Pothos - Best Indoor Plants

I would like to introduce a New Series on Indoor Plants

and hope to come up with 10 Best Indoor Plants for Beginners.

It is fairly easy plant to grow and maintain.

Let me introduce this plant - Epipremnum aureum more commonly known as Pothos.

These pothos are commonly known as money plant locally here.

A common thought by majority of people here often put them in a cup filled with water
with few colored stones or marbles and often take them for granted as they tolerate well in water.

(You would had seen them on the receptionist desk top)

I find the invasive type found in the wild somehow manage to be the alpha in many zone - but not particularly the hybrids - they tend to die easily if proper care is not given.

Here picture below: Epipremnum aureum - 'N Joy'

This particular variety doesn't grow big,

the size of the leaves some how remains small and never grows big.
However given the best environment for them,
it will grow very robust and trails very long in a healthy manner.

Here picture below: Epipremnum aureum - Marble Queen

Few decades ago, Marble Queen took the center stage as new variegated version compared to the common yellow splash ones.

Somehow this variety is able to grow big with huge leaf size.
I had encountered few climbing on stone walls and patio with the leaves as big as a monstera species.

I find Marble Queen is quite sensitive and easily get attacked by scale insect, especially if they are not grown in an airy bright shaded areas. They do tend to lose their vigor and eventually die with these pest attack - unlike other pothos, this one can be considered sensitive.

However, once you get the hang with the rest of the cultivar. I would recommend you to extend the challenge to expand your collection and try your hand with this one.

How to Care for Pothos:

1) They don't do well with conventional fertilizers.

One of my botanist friend mentioned to me that they produce their own nitrogen and therefore anything extra can be fatal for these kind of species. I would suggest to use the high quality foliage fertilizer with half strength dilution and observe and see how the plant behaves. If it doesn't suffer any burns and shows a robust growth then that dosage is ideal for them.

2) These are very much epiphytes - and so they prepare some sort of trailing, hanging, dangling and tangling. Their roots don't go deep, so deep pots are quite unnecessary.

An ideal pot or garden space would be a wide flat planter box or pot.

3) I don't expect them to survive if they start to rot and turn yellow but pruning them before the rot spreading to other healthy plant is a very important.

Somehow - I find that it can be infected with bacteria (rot) which can be infectious.

4) Most of these hybrids are very sensitive to pest attack - especially scale insect and mealy bug - and these are often hidden in between the node (leaf and stalk)

And worst - they are not easy to eradicate and need a long process of pesticide regime.

- and so, take good care to check the plant before purchase before introducing them into your garden.

Here picture top / below:

Epipremnum aureum - Golden Pothos

Its so popular that is known by many names:

Devil’s Ivy, Golden Pothos, Ceylon Creeper, Hunter’s Robe, Ivy Arum, Silver Vine, Solomon Islands Ivy, Taro Vine & Rapunzel.

More famously known locally as Money Plant (You can't miss that name)

I believe this is truly a love-hate plant.

It's so common that is easily found growing care-free by the roadside but when care and cultivation is overly given to them - they suddenly tend to die.
(Strange isn't it? Many gardeners testify this experience)

As you can see how huge it can grow. This one is growing wild on a tree.

I want to make an emphasize here concerning this vine:

Notice the board-spanned leaves seemed to have side splits similar to the Monstera species characteristics?

THE BEST REASON WHY YOU SHOULD YOU GROW POTHOS

1) Absorbs Toxins from the Living Space:

According to NASA study,
this plant is capable of purifying air by removing some toxin element
such as formaldehyde,benzene, xylene and toluene from indoor environment.

It's also very effective to grow these in a car-park / lift lobby areas as the air can be damp and stale.

The best plant to grow as it also serve to purify toxins like carbon monoxide which is quite fatal for us.

2) Absorbs Odors from the Living Space

Ideal for damp and no or less air movement space or room.

3) Extremely Care-Free Maintenance Plant

This plant can tolerate both low light & bright light areas.

Also you can neglect on the watering regime. It can also tolerate infrequent watering.

This plant is more on the wet side. It can thrive very well in wet environment.

This plant had managed to push the variegated feature at one side and dominated another side so that its able to focus on photosynthesis more effectively.

I had seen some plants behave this way, it shows that these cultivars are unstable.
Eventually in the long-run the variegated feature will be pushed out from the plant system and the plant will dominate more on the greener side.

Only time will tell who wins this battle.

Here picture top / below:

Epipremnum aureum - Jade Pothos

It appears similar to the Neon Pothos which is very much in lime color whereas this one is more on the darker green side.

You know, when you start to have a collection - it appears to be like a slight variation and you wonder whether its a variegated abnormality or a new introduced cultivar which yet to be determined whether if its going to remain stable or transform to its dominant side.

It's a lot challenging when local nurseries do not label the cultivar and one have to do their own research.