Image – Flickr/Forest and Kim Starr
The pothos is one of the most popular climbers to decorate the interior of a house. It has heart-shaped, green and whitish-yellow leaves, and Although it does not produce showy flowers, this does not mean that it cannot be used to have a more beautiful house or apartment..
Also, you should know that it is one of the favorites of those who do not have much experience in the maintenance of plants, since it requires very little care to be perfect. Now well, how to make a leafy poto? Sometimes we can end up with few leaves, especially if it has suffered from a plague or has not been well watered, how to make it produce a large number?
Contents
Repot it (if necessary)
It is often thought that a plant that is in a pot that has already grown too much will produce more leaves than one that is in a pot in which it still has enough space to continue growing. Big mistake. It is true that when transplanted, the first thing its roots start to do is grow, and for a while we may not see new leaves, but once it is done overcoming the transplant, it will produce them again. Assurance.
Indeed, when you choose never to transplant any plant, it will eventually weaken. The lack of space can become a cause of death of any culture, That’s why we have to transplant our pothos a few times or three, whenever the roots come out through the drainage holes of the pot, or whenever it has been in the pot for 4 years or more. We will put a universal growing medium that you can buy here or one for green plants, so that it can grow.
Pay it once in a while
It is important to pay pothos from spring to summer, because that is when it grows. Since we want it to be leafy, we will do it with a liquid fertilizer for green plants (on sale here), because its effectiveness is fast and, in addition, it has the necessary nutrients so that it pulls out the leaves and that they are healthy and have their natural color, such as nitrogen (N). Nitrogen is involved in the growth of plants, so it is essential for them.
But yes: follow the instructions on the product packagingbecause otherwise we would run the risk of exceeding the dose recommended by the manufacturer and, consequently, the pothos would suffer serious damage, such as the death of the roots due to an excess of fertilizer.
Clean the leaves of your pothos
Image – Wikimedia/Asabengurtza
It may seem to you that cleaning has nothing to do with the production of leaves of the plant, but in fact it has an influence. Think that it is the leaves that carry out photosynthesis, and therefore, thanks to them, the pothos can grow and produce new ones. But if dust accumulates, it covers them and prevents them from doing their work normally.
For it, you should dust it once a week or every few days with a brush or dry cloth. You can also use rainwater or distilled water, but not one that contains a lot of lime, otherwise the grains will remain on the sheet and in the end it will be like replacing the powder with lime.
Size: yes or no?
When you want a tree to have a leafy top, you often choose to prune the branches a little so that new ones grow, but do you do the same with pothos? It’s a herbaceous plant, so it has green and relatively tender stems (especially when compared to the woody branches of shrubs and trees), so we’ll do it in a different but quite similar way.
Let me explain: more than a proper pruning, what we do will be pinched; that is to say cut a little the stems that we see growing with more force. We will count 2-3 pairs of leaves from the tip to the back, and we will cut above the third or fourth pair with scissors previously disinfected with pharmacy alcohol or dishwashing liquid.
Do you want it to have a lot more leaves? One trick to achieve this is to apply a conditioning agent. It’s very easy to do, which is a spray whose content must be directed precisely onto the leaves. You’ll start to see its effectiveness after two or three days, so you won’t have to wait almost anything for your pothos to look lush.
As you can see, getting your vine to have plenty of leaves is not difficult. Sometimes all it takes is a little patience, although it’s not always necessary if we use the right products. Enjoy your precious plant.