Why is My Pothos Not Growing? 12 Common Causes and How to Fix Them

People always say that these plants are easy to grow and that you can’t fail at making them do well. So it can feel like you have the blackest of thumbs if your pothos is sad and stunted.

Pothos are living things, and like all living things, they can sometimes struggle to thrive. Anyone who has lived off of fast food during a very busy time in their life can appreciate this.

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The trick, obviously, is figuring out what the problem is and addressing it as quickly as you can. The good news is that pothos are quick to turn around once you determine what the issue is.

For your plants’ sake, this guide will show you what can cause them to grow slowly and have small leaves. We’ll discuss the following:

7 Reasons for Stunted Pothos Growth

You need to know how a plant has changed over time and what it needs to stay alive in order to keep it happy.

A plant called pothos grows in the understory of forests in Hawaii, Fiji, Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam. It stays green all year.

These plants don’t need much light. Moderate to bright indirect light is plenty to keep your pothos looking good indoors. They like it when the soil is damp but not wet, but they can handle dry spots or too much water sometimes.

Feeding is another area where they don’t ask for much. Some people, including myself, choose not to feed their plants at all, and their plants are fine. Some gardeners might call it laziness, I call it economizing my time and resources.

Not joking, but if you change the soil every two years, your pothos will get all the nutrients it needs.

You can read more about growing healthy pothos plants in our guide.

Having said that, there are a few things you should think about if your plant’s growth isn’t great.

This is kind of a blessing in disguise because many of these problems can happen with most types of houseplants. Once you know how to spot and stop them, you’ve ahead of the game.

Without further delay, let’s get your pothos growing again.

Some like it hot, including pothos plants. Part of the reason they make such great houseplants is that they do best when the temperature is about right for people.

Temperatures in the 50s are fine for these plants, but if they stay between 50°F and 65°F, they won’t do well. That devil’s ivy will be unhappy if you have it in a vestibule or a room that isn’t heated when it’s cold outside.

Make sure to keep your plant in a spot that is nice and toasty. If you need slippers and a sweater, it’s too cold. Err on the side of too warm over not warm enough. Temperatures up to the mid-90s won’t bother your pothos.

A lot of people think the signs of disease will be obvious, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes the symptoms might be as subtle as stunted growth.

Root rot is the most common culprit. Oomycetes in the genus Phytophthora can cause root rot, or the roots can just get too much water.

With root rot, on top of stunted growth, you might see soft brown spots on the leaves. And if you dig up the plant, the roots might look smooshy and soft.

Try to save your plant by taking it out of its pot and shaking off as much soil as you can. Then rinse away the rest of the soil, leaving just the roots behind. Trim away all of the dead or diseased roots. They’re the ones that look black and mushy.

Clean the container with a 10 percent mixture of one part bleach and nine parts water. Then use fresh soil to replant.

Next, it’s time to treat with copper fungicide. Look for a ready-to-spray option such as Bonide’s Liquid Copper Fungicide.

Arbico Organics carries this product in 32-ounce containers, which is enough to last you through treating several plants.

Spray the leaves and soil all over, making sure to get the undersides. Take the plant outside (or just to the garage if it’s close to freezing outside). Then, bring it back inside.

You’ll need to do this once every few weeks for at least two months. You might think you’ve gotten rid of the problem since your symptoms won’t get worse, but keep treating them for at least eight weeks.

Don’t ever use that particular plant to make cuttings. There is no way to know for sure that the pathogen is gone, and you could end up making a lot of sick pothos babies.

It may take a little time, but the new growth that emerges should look happy and robust.

Houseplant pests suck… literally. By that, I mean many of them feed by sucking the sap out of them like teeny-tiny vampires. And bugs like scale, aphids, and spider mites drain the life out of their victims in the same way that Dracula does.

This is one of the easiest problems to spot: if you notice slow growth, all you have to do is carefully look over your plant for signs of pests. You might see the little insects themselves, or you may notice other signs that they are there.

Aphids are small insects in the superfamily Aphidoidea. They can be green, yellow, tan, pink, or orange, and they can have wings or not.

Red spider mites, or Tetranychus urticae, are tiny red dots that move around on plant leaves and stems. You might actually notice the fine webbing that they leave behind first, rather than the pests.

People often mistake mealybugs (family Pseudococcidae) for signs of a fungal disease because they are usually whitish gray and have a waxy covering. Typically, you can get rid of them by wiping them with a cotton swab dipped in isopropyl alcohol.

Scale bugs, which are in the superfamily Coccoidea, come in many shapes and sizes. On the stems and leaves, look for small brown, gray, black, or tan bumps. You might also think these are signs of a disease at first, but if you look really closely, you can see they’re just bugs.

All of the above can be eliminated using regular applications of insecticidal soap or neem oil.

Not Enough Light

If your plant doesn’t get enough light, it will show more subtle signs. Too much light can make your plant look like a bun on a grill. Pothos are tolerant of low light, so you might not realize at first that your plants are unhappy.

But if they don’t get the light they need for a long time, their growth will be slowed down. They may also not have as much color as they should, and if you have a variegated cultivar, it may not show as much variation.

As with water, too little sun now and then won’t cause stunted growth. This problem is caused by a chronic situation. If your pothos plant is always in a dark basement corner and its growth is slow, it probably needs more sunlight.

Fix it by – you guessed it – providing more light. Don’t just toss the plant into a sunny west-facing window, however. After a week, move it slowly to a place that gets bright, indirect light for six hours a day.

In a few months, if the plant doesn’t show signs of new, strong growth, you should probably look into other issues.

When there isn’t enough food, your plant goes hungry, and new growth is the first thing that dies. While pothos plants certainly aren’t demanding when it comes to nutrition, they still need food now and then.

Most of the time, you can just let the soil feed the plant, especially if you change the medium every few years or so.

If so, you might want to send a small sample of the soil you’re using to your local extension office or do a quick test at home to see if something is missing.

When adding fertilizer when it’s not needed, you should really avoid doing so because too much sodium can hurt the plant. And surprise, surprise – this can also cause stunted growth.

Home test kits are quick, but they aren’t as accurate as tests done by a professional or by an agricultural extension office.

Arbico Organics has tests from Luster Leaf Rapidtest available that will tell you how your N-P-K (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) levels are looking.

Before you go tossing in some fertilizer, do a test. Then, act on the information you’ve received. If you’ve fertilized too much, you’ll need to remove some soil and add fresh stuff.

If you’ve under-fertilized, you can add what is missing to put things back on track.

When a plant is rootbound, this means it has exhausted the available space in its container. There is no longer enough soil and room available to the roots.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if a plant’s roots are suffocating it, so if its growth is stopping, you might need to take it out of its pot and look.

Roots that are packed together and wrapping around the outside of the pot or even growing out of the holes for drainage will show that it is rootbound. If that’s the case, the solution is simple. Give the poor thing more room.

Choose a pot that is at least one size bigger than the one it was in, or cut the plant in half and put one half back in the old pot and the other half in a new one.

For tips on dividing, head to our guide on propagating pothos.

Water is incredibly important to plants (and all life, for that matter). More than any other thing, water also has the ability to mess up the growth of your pothos.

If your pothos isn’t growing as tall as it should, it’s probably because it’s not getting enough water. Overwatering can lead to rot, yellowing leaves, and other problems.

If a plant doesn’t get enough water, it can’t move nutrients around in its body. This means it can’t get as big and strong as it would otherwise. Think of this as a similar situation for any living thing that doesn’t receive the nourishment it needs.

Brown leaf tips and wilting that looks like salad left out in the sun and then wakes back up when you add water are other signs that the plant is not getting enough water.

Your pothos won’t die if you don’t water them enough every once in a while, so don’t worry that if you go on vacation, you’ll never have a lush jungle of plants. But chronically underwatering will absolutely cause poor leaf growth.

If your plant isn’t growing like it should, it’s time to re-examine your watering schedule. Pothos plants need water, but not too much. It means that the plant is getting too much water if the top inch of soil doesn’t dry out between waterings.

Conversely, if the top two inches (and then some) are drying out, you’ve let things go too far. Don’t worry, we’ve all done it.

According to their labels, pothos are easy to take care of indoor plants. This means that all we have to do to make our homes look better is put them somewhere and water them every once in a while. But every plant has its preferences based on the environment in which it evolved. Pothos need consistent moisture.

So how do you know when to add water?

If you don’t like sticking your finger deep into the ground to try to guess how wet it is, I understand. I hate cleaning dirt out from under my fingernails. So instead of the old finger-in-the-soil method, consider making a very small investment in a soil moisture meter.

I’m telling you, these things changed my life. Before I gave up and bought one for a few bucks, I killed way too many plants. Some meters are made to be inserted into the soil and give you a reading right away. This is great if you have a lot of houseplants.

The Active Air Soil Moisture Meter works great for this job, if it sounds like it would work for you. This not only tells you about the level of moisture, but also about the pH and light levels.

Arbico Organics carries this houseplant essential if you’re interested in picking one up.

You can also read about other recommended models here.

You could also buy a set of sensors that you can leave in the ground permanently. When your plant needs water, the sensors will change color to let you know.

For plants that need a little more care—not usually pothos, but for sure fiddle-leaf figs—or ones that are having trouble and I don’t know why, I love these.

IPPINKA Sustee’s Aquameters, which are available at Amazon in medium-sized packs of four, are ideal for this situation.

They don’t measure pH or light, and it’s not easy to move them from plant to plant. But they’re great for reminding you to water certain plants every so often.

Why Your Pothos Plant Isn’t Growing!