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How to Get a Pothos to Trail – 6 Amazing Tricks You Need to Know

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Epipremnum aureum, also known as Devil’s ivy, money plant, golden pothos, and marble queen, is a tropical plant found in most tropical forests worldwide. Pothos is a popular houseplant due to its easy-going nature and beautiful lush green foliage with trailing vines.

Pothos can grow easily and stay luscious green even in the dark and make an excellent indoor plant. Keep following the article if you want to learn how to get a pothos to trail.

A trailing plant can surely give your interior that enchanting look. You can let the vines hang from a pot or a bookshelf or trail them on a wall, grill, or stake. The cascading vines of pothos are sure to liven up your place. Learn how to get a pothos to trail with our amazing tips and tricks.

How to Get a Pothos to Trail 1
Training my pothos plants to trail using only a bamboo stick. – via Reddit

8 Amazing Tricks on How to Get a Pothos to Trail

If you have a pothos plant, then you must be eager to know how to make it a trail. Pothos can be bought easily from your local nursery or an online store. To buy a lovely pothos plant online, click here. In the following guide, we will share some amazing tips on how to get a pothos to trail.

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Pothos plants are relatively easy to trail when provided with good living conditions. We have covered you, from buying the plant to taking care of it until it trails.

1.      When Buying the Plant, Be Picky!

Yes! be picky, but not with your veggies. When buying a pothos plant, you need to be a little picky to choose the right type of plant that trails effectively.

Pothos has a lot of varieties, and usually, all of them are good trailers. However, some varieties prefer to sit and maintain dense foliage rather than trailing, while others love to grow long and tall.

The marble queen-type pothos does not grow very long vines; rather, it prefers to sit on your desk. This variety will not give you long vines.

The best variety of pothos that grows longest trails is the golden pothos. It is also one of the most low-maintenance plants and can grow about 15 to 20 feet long trails with minimum effort. To make sure they grow long and healthy, you can put in a little more effort and care.

Therefore, when buying a pothos plant, choose the one that will trail much more efficiently.

2.      Use the Perfect Planter

A growing body needs a good home to sustain it. Choose the perfect planter to ensure the healthy growth of your pothos.

You must choose the right type of planter because if the planter is too small, it will hinder the plant’s growth. Choose a pot of about 6″ size and a drainage hole at the bottom.

If you want long vines cascading down, use the hanging planters. Remember that you will need to put stakes in the planters to get the pothos to trail, so choose a planter with enough space.

A planter with a drainage hole will prevent waterlogging, ensuring the healthy growth of your pothos plant.

3.      Water Properly

it is important to keep your pothos well-hydrated to ensure their healthy growth and long trails. But do not overwater them. Overwatering may cause yellowing of leaves, waterlogging, and root rot, which can stunt the growth and even kill the plant.

The best way of watering your pothos is to check the soil, and when it feels a little dry, water it. Water every one or two weeks. You can increase the watering frequency if you live in a hotter climate.

Water your plants thoroughly until the water starts draining out from the bottom, and let the soil dry out a little between each watering session.

4.      Use the Right and Nourishing Growing Medium

A plant needs a good growing medium to have healthy growth. To ensure that your pothos grow properly and trail, provide them with the right soil. Pothos is like a mixture of sandy soil with a slightly acidic pH value. A pH value between 6.0 to 6.8 is preferred.

Have soil with good aeration and water drainage. You can add perlite to the soil to increase water drainage and aeration of the soil.

How to Get a Pothos to Trail 2
Spotted an opportunity to let my pothos trail to her hearts content – via Reddit

5.      Prune Your Pothos Religiously

Pruning is an essential step to keep your pothos healthy. You may wonder how pruning would help with the trails when it cuts your plant short?

The answer is that pruning stimulates the plant’s growth and gets rid of old, sick, or dead leaves. Don’t get overexcited and prune too much because a  little goes a long way here!

Maintain a healthy amount of pruning over a reasonable period. The best time to prune pothos is during early spring. Use sterilized scissors or bypass shears to prune the pothos.

Sharpen your tools before pruning. A blunt blade can tear the stem and expose it to bacterial infections and pathogens. A sharp blade will give a neater and clearer cut.

Remember not to trim more than 25% of the plant when pruning. To get bushier foliage and more trails, prune after every two months. When pruning, hold each stem and cut them individually rather than all together. Cut each stem right above the nodes and cut diagonally.

6.      Stakes!

To train the growth of your pothos and encourage it to the trail, add some stakes to the pot. You can create your moss poles or buy them online from a nursery.

Place some stakes in the soil and be careful; you do not want to damage the roots. Once the stakes are erected, moisten them thoroughly and wrap the stems around them.

Tie the stems on the stake with a piece of twine or fishline. Do not tie very tightly to avoid damaging the stem. It will give your pothos a direction to grow and encourage the growth and formation of trails.

Why Your Pothos is Not Trailing?

If you planted a pothos and it’s been a while, but it is not trailing, you must check for the following things.

  • Ensure that the pothos is getting sufficient sunlight. Pothos is a tropical plant, and it loves warm indirect sunlight to grow.
  • Check the growing medium and water regularly. Avoid overwatering.
  • Use a good fertilizer during the growing season to help boost the growth of pothos and provide the essential nutrients for healthier growth.
  • Be patient! It won’t grow overnight. Keep caring for the plant and take pictures to measure growth progress. Soon your plant will be happy, healthy, and trailing.

Conclusion

A trailing plant like pothos can boost your interior and give it an enchanting forest look. Pothos being an easy-going plant, is the top choice for indoor plants.

Its luscious green foliage can liven up your space and decorate it with its trailing vines. Either hanging or covering the wall, the trails will make your room exquisite.

 We have discussed some excellent tips on how to get a pothos to trail. Just provide your plant with good conditions to grow, and it will be trailing in no time. Leave your feedback in the comments below!