Trying to figure out why my pothos didn't thrive

[jcarlsen]

Hey all,

Having cleaned out Jasper's cage, one of the things that really stuck out to me was the state of the pothos I had in there vs when I first got it. I placed in the back left corner of our cage with a mistking rain loop above the cage to water it directly whenever it misted, plus a second misting nozzle inside the enclosure. I'm wondering why the pothos started growing out long strands with big gaps between the leaves and the larger leaves around the main pot seem to have died? Could it be I over watered it (last I had it set the mister went off for about 7mins in the morning and 7mins before lights out)? I'm also wondering if it was the lighting, since I had that rain dome over it and the light was a bit more forward on the top of the cage, perhaps it wasn't receiving enough right on top of it?

For the light I'm using a dual T5 hood with the 6% arcadia and the 6500K bulb. I had read that perhaps a quad structure would be better for live plants? Any thoughts?

I'm also open to overall enclosure critiques, since I'll be starting from the base cage. I still have the pothos and a few of the artificial vines which need cleaning and disinfecting.

 

[Syreptyon]

Typically the stretching behavior (long distance between leaves) in plants is related to lack of lighting, so that would be my best guess. Pothos are kind of weird, though IME. Usually described as a low light and easy to care for plant, but sometimes they just don't do well

 

[jcarlsen]

Typically the stretching behavior (long distance between leaves) in plants is related to lack of lighting, so that would be my best guess. Pothos are kind of weird, though IME. Usually described as a low light and easy to care for plant, but sometimes they just don't do well

Yeah, I defintiely get that impression. There's a pothos sitting on a table under pretty low light here at work and it seems nice and bushy. I guess I could try putting it back in the cage with the light right over it to see how it does... Although I've moved it to my window sill which gets natural light, so maybe that'll improve it for now.

 

[Syreptyon]

Yeah, I defintiely get that impression. There's a pothos sitting on a table under pretty low light here at work and it seems nice and bushy. I guess I could try putting it back in the cage with the light right over it to see how it does... Although I've moved it to my window sill which gets natural light, so maybe that'll improve it for now.

That's probably what I would try, too. I even have pothos cuttings from the same plant in two different enclosures which sit right next to each other. Same lighting, everything. And weirdly, the cuttings in one of the vivaria are growing out of control, while the other is barely hanging on. Plants are weird!

 

[Tony_S]

I noticed my pothos wasn't doing that well when I first made my enclosure. I started giving it extra water twice a week above what it was getting from the misting, and it has come back to life and taken off in the enclosure.

 

[jcarlsen]

Well definitely seems I was overwatering it since I haven’t in over a week and the soil is still damp lmao

 

[nightanole]

I just throw cuttings into my catch basin. They love it. And if a certain cham falls into the water basin, well now they have something they can use to climb out of it

 

[absolutbill]

With the pothos I've found they like lower light. So, I'll place them "under" the larger leaves of a different plant in my cage and they do well. Also, to help them bush out you can trim back those leggy strands and they should sprout out thicker. You can also trim them and place those trimmings in a mason jar to sprout roots for new plants (saving a TON at the nursery!) I do realize I have the benefit of the South Florida temperatures so I can be propagating these all year long on my lanai, but these tricks have worked well for me.