You have a pothos plant (Epipremnum aureum) and you’re wanting to treat it right and keep it alive, right? One of the most important components of keeping your pothos alive is knowing how often to water it. Not only that, but you want to make sure your water is the right temperature and the right type of water. Let’s go over all the basics to watering your pothos so that your pothos can last you many years!
How Often to Water Pothos?
It depends on so many factors like where it’s placed in your home, how much sun it’s getting, the humidity of your home, etc. Instead of having some vague watering schedule, water your pothos when the soil is dry. Simply poke your finger down one or two inches and if it feels dry, go ahead and water. If the soil feels moist or wet, go another few days without watering. Checking the soil is a great practice to avoid under-watering and over-watering problems that can occur. More houseplants die from over-watering than under-watering and pothos plants can survive for a few days being thirsty, so when in doubt, err on the side of watering less.
Water Temperature
Pothos plants, like most other tropical plants, prefer water that is room temperature. Cold water can shock the roots, and hot water can scald your pothos plant and damage it. So when getting your water, make sure it’s at room temperature. You can leave your water out in a container to sit for a few hours and it will become room temperature or just set your faucet temperature in the middle.
Type of Water
Most houseplants prefer distilled, purified, or rain water. This is due to tap water having many harsh salts from the city or from your own home’s water softener. Pothos plants, however, are pretty low maintenance and can handle tap water fairly well. To be completely honest, I’ve been watering my pothos plants for years with tap water and have seen no unsightly consequences. They’re a pretty hardy plant and can handle tap water if you don’t have an alternative on hand. If you notice a build up of salts in a white crust on your soil you can flush out these salts by pouring distilled, filtered, or rain water thoroughly on your plant and letting it drain out of the drainage holes. This will wash away the majority of those salts out of the soil.
Should I Mist My Pothos?
A lot of people may encourage you to mist your houseplants to either water it or to increase humidity, but you should NOT mist your houseplants. For one, sitting water on your pothos leaves can be the perfect breeding ground for various fungi or bacteria to settle and cause leaf spots. It also does very little to increase humidity. Yes, it will increase the humidity for a minute or two but it’s quickly gone. A pebble tray or a humidifier is much more effective at increasing humidity but not needed for a pothos plant. I live in a very dry climate and I have never had the need to use a humidifier or a pebble tray for my pothos plants. So all in all, no need to bother with misting your pothos.
If you want to know learn about an easy way to turn your pothos plant into many pothos plants, check out my article on how to propagate your pothos.