Finally Found Pothos For My Tokay

[Tokayy]

Hey Guys,

So after a long search this whole summer to find Pothos, I was successful last night. I spent the whole summer going around to nurusries and many people couldn't help me find my Pothos. Well I went to the right place yesterday. Very happy and excited for my new plant. Going to clone it and put it in my snake cage as well. Quranting my plant though since they used fertilizers. Gonna flush the plant for a couple of weeks and let it grown before I end up putting it into the enclosure. And yes I will be cleaning the leaves as well. Can't wait to see how my gecko likes it in a couple of weeks.

 

[drillman]

Pothos

Do yourself a favor and take the plants and wash away and remove all the soil. Replant the bare plants in fresh store bought soil or your own mixture from store bought materials. I put one plant in my enclosure without doing this and got an infestation of gnats. Even if there is no sign of pests in the store bought plants. It will have some have some kind of pest that will go crazy and multiply when it gets in your nice warm enclosure.

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

Just FYI, pothos are VERY easy to clone. You can pretty much take a cutting and stick it in some moist potting soil and it'll root. No need for rooting hormones etc.

 

[Tokayy]

Just FYI, pothos are VERY easy to clone. You can pretty much take a cutting and stick it in some moist potting soil and it'll root. No need for rooting hormones etc.

I read that you are supposed to put the clipping in a bucket of water until you see one root. Once you have one root then you are able to put in soil. Do I need to do it that way? or is your way Ethan work as well?

To Drillman, I intend to keep the plant outside of the enclosure for at least a couple of weeks to ensure there are no pests. I will clean my leaves and flush the soil and what not. I intend to keep doing this for a couple of weeks before the plant goes in.

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

You can root them in a glass of water first if you want. Make sure to change the water on a regular basis until the root appears. Personally I think it's just an added step though. Works just as well with pothos to just stick it in some potting soil and keep it moist. They root really easily.

I agree that you should knock off any old soil from your plant. They often contain time release fertilizers, pesticides, etc. Even if you flush this soil out, you can't be sure what residual chemicals could be in there or for how long they might remain. A bag of organic potting soil costs next to nothing...so shake off the dirt that comes with your plant, rinse the roots, and repot in something you know is safe. Better safe than sorry IMO.

 

[Tokayy]

I do have a greenthumb and have worked with more complex plants in the past but do have a few questions about transfering the soil and what not.

Will this stress out the plant by changing soil? When I use to grow other types of plants I would never remove all soil from the roots and what not out of fear of stressing the plant. Rinsing the roots and removing all soil, will it cause stress? If so, how long will it take for the plant to bounce back? Just a little hesitant in damaging the roots is all. But maybe its all okay because the Pothos is very easy to grow and will bounce back? So maybe I shouldn't have these concerns?

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

Of course it'll cause some stress to the plant. But no more so than any time that you transplant a plant. They'll look droopy for a couple of days and then they'll be fine again. Pothos are extremely hardy and almost impossible to hurt/kill. That's why they're so popular for vivariums. IMO it's better to stress your plant out a little bit than to risk poisoning your geckos.

 

[Hilde]

Pothos doesn't die, you have to chop it into mush and hope it dies
If it gives you an idea of how hardy it is, I trim it several times a year so it doesn't take over the enclosure. A few years ago I threw several 4-5 ft long cuttings in a flowerbed in April, thinking they'll die and end up as fertilizer. They survived spring frosts, grew all summer. By the time a good killing frost finished them in October they'd grown massive around 12-15 ft, leaves over 12 inches long.
It takes a lot to kill them indoors.

 

[Tokayy]

Pothos doesn't die, you have to chop it into mush and hope it dies
If it gives you an idea of how hardy it is, I trim it several times a year so it doesn't take over the enclosure. A few years ago I threw several 4-5 ft long cuttings in a flowerbed in April, thinking they'll die and end up as fertilizer. They survived spring frosts, grew all summer. By the time a good killing frost finished them in October they'd grown massive around 12-15 ft, leaves over 12 inches long.
It takes a lot to kill them indoors.

Oh I know what you are saying. I left for 4 days and my baby pothos grew so much. Didnt even water over the 4 days either as I was away.

When trimming, do you just cut certain leaves off?

A couple more weeks ill be transplanting my pothos to a bigger pot with new soil once she has been flushed to my standards.

 

[Aimless]

this is pretty well loaded with good info, but I would add a few things.

first, sometimes organic potting soil carries fungus gnats. this is not a terribly big deal, but you might have a bloom or two of these little flies before they go away.

also, to keep away whiteflies or whatever other bugs can be carried in houseplants, I will spray the plants with insecticidal soap. it's non-toxic, but I still rinse the hell out of it. if there are any little insects or larvae on the leaves that can't come off just from rinsing this will kill them, but it's not a "pesticide".

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

this is pretty well loaded with good info, but I would add a few things.

first, sometimes organic potting soil carries fungus gnats. this is not a terribly big deal, but you might have a bloom or two of these little flies before they go away.

also, to keep away whiteflies or whatever other bugs can be carried in houseplants, I will spray the plants with insecticidal soap. it's non-toxic, but I still rinse the hell out of it. if there are any little insects or larvae on the leaves that can't come off just from rinsing this will kill them, but it's not a "pesticide".

Just to add yet a couple more things to watch for. Be careful what you buy when you get "organic potting soil". It's sometimes not much more than cow poop which can contain E. coli, etc. I usually use a mix of peat and sand and a little bit of potting soil.

As for insecticidal soaps, I'd be careful to read the ingredients in whatever you decide to use. I'm not so sure that I'd want to spray my vivarium with anything containing pyrethrens despite that fact that they're considered "non-toxic". Non toxic to humans doesn't always equate to non toxic as something as delicate as a gecko. And to be honest, I've found spraying plants with Ivory dish soap mixed with water to be just as effective against spider mites, etc. And you know it's not going to hurt anyone. Not to say that there aren't safe insecticidal soaps, but I would be cautious when choosing one.

 

[Liddle]

Just to add yet a couple more things to watch for. Be careful what you buy when you get "organic potting soil". It's sometimes not much more than cow poop which can contain E. coli, etc. I usually use a mix of peat and sand and a little bit of potting soil.

As for insecticidal soaps, I'd be careful to read the ingredients in whatever you decide to use. I'm not so sure that I'd want to spray my vivarium with anything containing pyrethrens despite that fact that they're considered "non-toxic". Non toxic to humans doesn't always equate to non toxic as something as delicate as a gecko. And to be honest, I've found spraying plants with Ivory dish soap mixed with water to be just as effective against spider mites, etc. And you know it's not going to hurt anyone. Not to say that there aren't safe insecticidal soaps, but I would be cautious when choosing one.

Spider mites suck.