Pothos Pole Project Progress
Mar. 18th, 2026 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickIn the pothos project, where I discovered that the houseplant pothos can get a lot bigger than it normally is if you give it something to climb, I selected a (free) pothos a tenant had left behind, built it a moss pole, and pinned it to the moss pole to see if I could get it to climb that moss pole.
By mid-January, the pothos was climbing the moss pole well enough that I severed its connection from the potted-in-substrate-like-a-normal-plant pothos and moved it to a different location with its own grow light. It also gets regular servings of SuperThrive plant food.
I noted in mid-January that the pothos appeared to be "responding" to the moss pole project by making bigger leaves. I posted a picture of the whole thing on January 16 or so which I am posting again so that you have it for comparison purposes:
It's been a while, so how is all that going?
I attached the next section of moss pole to the first section of moss pole for my pothos setup. This is because the pothos needs to be provided with the illusion of endless climbing while at the same time living its whole life trapped in a room with an 8' ceiling.
In order to deceive the pothos into thinking that it is continually approaching the sun through rainforest canopy in the tropics instead of growing towards a lightbulb in my plant room in Pennsylvania, I am deploying a one-potato, two-potato, three-potato, four approach to the moss poles. (I did not invent this strategy, I stole it from plant youtuber Sydney Plant Guy.) Shortly before the pothos arrives at the top of the moss pole, I put a new moss pole on top of the existing setup. I wait for plant to grow onto new moss pole and establish roots... remove lower moss pole and attached pothos, refresh moss pole, and put the refreshed moss pole on top of old 'upper' moss pole, so that former upper moss pole becomes new lower moss pole and the pothos has more room to grow upward. The chopped off pothos could be retained but I don't need another one so it becomes compost.
Right now the pothos isn't even off the very first moss pole but apparently it is very bad to let the pothos run out of moss pole at any time in this process because then it knows that there is no rainforest canopy or whatever and gives up on making bigger leaves. (I am somewhat anthropomorphizing the pothos. The plant's upsizing of leaves is caused by hormones created by climbing or some shit, not a pothos scientist over here. And I can hear the whining: It's not really INTENT, it's just chemicals!, but as a postmenopausal woman... chemicals or the lack thereof can 100% influence behavior in a way that looks a lot like intent in crappy lighting. Do not diss the impact of chemicals.) Anyway, I was bored and I wanted to be ready so I attached the next section of moss pole somewhat ahead of need. It's ziptied on to the top of the lower section of moss pole and reinforced (for stability) with a plastic sail batten for a Laser one design sailboat. That's what I had on hand, do not judge me. It's waterproof and rigid and the right size and so I used it.
Here's an overall picture of our story so far:
The upper moss pole is made of the same moss as the lower pole only it's being rehydrated and is brown rather than deep green. I am not sure that if the lower section of moss pole is green because of sphagnum moss that isn't dead or if it's green because of algae.
The moss pole arrangement is sitting in a bowl because the moss pole is watered by a soda bottle (with holes punched in the screw top lid) that dribbles water and fertilizer slowly down the moss pole and keeps it moist. Sphagnum moss can hold a ton of water and only drips when it can't ooze the water into other sphagnum (like at the bottom of the moss pole.) The bowl is to catch the drips at the bottom. The moss pole overall does not drip anywhere else but at the bottom even though it tilts back against the wall and is not perfectly vertical. I also have it tethered to the wall to keep it from falling over because it's like five feet tall and narrow based, which makes it a bit tippy.
Are the leaves getting any bigger?
I think so. I do not have especially small hands and this is a pretty impresssively-sized leaf.
It's a decent amount bigger than the previous leaf I took pictures of because it was "big"...
By mid-January, the pothos was climbing the moss pole well enough that I severed its connection from the potted-in-substrate-like-a-normal-plant pothos and moved it to a different location with its own grow light. It also gets regular servings of SuperThrive plant food.
I noted in mid-January that the pothos appeared to be "responding" to the moss pole project by making bigger leaves. I posted a picture of the whole thing on January 16 or so which I am posting again so that you have it for comparison purposes:
It's been a while, so how is all that going?
I attached the next section of moss pole to the first section of moss pole for my pothos setup. This is because the pothos needs to be provided with the illusion of endless climbing while at the same time living its whole life trapped in a room with an 8' ceiling.
In order to deceive the pothos into thinking that it is continually approaching the sun through rainforest canopy in the tropics instead of growing towards a lightbulb in my plant room in Pennsylvania, I am deploying a one-potato, two-potato, three-potato, four approach to the moss poles. (I did not invent this strategy, I stole it from plant youtuber Sydney Plant Guy.) Shortly before the pothos arrives at the top of the moss pole, I put a new moss pole on top of the existing setup. I wait for plant to grow onto new moss pole and establish roots... remove lower moss pole and attached pothos, refresh moss pole, and put the refreshed moss pole on top of old 'upper' moss pole, so that former upper moss pole becomes new lower moss pole and the pothos has more room to grow upward. The chopped off pothos could be retained but I don't need another one so it becomes compost.
Right now the pothos isn't even off the very first moss pole but apparently it is very bad to let the pothos run out of moss pole at any time in this process because then it knows that there is no rainforest canopy or whatever and gives up on making bigger leaves. (I am somewhat anthropomorphizing the pothos. The plant's upsizing of leaves is caused by hormones created by climbing or some shit, not a pothos scientist over here. And I can hear the whining: It's not really INTENT, it's just chemicals!, but as a postmenopausal woman... chemicals or the lack thereof can 100% influence behavior in a way that looks a lot like intent in crappy lighting. Do not diss the impact of chemicals.) Anyway, I was bored and I wanted to be ready so I attached the next section of moss pole somewhat ahead of need. It's ziptied on to the top of the lower section of moss pole and reinforced (for stability) with a plastic sail batten for a Laser one design sailboat. That's what I had on hand, do not judge me. It's waterproof and rigid and the right size and so I used it.
Here's an overall picture of our story so far:
The upper moss pole is made of the same moss as the lower pole only it's being rehydrated and is brown rather than deep green. I am not sure that if the lower section of moss pole is green because of sphagnum moss that isn't dead or if it's green because of algae.
The moss pole arrangement is sitting in a bowl because the moss pole is watered by a soda bottle (with holes punched in the screw top lid) that dribbles water and fertilizer slowly down the moss pole and keeps it moist. Sphagnum moss can hold a ton of water and only drips when it can't ooze the water into other sphagnum (like at the bottom of the moss pole.) The bowl is to catch the drips at the bottom. The moss pole overall does not drip anywhere else but at the bottom even though it tilts back against the wall and is not perfectly vertical. I also have it tethered to the wall to keep it from falling over because it's like five feet tall and narrow based, which makes it a bit tippy.
Are the leaves getting any bigger?
I think so. I do not have especially small hands and this is a pretty impresssively-sized leaf.
It's a decent amount bigger than the previous leaf I took pictures of because it was "big"...
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Date: 2026-03-19 03:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-19 10:32 pm (UTC)