How to Root Pothos Cuttings in a Wall Mounted Glass Tube?

To root pothos cuttings in water inside a wall tube, cut 3 to 6 in (7.5 to 15 cm) of stem carrying at least 2 nodes, strip the lowest leaf, and stand it so 1 node sits under the waterline with every leaf above it. First roots show in about 2 weeks on a bright wall, Iowa State's general figure for houseplant stem cuttings is 3 to 6 weeks, and the water needs changing once or twice a week so the stem feeds roots instead of bacteria.

The tube I'm describing is the removable borosilicate glass one on the Houseland textured LED stem vase: 6 in (15 cm) long, lifted out of its walnut-tone bracket to refill at the tap, on a panel only 1.6 in (4 cm) deep. Its product page names cuttings as one of the most common uses, and the same steps work for any slim wall vase with a glass insert. Below: the cutting, the water level, the change schedule, the light a hallway actually delivers, and the day you pot up.

What do you need to root pothos cuttings in water on a wall?

A healthy pothos vine, clean scissors, room-temperature tap water, the glass tube, and a wall that sees 4 to 6 hours of bright indirect light a day: nothing else, and no rooting hormone. Iowa State Extension's stem tip cutting guide puts the light figure at 4 to 6 hours and lists rooting hormone as optional; pothos is on its list of the easiest houseplants to propagate, and its low-maintenance houseplant page says plants root quickly from stem cuttings.

• A parent plant with no pests, no mottled leaves and vigorous growth. ISU says never to propagate from a diseased or weak plant, because the cutting carries the problem with it.
• Scissors or a knife wiped with rubbing alcohol. A crushed cut invites rot; a clean cut heals.
• Tap water that has stood for an hour so it reaches room temperature. ISU's ideal air band for rooting is 65 to 75°F (18 to 24°C).
• The tube itself. On the Houseland vase it lifts out of the bracket, so filling and rinsing happen at the sink, not on the wall.
• A wall with light. This is the item people skip, and it is covered with numbers further down.

Water the parent plant the day before you cut. ISU's first rule for cuttings is to start fully hydrated, because a stem with no roots has almost no way to take water up until the new ones form.

How do you take the cutting so it roots instead of rotting?

Cut immediately below a node, keep 3 to 6 in (7.5 to 15 cm) of stem with at least 2 nodes on it, and remove any leaf that would end up under water. The node is the whole game: pothos makes its roots there, not along the bare stem between nodes. NC State's plant toolbox entry describes the brown aerial roots the vine climbs with, and ISU notes that white aerial roots form at the leaf nodes. A cutting with no node never roots, however long you wait.

1. Choose a stem with 3 or 4 leaves and find the nodes: the slightly swollen joints where a leaf stalk meets the stem, often with a brown nub of aerial root already showing.
2. Cut straight across just below a node. Wikipedia's plant cutting entry gives the tolerance as immediately below the node or up to 0.5 in (13 mm) below it; further down leaves a dead stub that rots in the water.
3. Count the nodes. ISU's instruction is at least 2 per cutting, 3 to 6 in (7.5 to 15 cm) long. One node goes under water, one stays above as the growing point.
4. Snip off the lowest leaf so the bottom node is bare. A leaf under the waterline turns to slime within days and fouls the water.
5. Keep the cutting the right way up. ISU is blunt that stem segments will not root upside down; cut the bottom end at an angle so you can tell which end is which.

What goes wrong: people take an internode piece with a single leaf and no joint, or take a 10 in (25 cm) length with 6 leaves that the rootless stem cannot support. The check that it worked is visual: a bare node at the bottom, 1 or 2 leaves at the top, and the cut end pale green rather than brown.

How do you set the cutting in the glass tube?

Fill the tube about two-thirds full, stand the cutting so the bare node sits 1 to 2 in (2.5 to 5 cm) under the surface, and slot the tube back into its holder with the leaves clear of the rim. The Houseland tube is 6 in (15 cm) long, so a 4 in (10 cm) cutting stands with its lower node submerged and its leaves above the glass, and a 6 in (15 cm) cutting leans on the rim. That is the proportion the tube is made for: a single stem, not a bunch.

1. Lift the tube out of the bracket and rinse it. Borosilicate glass withstands temperature differences of about 330°F (166°C) without fracturing, per Wikipedia's borosilicate entry, so a hot rinse will not crack it; fill it with cool water afterwards for the plant's sake.
2. Fill to roughly two-thirds. Full to the brim slops when you slide the tube back and wets the panel, and the textured panel is meant to stay dry.
3. Lower the cutting in. Adjust until the bottom node is under water and no leaf touches the surface.
4. Seat the tube in the holder and step back. If the cutting leans hard against one side, turn the tube a quarter turn so the leaves face into the room.
5. Limit yourself to 2 cuttings per tube. Three stems in a slim tube shade each other and share one small volume of water that goes stale faster.

What goes wrong: the water level drops. A slim tube holds little water and evaporation plus the plant's own uptake can lower it 0.5 in (13 mm) in a warm week. ISU's rule is never to let the level fall and expose developing roots to air, because a root tip that dries stops growing. The check: 3 days after filling, the waterline is still above the node.

From the shop

Wall Mounted Vase with LED Backlight, Textured Capsule Panel and Shelf

Removable borosilicate glass tube 6 in (15 cm) long that lifts out of the walnut-tone bracket to refill; textured panel 23.6 x 9.4 in (60 x 24 cm) on Design A or 22 x 9.8 in (56 x 25 cm) on B and C, 1.6 in (4 cm) deep, keyhole hanger, LED halo dimmed by remote, battery or plug-in.

View the capsule wall vase panel — plug-in or battery options & current price

How often do you change the water in a wall tube?

Once or twice a week, which is every 4 to 7 days, plus a top-up whenever the level nears the node. That is ISU's schedule for rooting in water, and the reason is in Wikipedia's cutting entry: the water has to be replaced often to prevent bacteria buildup and root rot, and it needs enough oxygen for the same reason. Still water in a small tube loses oxygen fast and gains bacteria faster, and a stem sitting in that turns brown from the cut end up.

• Lift the tube out, tip the old water away, rinse, refill with room-temperature water, drop the cutting back in. On a wall vase this takes under 2 minutes because the tube leaves the wall and the panel does not.
• Rinse any slime off the stem under the tap with your fingers. Roots are tougher than they look; a brown mushy patch is not, and it should be cut off above the damage.
• A green film on the glass is algae feeding on light and the little nutrient the stem leaks. It does no direct harm but it competes for oxygen; wipe the tube with a bottle brush at each change.
• A cloudy tube or a sour smell means the change came too late. Cut the stem back to clean tissue just below a node, wash the tube, and start again.

Skip the temptation to add fertiliser to the tube. ISU says to begin regular feeding only once the new plant is established, and nutrient-rich water in a clear tube is an algae farm. Wikipedia's Epipremnum aureum entry lists Pythium root rot among the diseases a cutting can carry; it thrives in exactly the stale, warm water a forgotten tube becomes.

Does a hallway wall give pothos cuttings enough light?

Usually not. A windowless hallway lit to the building-code minimum sits at about 107 lux, while bright indirect light near a window runs into the thousands, and cuttings want 4 to 6 hours of the latter. ISU's houseplant care page defines bright indirect light as light strong enough to cast a distinct shadow with no sun on the leaves, and warns that areas more than a few feet from even a bright window are too dark for most houseplants, as are spots just to the side of a window. Too little light, ISU says, slows root formation until the cutting rots or dries out first.

The figures come from Wikipedia's lux table and from IBC section 1204.3 as published on UpCodes. Read the gap: a code-minimum hallway gives roughly a tenth of an overcast window and a hundredth of a bright one. Pothos tolerates low light as a grown plant, and NC State says it survives long periods of it, but a rootless cutting is living off stored sugar and needs light to make more.

• The LED halo does not close that gap. The product page calls it an accent glow rather than a room light, so treat it as decoration and give the cutting daylight elsewhere.
• Use the removable tube. Root the cutting in the tube on a windowsill within 36 in (91 cm) of the glass, then carry the tube back to its bracket once roots reach 1 in (2.5 cm). A rooted vine tolerates the dim wall far better than a cutting does.
• Measure before you argue with yourself. ISU points to phone light-meter apps; 1 footcandle equals 10.764 lux by its supplemental light page. Under 500 lux at the tube for most of the day, root at the window.
• Avoid direct sun on the glass. Wikipedia's pothos entry says long periods of direct sunlight burn the leaves, and a slim tube of water in a sunny patch warms past the 75°F (24°C) above which Wikipedia's cutting entry says pathogens multiply.

If the wall you want is a genuinely dark corner, our note on lighting a dark corner without wiring deals with the room; the cutting still roots at the window first.

When do you pot up, and what goes wrong at that step?

Pot up when the longest roots are about 1 in (2.5 cm), which ISU gives as the transplant point for water-rooted cuttings, or leave the vine in the tube permanently and keep changing the water. The trap is the roots themselves. ISU explains that roots formed in water are coarser and not well adapted to potting soil, so a freshly potted cutting may wilt, drop leaves or brown at the tips before it recovers. Moving it early, at 1 in (2.5 cm) rather than 4 in (10 cm), shortens that sulk because the plant grows soil roots sooner.

1. Fill a 3 to 4 in (7.5 to 10 cm) pot with a drainage hole using ordinary potting mix, moistened first.
2. Make a hole with a pencil, lower the roots in without bending them upward, and firm the mix so the stem stands on its own.
3. Water until it runs from the hole, then keep the mix evenly moist, not wet, for the first 2 to 3 weeks. ISU says the plant should be well established within a few weeks in bright indirect light.
4. Start feeding only after new leaves appear.

Or don't pot at all. Wikipedia's pothos entry notes the plant grows rapidly in hydroponic culture and is even kept with its roots in aquarium water, so a vine can live in the wall tube for months with weekly changes; leaves stay small and the stem eventually wants a pot, and that is your cue. A rooted vine in a dim entryway is a good use of the panel: what to hang above a narrow console table covers the height, and if you are hanging the panel on adhesive rather than the keyhole screw, read whether a wall vase can hang on adhesive strips first. The rest of the wall art collection is where the other holder styles live.

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