Me No Geek: Pothos or marble queen is a very tough plant

Pothos or Marble Queen

I have been planting Pothos or Marble queen for quite some time and I am amazed by the resilience of the plant. Pothos is a vine type. Like most vines that I have tried before, they need minimal nutrients to survive.

Half a year ago, I took a crippled leaf broken by hand at the node and put it in a small bottle with water up to the petiole. The bottle is only as big as half in length of pinky finger. I just wanted to see how long the leaf will stay fresh in that tiny bottle with neck as big as the petiole itself. I did nothing but let it sit in the bath room. The temperature my bath room is humid and warm. At first I thought it will last a week but to my surprise it didn't wither after a month. That was quite an extraordinary leaf and make me even more curious. Even though it was in a glass bottle, it was not clear what was happening at the base of petiole. So, after a month and a half sitting in the bottle, I took it out.

I have seen and heard many plant leafs growing roots in rich soil conditions but this was my first time seeing a leaf shooting roots down into water with almost no nutrient and oxygen. Unfortunately, the root sprouting out from the base of petiole is so fragile that it broke when I put it back into the bottle. I didn't replant the leaf again which I should have tried. Instead, I took another healthy leaf with larger bottle and replicate the same experiment again with a bit more data. This time I have average humidity recorded as RH 75% and temperature about 27-29'C during day and 26-27'C at night. It was under no direct sun light with moderate brightness that is bright enough to see everything clearly- probably equivalent to 10W twisted energy saving light bulb. I do not have fancy equipments to measure lab accuracy values. So it is safe to assume the RH value variation can be as big as 20% and temperature variation about 2-3'C.

Lone leaf in my bathroom

For the first month I didn't change water at all but subsequent months the water is changed a few times. I didn't have proper record as I was not around after first month. There were no sings of withering nor new roots from the leaf. However, the small amount of the tip of the petiole is darkened due to partial rotting which I scratched off gently with my nail. By this time a normal plant would be rot to the core due to lack of oxygen but Pothos can stand such abuse and survived without suffocation in water. I went overseas for two months and came back on third month of experiment. Similar to previous result, the leaf is strong and healthy with beautiful roots growing happily. It has even started to have a stipule right underneath it leaf.

Break at the node

People has been saying how easy it is to grow and maintain Pothos as indoor plant but not many knew it was this tough. I love this plant and will continue to grow it in door and outdoor. I will keep updating the latest pictures of this single leaf water grown plant. Also, I want to start trying on other plants and continue to study on Pothos as well. Thank you for reading and please give suggestions or comments.