Is there any way to encourage your Pothos vines to split and branch? Left to its own devices, a Devil’s Ivy plant produces only a single long vine. That doesn’t necessarily look bad, but lots of people prefer a bushier, fuller appearance. Is there any way you can prompt your Pothos to grow more vines off to the side?
You can get a Pothos to branch more by repeatedly snipping or pinching off the newest leaves. After a while, the plant will begin to produce growth off to the sides. If you want to grow more vines from the base of your Pothos, plant a cutting or bury part of the stem in the soil.
It will probably take a while to get your Pothos to branch out. Cutting off stem sections and rooting them in the soil is a much faster way to get a bushier plant. Keep reading to learn why Pothos don’t normally branch out and how to change it. With time and patience, you can get your Devil’s Ivy looking lush and full.
Why Your Pothos Won’t Branch
Many people are under the impression that Pothos plants can’t produce branches at all. That’s because, under normal circumstances, they don’t. Epipremnum aureum, the Devil’s Ivy or Golden Pothos plant, has a characteristic that botanists call apical dominance. This means that the plant only produces new growth from a cluster of cells called the apical meristem, located near the very end of the vine.
This is probably an adaptation to encourage the plant to rapidly grow toward the light. In the wild, Pothos plants are climbers that scramble up the trunks of trees. Restricting their growth to the tips of the vines helps them shoot straight for the brightest parts of the canopy.
While this may help them survive in nature, it can make them look a little bit gangly in your home. That’s especially true if you’re growing a Pothos that started out as a single cutting. You’ll wind up with a single long vine growing one leaf at a time in a “ladder” formation. Most stores sell Pothos with several plants in the same pot, creating a bushy cluster of vines.
Because they have such strong apical dominance, many people think you can’t get a Pothos to branch at all. Even pruning doesn’t usually cause the plant to send out side shoots as it does in many other plants. When you cut a vine back, it generally starts growing straight back out from the last remaining node.
However, there is a way to make a Pothos produce branches. It just requires you to be attentive and patient.
Get Your Pothos to Branch By Pinching
Apical dominance relies on a hormone called auxin, which inhibits the growth of new shoots. The growth point near the tip of a Pothos vine produces auxin, which flows back along the stem. This sends a signal to the growth nodes further back, telling them not to send out new vines. (Note: the nodes are the small bulges along the stem where new leaves and roots form).
You can counteract this by taking off the young growth, removing the apical meristem. Clip your plant just before the spot where the newest leaf is emerging. This gets rid of the source of the auxin hormone. Without that inhibiting signal, the other nodes can send branches out to the sides.
Gardeners call this technique “pinching”, but you can use a knife or some pruning scissors instead of your fingers. Disinfect the blade first using rubbing alcohol or a 10% dilution of bleach. This will prevent the cut from getting infected. If you’re going to pinch a Pothos by hand, you might want to use gloves. The sap from these plants can irritate sensitive skin.
You may have to repeat this trick several times before it works. After the first pruning, your Pothos will probably try to stick with its usual habit and push out a single new bud at the end of the vine. Slice this off as soon as you notice it extending.
Keep this up until you notice two or more of the older nodes budding. You should check on your Pothos frequently so that you can spot and remove new apical growth right away. If you’re persistent enough, you can generally get a Pothos to branch with repeated pinching.
Bury Pothos Vines to Get New Branches
Another technique that can get a Pothos to branch is called layering. It’s usually used for propagation, but also works well for producing new vines in the same pot. To layer your Pothos, loop one of the vines back and bury a portion of the stem in the soil. There should be leaves on both sides of the buried section, with the vine dipping into the potting mix and then poking back up.
Make sure that the part of the stem you’re placing underground has at least one node. Then keep caring for Devil’s Ivy as you normally do. Over the next few weeks, it will send out roots from the node. The process is even faster if you bury a node that’s already producing an aerial root.
You can confirm that the buried section is rooted by pulling gently and seeing if you feel resistance. If so, its root system is now established in the soil. You can cut the new branch free by slicing through the vine just before it dives under the surface. Of course, if you like the look of your Pothos snaking in and out of the soil, you can leave it in place. Some growers will bury multiple sections of the same vine, a technique known as compound layering.
A very similar (but arguably easier) option is to root a stem cutting from your Pothos in the same pot. Just slice off a section of one vine and push it into the soil. Again, use disinfected scissors and make sure to get a couple of the nodes underground.
Some people will advise you to let the cutting grow roots in water first. In our experience, this isn’t necessary. Propagating a Pothos directly in the soil is just as easy.
Can You Notch a Pothos?
Notching is a common way to induce branching in plants. The basic idea is to cut partway through the stem just above a node. The breach in the stem disrupts the flow of sap, changing the hormonal balance in that spot. It often triggers the formation of a new branch.
This works well for woody plants like Fiddle Leaf Figs. However, notching is generally a poor way to get a Pothos to branch. The technique is better suited to mature plants with thick, tough stems. Devil’s Ivy usually remains in its juvenile phase when grown indoors. And its vines are very thin and fleshy.
We’re not saying that notching definitely won’t work on a Pothos. In theory, it should do the same thing as removing the apical meristem. It’s just hard to get right. If you slice too deep, the stem might simply break off. Too shallow, and you won’t change the flow of hormones enough.
If you want to try notching your Pothos, your best bet is to use a small, precise blade like a razor or a craft knife. Sanitize it as we described earlier, then slice into the vine just above a node. Cut ⅓ – ½ of the way through the stem and stop.
With luck, your Pothos should start growing a new branch just below the cut within a few weeks. Once again, though, this is very much an experimental method. We’ve never tried it ourselves, and we couldn’t find any reports of someone doing it successfully.
Final Thoughts
Though it goes against the plant’s nature, you can usually get a Pothos to branch out by repeatedly taking off the newest growth. Rooting cuttings or layering vines is usually a faster way to make a bushier Devil’s Ivy plant. But it can be fun to shape your plant in unusual ways. If you’re determined to encourage branching and splitting in your Pothos, we hope this article helps!