Hi all, propagation beginner here. A friend gave me a bunch of cuttings back in September (4 months ago). Unfortunately a few rotted but a few are still alive…but have barely made any rooting progress. They are out of direct light (on the wall next to a window) and I only change the water when it looks cloudy (rarely). Initially I was changing it 1x a week but after a while of no roots I figured I'd change it less often.
It looks like i have some tiny roots starting but it seems like it's been way too long for such little progress. Every post i can find about pothos taking a "long time" to root is a few weeks or a month. I'm over 4 months of basically no roots :') Any tips to get these going?
by Specific-Prize2290
11 Comments
Hmmm that *is* weird.
I can see some black stem, and you said the others rotted. Unfortunately your friend might have a fungal issue and not know it. You can try taking them out & soaking the nodes in a 2:1 water to peroxide solution for 20 mins after cutting off the black tissue and see if that helps. The plant cells could be too busy fighting off an infection to root yet.
But another option that accelerates rooting is heat. Do you have a seedling mat? Or even just placing the prop jars on top of a heater vent.
I leave mine in bright sunlight. What you might want to keep in the dark is the roots. I read somewhere it helps them develop roots faster when they believe they’re underground.
Prop drops… I got mine off tik tok, or actually my daughter did for Christmas and I’ve already gotten roots and they really do speed up the growth.
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Sadly I’m 50/50 with my pathos propagation I havent mastered it either and some of mine root and some just dont and get that soft water soaked feel
Stick them all together and add a propagation of Golden Pothos. Shove under a bright light.
Note: Never put those prop containers on a window. They’re round and have water in. This could burn your house down if the sun shines at a right angle.
I would try more light. That spot looks dark
I would cut the black off on the one on the left and cut it up to the next node. Sometimes mine are like that and then I will trim them and they will start growing. I would turn the right one too and see what happens.
More light,+ don’t change the water. Plants release hormones that stimulate root production, sometimes it takes a while to build up to sufficient levels for growth to happen. Changing the water is your enemy here, but such low light might be a bigger one.
I’d take those out, clean them with hydrogen peroxide, clean the containers out with peroxide, fill with distilled water, add a drop of peroxide to the water, and give them more light. If you don’t want algae you could cover the bottles with a paper sleeve, but I’ve got props in bottles covered in algae and they’re growing just fine, they’re so big idk what I’m gonna do with them (hence the living in algae covered bottles lmao)
People forget that plants aren’t Always in a period of substantial growth, they go through stages of growth and rest. If this friend cut these from a plant that was at rest vs one actively growing the props would be super slow to root. (That might not be the case, but 🤷 just saying this length of time isn’t Unheard of lol) Good luck to you!
I’d trim everything off the bottom but clean green and put a cut of pothos in with it.
I’m not sure this is backed up by actual science but my observation has been that the newer the part of the vine you’re trying to root is, the faster it roots. So if these are from towards the back of a very old vine, they might take longer? Alternatively, if it’s cold where they are you could try warning them up a bit or buy some rooting hormone. I find both of those work.
I threw an airstone from one of my aquariums in with my water props, I dont know if it actually helps but I feel like they grew alot faster!
You can pick up fairly cheap air pumps and air stones too!