of a few different positions. Some people put the trellis securely in the pot and stick it into the soil.
Others secure the trellis to a nearby wall. Either option is acceptable so long as the trellis is secure.
When the trellis is in place, you can attach the vines to it. You can tie the vines to the trellis using plant ties to keep everything in place.
Many people use the trellis to train the plant to climb so that it will grow up walls. This is a great option that will allow you to enjoy the unique qualities of these plants to the fullest.
Will a Pothos Damage Walls?
If you want to train a pothos plant to grow up a wall, that’s fine to do. There isn’t a reason why you should avoid doing this if you’re interested.
The roots of the pothos plant aren’t strong enough to damage standard types of walls. So they’re not known to damage walls or other types of surfaces.
That being said, these vines can get a bit out of control if you don’t prune them. So you might need to cut them back here and there to keep them from growing in spots where you don’t want them to be.
So it’s ideal to keep an eye on things when growing these plants. It’ll allow you to get much better results.
Knowing that you can grow the plants on walls if you want to should make you happy. These are good climbing plants that can add a lot of charm to many rooms in your home.
Final Thoughts
You’ve learned a lot about pothos plants and how they climb now. These plants are popular because they can be used as trailing plants or as climbing plants.
Trailing and climbing are similar in many ways. These vine plants are good options no matter which style you prefer.
If you wish to train a pothos plant to climb, it’ll be easy to accomplish this. Simply buy a trellis or a moss pole to get started.
Position the pole or trellis in the planter and then attach the vines to the pole using ties. This will then make it so the plant will climb and grow up the structure that you have provided.
You can even get these plants to grow up walls. It’s truly easy to get good results if you use a trellis for this.
When looking to make these plants trail, you want to choose a good planter. The planter needs good drainage holes, and you need to use well-draining soil.
It’s mostly about giving the plant enough sunlight, pruning it often enough, and watering it properly. Trailing comes naturally to these plants so long as you care for them optimally.
Don’t hesitate to buy pothos plants. They’re attractive plants that can be used in versatile ways.
Some might want to use these plants as climbers, while others will be more interested in trailing pothos plants. Either way, you’ll love how they look in your home.
Growing up with a mom who filled her home (inside and out) with all sorts of plants, Lisa got her start in gardening at a young age. Living now on her own with a home and yard full of plants (including an indoor greenhouse), she shares all the gardening tips she’s gained over the years.