Can you propagate pothos from a leaf?

Did a leaf fall off your Pothos plant? Let’s talk about if you can propagate pothos from a leaf and what you might do instead!

All plant parents have been there – you’re moving plants around, re-arranging furniture, whatever it is – and your plant gets knocked. A leaf falls off!

One, my (human) kids were throwing pillows in the living room and hit my pilea, knocking every. single. leaf of fit’s stem. I was not a happy mama.

Anyways, when something like this happens, it’s natural to want to do whatever you can to save it. It takes a lot of love to grow those leaves, plus a long time.

Today we are going to chat about the pothos cutting requirements for a successful propagation.

What is propagation?

Propagation is when you take a cutting (or broken off bit in this case, ha!) from a parent plant, place it in water or soil, and grow new roots.

Once the roots are 2-3 inches long, you can plant the stem cutting in potting mix and treat it like a grown pothos plant.

This is a great way to turn 1 plant into many plants to share with friends or just save a poor broken off piece of the plant.

Read my complete guide on how to propagate pothos in water here.

Can pothos propagate from a leaf?

Unfortunately, you cannot propagate pothos from a leaf. You need at least SOME stem for it to work.

This is because leaves do not have a leaf node. The NODE is the bump on the stem that leaves – and, here’s the kicker – roots, grow from.

You can stick your leaf cuttings in water all you want. You can sprinkle them with rooting hormone. If there’s no node, you will not get root growth.

Will pothos leaves root in water?

Pothos leaves will not grow roots – in water or moist soil – without a leaf node. These nodes are located on the stem and not on the leaf itself.

However, you can root a piece of pothos stem without any leaves, it just takes a little longer. Read my guide on how to root pothos without a leaf here!

If your pothos got a bunch of leaves knocked off, I would probably treat it like I do a leggy pothos. Cut the stem into 6-8 inch segments, making sure each have nodes, and place in water to propagate as normal.

This will encourage your parent plant to grow back bushier and allow you to better fill out the pot with the new cuttings!

Any questions about if you can propagate pothos from a leaf?

Thanks for reading!

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