If you have a pothos plant at home, you must have witnessed its leaves drooping after some time despite the ethical care you gave at your end.
While drooping leaves isn’t a big issue as you can quickly reverse it, it’s worth taking into account.
Once drooped, the plant can die if not revived immediately through the counter steps as per experts’ recommendations. But before going through the revival steps, let’s first understand why the pothos plant droops.
Reasons why your pothos is drooping
The following are some significant reasons why your pothos plant is drooping.
1. Dry soil
If you have planted the pothos plant in dry soil, you’ve committed a grave sin. It is because dry soil devoids the plant and its leaves from the required moisture, making them turn brown or droop.
Plants like pothos thrive in moist soil that can bounce back when touched. However, it would help if you understood the difference between underwatering and overwatering. Either of these can negatively affect the plant.
2. You are underwatering/overwatering the plant
As said above, if you’re underwatering/overwatering your plant, the roots will either start to rot due to sitting in excess water for a long time or die out due to lack of moisture.
In either case, the leaves will droop. To know what’s the case with your pothos out of the above two, give a small press into the soil.
If you can do so, this indicates the soil is damp, and if not, the soil is too dry. As a thumb rule, your fingers should go into the soil at a standard rate to ensure it has just the right moisture content in it.
Besides water, you also need to take care of the soil you’re using. For pothos, you should use slightly acidic soil having a pH of at least 6.1-6.5.
Such soil has a decent draining capacity and can store only a certain amount of water it requires and passes the excess water to the saucer underneath.
3. Roots are rotting
When the roots sit in water for long periods, a sort of fungal infection called root rot starts to build up.
If not treated on time, the roots can start decaying and ultimately die. Common symptoms of a plant suffering from root rot are:
When caught early, it’s easy to curb off this disease by simply eliminating the affected portion with the help of garden shears or scissors and replanting the remaining plant in new soil.
4. Low humidity
If along with droopy leaves, the leaves are crispy too, it indicates low humidity in the air around the pothos plant. To avoid this, you need to ensure proper humidity around the plant using the following measures.
- Mist the plant with water,
- Place a humidifier nearby the plant, or
- Place some pebbles in a tray filled with water, set this tray next to the plant, etc.
Additionally, it would help if you refrained from potting the plant near heaters or air conditioners as the air around these two pieces of equipment is dry.
5. Is the weather outside cold?
Since pothos plants can thrive both inside and outside, you need to be extra careful while placing the pot outside, especially if the weather outside is too cold.
It is because low temperatures can damage the plant tissues making the leaves appear brown or black.
If kept for too long in the cold weather, it’ll become next to impossible to revive the plant. Hence, as soon as the outside temperature falls, bring the plant inside.
6. Light issues
Pothos plants love indirect sunlight to thrive. Now, when kept under direct sunlight for too long, the plant’s leaves will start yellowing, curling, and drooping.
Hence, never keep the plant under direct sunlight and even if you do, cover the plant with any thin material like cloth. Or interestingly, even your regular fluorescent light is enough for the pothos plant.
These are some of the common reasons behind your pothos plant drooping.
How do you revive a pothos droopy?
If your pothos plant is drooping, here’s what you can do to revive it.
- Pothos doesn’t need dry soil or soil that’s too damp. You should water the plant as soon as the top 2-3″ of the soil seems dry to you.
- Make sure the soil has a pH of 6.1-6.5 as it’s better draining capacity. Alkaline soil isn’t a good option for such house plants.
- If you can see the plant suffering from root rotting, immediately cut off the affected part with scissors and replant the plant in another soil.
- Take cognizance of the humidity around the pothos. If the humidity level is too low, the plant will droop briskly, and leaves will become crispy. You can enhance the humidity through a humidifier or by constantly misting the leaves.
- If the temperature outside is low than what is ideal for pothos, you should immediately bring the plant home. Following this, please wait for the plant to reach its normal temperature.
- Another thing you need to take care of is the lighting. Pothos can thrive in all types of lighting except direct sunlight. That’s the reason you’d not pot pothos outside.
So, these are the simple remedies to revive a drooping pothos plant.
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Conclusion
It’s common for the plants to droop over time, especially the house plants. It is because house plants have a different mechanism, and their requirements are likewise unique to the other plants.
And pothos is one among them. Due to various reasons described above, your pothos can start drooping, and if not taken into account early, you may not get the luxury of reviving it.
Hence, notice the various symptoms of drooping in your plants like wilting stems, slimy roots, root rotting, etc., and quickly take the counter- measures.