How often to water pothos

The interval

A pothos is watered about every 7 days in the growing season and about every 12 days in winter. The growing season is spring to early autumn wherever you live, so the calendar months differ between the northern and southern hemispheres but the pattern does not. As the days shorten and the room cools, the plant uses less water and the same pot takes longer to dry. Keep to the 7 day rhythm through that stretch and the compost stays damp, which is the commonest way to lose this plant.

Push a finger 4 to 5 cm into the compost and water when that depth is dry. The Royal Horticultural Society advises watering only once the compost is approaching dryness, and checking with a finger first. Weight helps too. Lift the pot after a drink and again before the next one, and a dry pot is clearly lighter. A pot so full of roots that water runs straight through, or dries within a day or two, needs a bigger pot, not a shorter interval.

Too much water turns the lower leaves yellow one at a time, and then the stems go soft and black at the base. The NC State plant toolbox lists root rot and blackened leaf margins as the result of overwatering. Too little shows as a slight droop in the newest leaves, which clears within hours of a drink, so the droop is a signal rather than harm.

Water from the top, slowly over the surface, until it runs from the drainage holes, then empty the saucer. The RHS prefers rainwater or filtered water at room temperature and says to avoid regular tap water, especially in hard water areas. It also says that, unlike many tropical houseplants, a pothos does not need high humidity, so misting it is no substitute for the finger test.

What is particular to this plant is how well it forgives a late drink. If you are unsure whether it is ready, wait a day. The cost of waiting is a droop that clears in hours, while the cost of watering too soon, week after week, is compost that never dries.

Related guides

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The finger, the weight, the leaf and the pot. Four ways to read a plant's thirst, and what overwatering actually is.

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How to tell overwatering from underwatering, how much root damage is recoverable, and the exact rescue steps once compost has stayed wet too long.

Watering through a southern winter

Winter in the southern hemisphere runs June to August, and houseplants drink far less then. How to read the soil, and why overwatering is the bigger risk.