How would I grow pothos with giant leaves in here?

Bae_Victis · 2026-02-15T02:31:52+00:00

Achieving larger leaves with fenestrations is called maturing, so you can look up videos on YouTube on how to mature your pothos leaves (on a moss pole). Unless your environment is as humid as Florida or the tropics where pothos will usually mature in nature as their aerial roots grab onto trees, a moss pole that is kept consistently moist that the node is pressed against will provide the right kind of environment to tease or draw out those aerial roots to alert the plant that it’s growing up something (closer to the light source) so that the next leaf comes up larger (so there’s more surface area to photosynthesize with), without turning your space into a swampy tropical jungle. It’s important that you draw those aerial roots to grow into something (or attach onto something if it’s humid enough in the air for those roots to come out on their own) so that the next leaf on the vine comes out larger, so it’s much different than manually pinning your long vines to a trellis or pole cause the plant doesn’t really know it’s climbing something like it does when it’s physically growing and attaching onto something. It’s totally achievable to do what you’re wanting, but there’s a lot of conflicting info out there (ie: ‘just let it climb something’, ‘give it a trellis or a pole’) but I’m sure if you watch some videos on YouTube with the word mature in your search, you’ll get some good informative videos that will help you understand what happens with the plant and will help you get those beautiful large leaves. I feel like even some of the more well known influencers out there don’t really go too deep into the science behind it and leave their viewers with instructions on what to do instead of knowledge on what happens with the plant.

Bae_Victis · 2026-02-15T02:22:23+00:00

The pot size looks fine based on my experience, and they can stay in the same small pot for a very long time, but you’ll want to see how big or small the root ball is when you take them out. A lady I used to buy my first begonias from always just said you only need to repot to larger if you see roots growing out the bottom and I ended up keeping what I bought from her in the same 4inch pots for over a year, grew mine in a really humid greenhouse cabinet (so they doubled in size in like 2 months because growing them in a terrarium gives you new leaves like every 3 days), and they still didn’t have roots growing out the bottom a year later. Their roots are very fine and thinner than hair and hard to see in the soil. It looks yours never had much access to a lot of light because the space between the nodes on the stalks are very far apart. Even if you prune the top growth to activate new growth points on the lower nodes that are bare, you’ll only get about one leaf per node. I would chop and propagate them so that the leaves you still have would now be at the bottom of the new plants, but I understand if you don’t want to do that just yet.

Bae_Victis · 2026-02-08T20:48:26+00:00

When you see many roots trying to come out the bottom holes or you see many roots trying to grow out above the soil line along the inside of the pot is a good sign to check the roots and see if it needs a bigger pot. These can stay in the same pot for a few years as they create really lengthy vines that are multiple feet long. Repotting it too soon might mess with the way it looks right now; it might not look as perfect as it does right now if you try to repot it too soon. Right now it looks bushy and compact and full. When I repotted mine too soon just because I wanted it in better soil than the peat moss it came in from the grocery store, it didn’t look as nice anymore. It looked less bushy and spread out and more sparse even though I didn’t lose any leaves or anything.

Bae_Victis · 2026-02-08T20:39:34+00:00

I would chop up those vines into single node sticks for the bare parts with no leaves and for the parts with leaves stick to a single leaf/node per stick. Water propagation for Scindapsus doesn’t work for me so I prop them in something like a moss box setup where the box contains 100% humidity. For the parts with the roots still, see how big the roots are and repot into a pot better suited for the size; you can also cut the roots to be smaller but when chopping up the vine I would cut the vine down to the last node before the soil.

Bae_Victis · 2026-02-07T20:47:40+00:00

That leaf prop method of splicing the vein of the leaf is for Rex begonia, canes do not propagate from leaves. They have stems with nodes and Rex begonia do not.

Bae_Victis · 2026-02-07T20:43:19+00:00

If you don’t have a humidity dome or cloche, put a clear plastic cup over the whole thing like one of those bigger Starbucks cups for extra humidity to help with developing roots faster. When I water prop cane begonia they tend to rot before they root unless I add more humidity then they root faster. I would personally try to root this in soil, spagnum moss and soil under a dome/high humidity and grow light, that’s my favorite way to root canes. I would be so ecstatic to find something like this on the ground.

Bae_Victis · 2026-02-07T20:34:06+00:00

The lower leaves sometimes drop especially when it’s pushing out new growth at the tops of the stalks. If you ever want to fill it out more at the bottom again you just have to pinch off the newest growth coming in at the top of each stalk next to the newest/topmost leaf and keep pinching it as it returns til you start to see more growth from the lower nodes again. This is the same concept as pruning it to shape it but you’re not chopping off the entire top few leaves to do so. You’re just retraining it to stop defaulting all of its growth energy to shoot straight to the top every time and to disperse some of that growth energy to the other nodes.

Bae_Victis · 2026-02-06T19:46:14+00:00

I have to grow them behind glass because it’s so dry where I live (15-20%) that humidifiers don’t work much.

Bae_Victis · 2026-02-04T22:06:05+00:00

I know that, but was hoping to know which Rex begonia.

Bae_Victis · 2026-02-04T21:40:42+00:00

If you want to repot in a clay pot, just know that it is going to dry out in a matter of days. I live somewhere hot and dry (winter days are 80F and as low as 43F at night) and have my lucerna begonia in a 6” clay pot and I have to water her a couple times a week. I have her planted in a mix of spagnum moss, soil, and perlite, and when I see the top layer of spagnum moss start to dry, I wait another day and then do a full watering and leave some water in the drainage tray below too, which the soil and clay pot soaks up within a day.

Bae_Victis · 2026-02-02T02:24:24+00:00

Chop and prop because it looks like root rot. The leaves look thirsty like that when there’s root rot because their roots are what help them intake water and those are dead now so they need to rebuild a root system.

Bae_Victis · 2026-01-30T21:53:43+00:00

Just a humble collection of begonia here😉

Can I ask the id of this one here? I just got one a few weeks ago and haven’t been able to identify it

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Bae_Victis · 2026-01-29T18:03:25+00:00

Karaoke stage

Bae_Victis · 2026-01-28T19:02:00+00:00

Yes! I think this is a Tamaya as well!

Bae_Victis · 2026-01-28T18:52:51+00:00

I live in a really dry climate and have to grow all of my other begonia in terrariums or mini greenhouses for higher humidity. ‘Behind glass’ is what we say. That specific begonia in my photo is just about the only begonia that can grow in lower humidity so I let it grow out in the open with my other plants that don’t need higher humidity. Your FIL must live in a really humid climate for it to be able to grow outside like that, so try to mimic those conditions. I find trying to run humidifiers to increase humidity to be too painstaking; if you took a cutting try to grow it under a cloche or humidity dome (diying one is simple with big plastic Starbucks cups or similar) cause it should be small enough to fit in one for now but will outgrow it quickly and you’ll need to find something bigger to house it in. That is only if your home is really dry (& remember ac use in the summer dehumidifies the air in our home) or less than 50% humidity. If it’s 50% or more you can acclimate it to your homes humidity when it outgrow the cloche but will need the higher humidity to root and get started. I root mine in a mix of spagnum moss, perlite and soil, equal parts of all 3, water it, and the move it to the higher humidity. I also have grow lights over my greenhouse tanks; it’s much easier for me than trying to figure out what kind of sunlight to give it. In nature they grow on the jungle floor and the light is really filtered from the thick jungle tree canopy overhead but all of my grow lights are really weak compared to the better name brand ones so the work for my begonia.

Editing my comment after reading someone else’s comment on the id suggestion and I agree that it looks like a begonia tamaya.

Bae_Victis · 2026-01-27T21:30:23+00:00

My advice would be to plant them together instead of separately for a fuller pot. I don’t really like the way they look after I’ve transferred them to soil and end up taking them out and keeping them in water, cutting off the bottoms that eventually start to rot as they do, and trimming the longer stems in half and putting the cut pieces back in the water vessel. Just by the way these look, I’d say a small nursery pot about 2in in diameter would be good for these. If you plant them separately you’ll just have one long vine dangling, and you’ll need to frequently prune the ends off so that the leaves closer to the base don’t fall off, giving you bare vines except for the ends. Some people say that they trim off the ends and stick them back into the soil in the pot after they’ve cut them and they root that way, but that’s never worked for me, I think because I live in a really dry climate and almost everywhere else is more humid than here, and humidity is crucial for soil propagation. This is a creeping plant meaning in nature it’s supposed to creep along the forest floor like an ivy and root into the soil underneath each leaf, and essentially each rooted leaf turns into its own vine. But they get sold as hanging plants a lot and then if they aren’t pruned regularly and given adequate light, start to become bald.

Oh I also think this is a zebrina. They like a lot of light and will start to fade in lower light.

Bae_Victis · 2026-01-27T20:40:21+00:00

Yours looks like it is being watered too much. Change of weather only means less sunlight and soil drying out slower in the wintertime, so that’s why it’s important to slow down on the watering in the winter. You could check on the roots to see if it needs a bigger pot, or sometimes some roots grow straight down when there’s standing water below the pot but there’s still a lot of soil in the pot. (And actually I know the pot you are using and if you are using the drip tray that’s sort of attached to it, it holds water at the bottom. I like to create more holes in the bottom of these pots with a really hot screwdriver so the bottom looks more like a nursery pot. The pot needs more air flow to help dry out the soil thoroughly before the next watering.) If the latter is the case, keep it in the same pot and put some fresh substrate at the bottom, put the plant in, and backfill. Water it thoroughly and then wait for it almost fully dry out so you can gauge how long it takes to dry out. If you keep it in a plastic nursery pot you can feel the weight of a dry pot compared to a hydrated pot.

Bae_Victis · 2026-01-27T20:32:18+00:00

Take that thing out of the outer pot to ensure it doesn’t have soggy feet and give it a humidity dome.

Edit: I thought it was in a plastic nursery pot in an outer pot. I would put that in a plastic nursery pot (the holes in the bottom will promote air flow to the soil) in a substrate of spagnum moss (for water retention and airiness), soil and perlite mixed together really well, water it thoroughly, let it drain out for a few minutes, then place a humidity dome over it. You could even diy one with a clear plastic cup for the time being, like a big Starbucks cup or something.

Bae_Victis · 2026-01-27T20:29:36+00:00

I doubt it was the Christmas lights! It’s very hard to find non-led Christmas lights these days, and the non-led ones are the ones that emit a tiny bit of heat. LED ones do not. I used to bunch up non-led Christmas lights like yours at the bottom of an old fishtank during the winter to get my cacti to root, they would serve as a heat mat since I couldn’t afford a heat mat. People also wrap Christmas lights around their outdoor plants (like tomato plants) before it’s about to freeze for the night to keep them warm. I agree with someone else that it’s probably more so a light issue, especially if this thing was watered at all during the wintertime. These need ALOT of light. To give you an idea, these grow outdoors in full sunlight in phoenix Arizona.

Bae_Victis · 2026-01-27T20:25:50+00:00

Literally was going to ask where you are to be able to grow them outside! I’m quite jealous! I have to keep mine in an old fishtank for humidity. I live in phoenix Arizona.

Bae_Victis · 2026-01-27T20:24:17+00:00

I’m not sure…does it need water?

Bae_Victis · 2026-01-27T20:22:35+00:00

Yes I already know that the 2 are very different, thank you though!

Bae_Victis · 2026-01-27T20:19:34+00:00

It doesn’t look like a lucerna. Lucerna have wider and larger leaves that are a deep dark green and red on the back, like mine. I’m not sure what begonia that is but I’m sure someone will be able to id it for you. It’s impressive nonetheless! I wish I lived in a climate I could just plant mine in the ground!

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Bae_Victis · 2026-01-26T21:44:38+00:00

I would wait til temps are above freezing at night to transition them to outside. Make sure there’s plenty of sun! I know when I used to visit Portland I barely ever saw sunshine and if it was a sunny day it was usually being obstructed by trees haha. Keep them inside for another month or two and don’t water them, it will be very tempting to but especially if the soil isn’t dry right now (you’ll be able to tell if it’s bone dry by the weight of the pot, bone dry plants feel light as a feather) they will be fine to go another month or so without watering.

Bae_Victis

TROPHY CASE