Some houseplants become popular because of their natural beauty or their ability to act as a design element. But for others, that popularity is driven by a more pragmatic calculation. Consider pothos, for example. We’ve previously recommended it as one of the best houseplants for beginners, for low-light spaces, and for growing in water. In…
Why Pothos Is an Ideal Companion Plant for Cuttings
Part of the reason why pothos grows and propagates so readily from cuttings is that it produces high levels of a plant hormone called auxin. If you’ve ever used rooting hormone, you’ve handled auxin in its commercially-produced synthetic form. It’s an incredibly important hormone for most plants, dictating much of its growth beyond just root production. (Here’s a scientific paper that gives an auxin overview, if you want to geek out on it.)
Pothos is loaded with auxin, which is key to its resilience against inadequate light, erratic watering, and all the other challenges it faces as a beginner’s houseplant. If you’re growing plants in water, this gives you the opportunity to indulge in a bit of companion planting. This is a technique of pairing plants together to gain an advantage, such as the Three Sisters planting method of matching beans (a nitrogen producer that needs something to climb) with corn (a heavy feeder with a long, sturdy stem) and squash (which provides ground cover to retain moisture and deter weeds).
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Leveraging Pothos With Other Houseplants
If you’re propagating cuttings from a plant that doesn’t root as readily as pothos, there are a couple of ways you can take advantage. If you’re rooting them in water, you can simply pop a pothos cutting into the same container. As they share the water, the second plant benefits from any auxin that leaches out from the pothos. If you have a pothos that grows in water full-time, you’ll need to change the water periodically to keep it fresh. You can then use that water to hydrate plants you’re growing in soil, giving them the same benefit.
Will this provide the same boost as commercial rooting hormone? No, because that’s a much more concentrated source of auxin. But a pothos cutting is essentially free once you own the plant, and it’s a zero-fuss option as well.
