How to Propagate Pothos & Monstera (Step by Step)

Pothos and Monstera are two of the easiest houseplants to propagate — which is a fancy way of saying you can turn one plant into several for free. Here’s the whole process, start to finish, with no special equipment.

Find the node first

Before you cut anything, learn to spot a node. The node is the small bump or joint on the stem where a leaf meets the vine — often you’ll see a little nub or a stubby aerial root poking out right there. That node is where new roots will form.

This is the one thing that actually matters: a cutting has to include at least one node to root. A bare leaf with no node will sit in water and eventually rot instead of growing roots. On Pothos and Monstera the nodes are easy to find once you know to look for them.

Take your cutting

Using clean scissors or shears, cut the vine about a quarter inch below a node. Aim for a cutting with one or two leaves and at least one node — you don’t need a long piece. A short cutting with a healthy node roots just as well as a long one.

If your Monstera cutting already has a stubby aerial root at the node, even better. Leave it on — it’s a head start.

Root it in water

Water propagation is the easiest way to start, mostly because you can watch it happen.

• Drop the cutting in a glass of room-temperature water, making sure the node is submerged and the leaves stay above the waterline.
• Set it somewhere with bright, indirect light — not harsh direct sun.
• Refresh the water every few days so it stays clean and oxygenated.

Within one to a few weeks you’ll see white roots emerging from the node. Wait until they’re a couple of inches long before potting up — longer, more established roots transition into soil much more reliably.

Or root it in sphagnum moss

If you’d rather skip the water stage, you can root cuttings directly in damp sphagnum moss. Nestle the node into moss that’s been soaked and wrung out, keep it consistently moist, and the roots will grow straight into the moss. Some plant parents find moss-rooted cuttings handle the move to soil a little more smoothly, since the roots are already used to growing through a solid medium instead of open water.

Pot it up

Once your cutting has a small cluster of roots a couple inches long, move it into a small pot with well-draining potting mix. Water it in, then keep the soil lightly moist (not soggy) for the first couple of weeks while the roots settle. A little wilting at first is normal — the plant is adjusting from water or moss to soil.

Good drainage matters most right after potting, when tender new roots are most vulnerable to sitting in water. A pot with a drainage hole makes this far easier to get right.

Give it something to climb

Both Pothos and Monstera are natural climbers, and this is where a fresh cutting really takes off. As your new plant fills in, guiding it up a moss pole or trellis encourages stronger, more upright growth — and Monsteras in particular tend to produce larger, more fenestrated leaves when they have something to climb.

You don’t need to add support on day one. But once your propagation has rooted, potted up, and started pushing new growth, giving it something to grip is the natural next step.

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