Pothos Plant Care

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Pothos plant is a beloved addition to any home garden – it grows quickly, and taking care of it is extremely easy which makes it a great plant for the inexperienced gardeners to start with.

It is so loved because it gives the needed boost and the confidence to a new gardener that they do not have to fear to tackle the care of a plant more difficult to care for.

So, just to illustrate how easy it is to grow any of the Pothos varieties I have created this guide. It will calm any doubt of whether you would be able to take care of it and have it grow to its most luscious, beautiful self.

How to Grow Pothos Plant

The answer to “How to grow Pothos plant” is: quite simple.

It is one of the rare plants that have the ability to grow in water alone. And, no, I do not mean the cuttings alone. The entire, full-grown plant can live in water for years provided that you use adequate water and change it frequently (tap water, fresh rainfall, all in all, soft water is your best choice due to the mineral content).

The other way to grow Pothos is regular and preferred by the majority of gardeners (even for Pothos growing) is growing it in soil. This allows the plant to regulate its own mineral intake, and it is what is natural to it.

Because it can essentially thrive in water or low light environments does not mean it should.

Pothos is very versatile in types and in the way you can install them in your home. Whether you put it in a hanging pot, iron or rope, guide it to climb on the rods and installments or put it on the countertop, it is sure to attract attention from any visitor.

Pothos is a trailing vine which is the reason for such versatility in placing it in your home and it depends on how you like your vines to look and what works well with the room.

It has heart-shaped leaves that are dark green, and sometimes, depending on the variety, it can have yellow, pale green or white variegations.

Aside from “Pothos”, it is often called “The money plant” and “Devil’s Ivy”.

There are several Pothos varieties with some differences when it comes to the appearance of the plant. The care for those varieties is essentially the same for all of them, with the exception of the variegated types.

The variegated types require light to keep variegations, so if you want your Golden Pothos Care to be adequate you should not put it in a low-light room since that will cause it to lose its signature yellow variegations.

Some other popular and beloved Pothos varieties are:

1. Marble Queen Pothos – Similar to Golden Pothos it has yellowish variegations, only the sheer volume is bigger. So the plant looks paler than the Golden Pothos. It is not suitable for dark rooms.

2. Neon Pothos– with leaves of bright green it may seem like it has taken up too much sunlight and water. If the leaves are perky, you are safe from worry, and your plant is happy. To get it a bit darker, place it away from the light source.

3. Jade Pothos – deep, jade-green with leaves a bit elongated, Jade pothos is good for low light rooms since it can become paler if it is placed very close to the light source.

Pearls and Jade Pothos- a combination of jade-green and yellow(ish) variegations. It is suitable for placing in the optimal lighting.

4. Manjula Pothos- smaller heart-shaped leaves of deep green and larger patches of white characterize this Pothos variety. It is another one that should be placed in the optimal light conditions.

5. Satin Pothos – Satin Pothos is characterized by larger leaves with large white parts. The main green part is along with the core of the leaf. Keep it in optimal lighting.

Pothos is truly a wonderful plant. It requires very little care, and it will still thrive, and grow very fast.

And although it is not a flowering plant, the varieties are so versatile that you might think you are actually owning several different plants if you collect all of them.

Regardless of the fact that it basically grows on its own, here are some guidelines on how to take care of your Pothos plants-no matter the variety.

How to Take Care of Pothos Plant

I have already said that Pothos is a beginner-friendly plant due to the simple caretaking regiment.

Here are a few essential steps that you and I, as Pothos owners will have to pay attention to. I will later go in deeper analysis and talk about possible problems we might encounter.

1. Make sure the lighting is proper

Pothos likes well-lit rooms, but can also thrive in low-light environments.

There are some issues that you may encounter if you place it in a low-light room, but there will be more on that later.

The only thing you should avoid by all means is placing the Pothos plant in direct sunlight (e.g. on the window) because the sunlight can cause burns and your Pothos turning yellow.

2. Water it adequately

The trickiest part of Pothos’ care is adjusting the amount and the rhythm of watering.

The key is to keep the soil moist and avoid overwatering, but you should also avoid letting it be to dry for long.

The best option for watering Pothos is to do it with soft water once the top layer of soil is dry, and the rest of it still moist. Check that by sticking your finger in the soil until you get the hang of it. The soil is still wet if it sticks to your finger.

3. Soil and fertilization

Pothos requires only basic fertilization every six months if everything is okay with the plant.

Its soil requirements are also very basic; it can successfully grow in any type of compost.

You can also grow it just in water if you do not want to bother with soil choice- it is that resilient, however, I prefer planting it in the soil just because in nature it grows in soil, not in plain water.

4. The choice of pot

To have a healthy and happy Pothos plant you have to make sure that the water from the pot drains well.

This is why Pothos is best suited for the plastic pots and containers- they usually have more drainage holes than terracotta pots. They are stronger and will not break when the roots grow.

Many gardeners chose to have clay pots in their homes because they look nicer, however, there is a variety of shapes and sizes of plastic pots to choose from. They can even have some sort of pattern as well, so the aesthetics of the pots made of hard and durable plastics should not be the problem.

Clay pots also soak up a portion of the water, so you never know if your plant has received enough.

5. Taking care of the disease

If you notice that your Pothos is not looking its best, the first thing to consider is adjusting the lighting, reducing the fertilizer and make sure that you are watering it adequately.

If you are sure that there are no mistakes in these areas, check the leaves and stems for bugs, and remove them with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol.

When this is not the issue, check the roots for fungi and rotting.

6. Repotting

When your Pothos plant outgrows the pot it is in, it is time to transplant it to a bigger one.

Choose a pot that is a size or two bigger than the current pot, and remove the plant. It is quite an easy process with only a few things to make sure of, and there is a detailed explanation of how to do it later in the text.

7. Pruning and Propagation

Pruning is essential for your plant to look and be happy and healthy.

It entails removing dead, diseased or unwanted parts of the plant such as leaves or stems that have turned yellow or brown and dry or diseased root segments.

Some leaves just naturally turn yellow without any particular reason, so just remove them and keep your Pothos looking fresh.

8. The temperature

Pothos is a tropical plant so it thrives on the temperatures higher than 68F. Going under this number will basically freeze the plant and cause it to die.

Although tropical, it does not like exposure to direct sunlight so pay attention to that as well.

These are the basic guidelines on how to grow Pothos and how to care for Pothos successfully.

Let me go to an in-depth analysis of the most important things and issues you might encounter in the following years of caring for this wonderful plant.

Watering Pothos Plant

Watering is possibly the trickiest part of how to care for Pothos.

Why is that? If you are watering it irregularly or too rarely or even too often, you might encounter some issues like yellow, saggy or brown leaves.

So, what kind of watering regimen does Pothos prefer and is there a defined timeframe in which to water your Pothos plant?

Pothos likes the soil to be moist but not soggy. Too much water can cause several issues like root rotting and foliage turning yellow.

Both of those things will essentially cause the plant either to look bad or, in the worst-case scenario, to die.

If you water it too rarely, it will essentially wither.

So, how often to water Pothos then?

The best guideline is to check when the top two inches of the soil is dry and then water the plant. This may be every 5 days or once every 10 days, even only twice a month. And you should establish your own watering practice depending on your plant’s needs.

This will be determined by the type of the soil, drainage power of your pot, room temperature (in hotter rooms the soil will go dry quicker), the size of the pot and the roots and so on.

Check if the soil is dry by inserting your finger in it. This will entail performing the sticky test and that is: if your finger is almost soil-free after you remove it from the pot then it is time to water again.

On the other hand, if the soil grains are sticking to your finger, the soil is still moist and there is no need to water the plant yet.

Once you establish the rhythm, stick to it. If you change up the rhythm, Pothos will get used to low moisture which will cause it to possibly go yellow once you water it, or just become a bit saggy for a few days.

Water and minerals

When it comes to the water itself, Pothos likes soft water. What does that mean?

Soft water is low on ions of magnesium and calcium.

There are a few ways to determine whether the water you are using to water your plants is soft or hard.

You can take the sample to a lab and get an estimate, and advice on how to soften it to provide better conditions to your Pothos plant.

The other, DIY way to check that is to pour a glass of water and leave it to evaporate for a few days or you can buy test strips to determine the hardness. If white rings are formed on the glass as the water evaporates, chances are that the water is not soft.

The quickest way to solve this at home is to boil the water, cool it down and then use it to water your plants.

If you have the condition, you can try to collect fresh rainfall and use it to water the plants. Rainfall is a natural source of soft water.

Take a clean container and leave it out in the rain to collect the beneficial rainfall.

Now that we have determined the watering needs of our Pothos plants, let us go to its lightning requirements.

Proper Lighting for Pothos

There are no words in which to stress how strong and easy to care for Pothos plant is. However resilient, Pothos plant has some preferences regarding light that you want to follow in order to have a healthy and happy plant.

When it comes to light requirements, you have a few options for a healthy plant, and what you choose depends on how you like your Pothos to look like.

The general rule and the only thing to actually avoid is keeping it in direct sunlight. The heat from the sun can cause burns on your plant that manifest as brown spots, or complete areas turning brown.

In the best-case scenario, the foliage will turn yellow. If left like this, the leaves will soon fall off and the plant will take a lot of time to recover if it manages to at all.

Usually, moving the plant into a shade will do the trick of recovering the plant to its former glory.

Keep in mind that Pothos is a tropical plant and that it likes well-lit and warm rooms. So your best option is to keep it in a bright room with a lot of windows but protected from the direct sunlight. This is how to grow Pothos fast.

To ensure that your plant has enough light all through the day, consider placing it in a northern room- there is no direct sunlight yet there is enough light during the day.

You may want to place the pot higher up so that other furniture pieces do not throw much of shade on it.

Would a dark or shady room be adequate for Pothos? Well, yes and no. It is by far better than direct sunlight, but Pothos likes light, so it will work overtime to produce enough chlorophyll to survive. This will result in leaves turning dark green and thicker (which some gardeners find attractive), however, if you have one of the species with patterned leaves (i.e. variegated), the plant can lose the pattern in deep shade.

Since it is strong, it can survive, and even thrive in low-light environments. So, the choice between well-lit or a dark room for Pothos comes down to the personal preference of how dark you like the foliage to be.

Fertilizing Pothos Plant

Some of the house plants require fertilizing because they are not suited for indoor environments and do not have enough minerals in the soil to feed them.

Fortunately, the Pothos plant is not one of those plants. It does not require any special care.

In addition to not having too particular mineral requirements, it grows very fast on its own so fertilizing it for faster growth can be considered redundant.

If your plant is for any reason a bit stunted or does not grow as fast, you can fertilize it up to once a month with a general fertilizer.

If your plant is healthy, you can use the same basic fertilizer two times a year or maybe once every three months.

Since the needs for fertilizing are low, when you over fertilize, the variegated Pothos species can lose the patterns on their leaves. If you notice this, lay low on the fertilizer (or check if the lighting is too low).

Pothos Plant Pruning

Pruning is an essential part of caring for any plant. We prune them to keep them healthy, to make them into a shape that we desire, to use the cuttings to propagate. something that you do when you need it.

So, there is no general rule of how often you need to prune the plants, or whether you want to do it at all.

Pothos plants are very easy to prune, especially if you are doing it for no other reason than to shape it.

Let us check why and how to prune your Pothos plant.

Why should you prune?

1. Shaping

Owners of Pothos plant usually go two ways. They either like it to be leggy and let their vines grow and drop, especially if the pot is placed somewhere higher like on a shelf or in a hanging planter, or they like it to have a form of a bush, in which case they prune the plant regularly.

Pothos is a vine, so just being bushy is not its natural form, and it requires more frequent pruning. When you should do it depends only on how long you like it to be.

The shorter vines you like the more often you have to prune, simple as that.

For those of you who think that Pothos is the most beautiful in its natural form, do not be afraid that it will not be pretty and lush if you let the vines grow. You can let them hang freely, you can install fixtures close to it and carefully guide the plant on it. You can even make it into a wreath if you put an installment into the pot itself and again guide it around when it grows.

This makes it easier to repot it or move it without getting it tangled in the fixtures.

2. Health

While pruning for shaping is optional, pruning for health can make a huge difference in the overall condition of your plant.

If you notice that your plant has developed some yellow or green leaves, you should remove them.

There are various reasons why the leaves go yellow or develop brown spots, but more on that later. Anyway, removing them is the first step.

The plant will feel and look better without the diseased leaves.

You can also prune the stems (for example if that particular stem dies), or roots.

Pruning the roots is a bit more complicated than pruning foliage, and it should be done only when you feel that your plant may have a root disease or when you are repotting it. So just check the roots every time you repot, and remove dry or mushy segments.

Make sure that you do not do that very often, the plant does not like being moved too much.

3. Propagating

If what you are doing is pruning for shaping purposes you can use the healthy cuttings to propagate. Using dead or diseased sections will not account for successful propagation (for which there is the best technique, but more on that later).

How to prune the Pothos plant?

To prune the Pothos plant you will need scissors or a knife that has been disinfected previously, especially if you are dealing with the diseased leaves, roots or stems. In that case, you should disinfect the tool between each cutting.

If you are cutting a healthy plant, it will be enough to disinfect only at the very beginning.

Sometimes, especially with yellow leaves, you can use your hands to pick the leaves out as they usually come off very easily, almost on their own.

When you are pruning Pothos for propagation or shaping, make sure that you cut the vines about an inch, or two below the top of the pot. This will ensure that the bush is lush and formed nicely.

The sections you do not want to be a part of your main plant use for very quick and easy propagation.

When you are pruning the roots, make sure to cut the diseased part and about half an inch of the healthy part too, just in case the disease has spread and there are still no signs of it.

In any case, do not worry, even if you have cut too much, Pothos is very resilient and grows and bounces back in no time.

Now, let’s see how to grow pothos fast from the cuttings you have made.

Pothos Plant Propagation

One of the reasons why Pothos is one of the first plants that inexperienced or totally novice gardeners are trying to take care of (besides the fact that it is basically indestructible) is that Pothos plant propagation is extremely easy.

All you would need to do is to cut the vines and use them to propagate. You can grow pothos in water or directly in the soil, and besides avoiding direct sunlight and a bit of effort to keep the water lean, you will not have to do much, Pothos will do the job by itself.

Seriously, it is as easy as taking a leaf and putting it into a glass of water.

If you are looking to try it, just take a leaf and watch the magic happen.

Pothos propagation from cuttings is the best way to propagate the plant. This all sounds quite easy, but there are a few things s you should pay attention to, so I will get into the propagation steps and how to grow pothos in water easily.

1. Prune

We already talked about pruning, so you know what to do. Cut all of those long-running vines right up to the rim of your pot and start from there.

You can propagate every time you decide to prune but avoid winter months, it is the resting period for the plant.

2. Choose the cuttings

Use the vines you cut from the mother plant. All those vines have many leaves, and each leaf has an eye (or node if you’d like) and this is where the new growth is going to happen.

So, the thing that you see all the time is putting the entire vine in a glass of water where the poor little thing is barely hanging on because it needs a lot of moisture to keep it alive, and the only place where it gets moisture, in this case, is from its tiny little root tip.

Do not fret if this is how you chose to propagate Pothos, it will work, but the answer to how to grow pothos faster is in this next method.

So instead of taking the entire vine with several leaves, what you want to do is separate each leaf with its node (or eye) from the connecting part of the vine. This is where the new growth is going to occur.

You can have as many cuttings as the leaves, minus the top leaf because it is not the best propagator so discard it with the connecting parts.

3. Put the cuttings in water

After you have cut all of the leaves from the vine (the node with a tiny section of the vine surrounding it) you can put the cuttings in water.

The things to pay attention to are:

It is understandable for everyone that roots need water to grow. What you may have not considered is that they need air as well. For this reason you should change the water regularly to avoid oxygen evaporating and the water becoming stale. Do this every few days and you, and your Pothos should be ok.
Pick the right place to put your cuttings. Aside from the water and oxygen, you need to make sure that your Pothos cuttings are warm. Pothos is a tropical plant and does not like temperatures below 68 F. So, keep your cuttings warm next to a well-lit window (avoid direct sunlight, or place a curtain for protection) or use your kitchen counter.

4. Plant pothos cuttings

In about three weeks in these conditions, the roots on your cuttings will grow about 2-3 inches which will be quite enough to move them to the soil.

To know exactly how to plant pothos cuttings, you need to determine the size of the planter you will use.

The answer to “how to plant Pothos cuttings” is quite straightforward: If you choose the 5in planter, plant about 20 cuttings, because, like with any vining plant, to get a good-looking plant you need a lot of cuttings, so that if some of them die you will still have a nice, full plant. Furthermore, as the Pothos matures, you will get a full, beautiful crown.

Adjust the number of the cuttings depending on the size of your planter.

The other thing that you might want to do is soak your clay pebbles overnight (or at least a couple of hours) in a KLN solution which gets them saturated and ready for transplant.

After the pebbles are saturated, you want to cover the bottom of the inner pot with them. You should then take your cuttings and make sure they are on the same level, set them in the pot and let them open up. Add a few pebbles in the center tapping them down, then grab all the cuttings and bring them all together and add pebbles around the side.

With this step you can be a little aggressive and push the pebbles down, do not worry they will not crash the roots, and you want a stable plant so push the pebbles inside.

All you need to do now is add the water gauge, put it in the outer pot and water to half of the gauge.

And this is it, you have successfully propagated a Pothos plant. It can look a bit floppy for a couple of days but in a week or so it is going to stand up and be a beautiful plant.

The interesting thing about Pothos is that you can propagate it in soil, too. So just put the cuttings in a pot with fresh soil, water it adequately and you will have a ready, potted plant in no time. If some of the cuttings die, remove them, and fill in the holes next time you would like to propagate.

Finally, one more thing that you should make sure of is to propagate in spring. Although propagation is possible during other seasons, it is most successful, and the easiest for the mother plant to recover.

Repotting Pothos Plant

Repotting the Pothos plant is an activity you will not perform very often when taking care of your plant.

You should do it when the plant outgrows the pot it is in or when you have reason to doubt that the roots are diseased so you want to remove all the diseased sections and put the plant into a new disease-free home.

These are basically only two reasons when you should re-pot Pothos, and while disease hopefully will not fall upon your plant, outgrowing the pot is a reality which you will encounter once a year, or every two years if the pot is initially bigger. The Pothos roots grow very fast.

Deciding when to re-pot

When the roots fill the pot, and the plant becomes pot-bound it is time to get down to repotting.

You will notice that your plant is getting droopy and the leaves becoming softer, yellow, and lifeless no matter how much you water it, adjust its lightning and fertilize it. In that case, check the bottom of the pot.

The roots might actually stick out of the drainage holes.

Luckily, repotting pothos is not a problem at all

The repotting process

1. Choose the right pot

When repotting the Pothos plant you want to get a pot that is a size or two bigger than the one it was in, so get a pot about an inch larger in diameter.

Make sure that the pot has drainage holes, otherwise, it will keep too much water in the soil and cause the roots to rot.

The general opinion about the material of your pot is – plastic is best.

Yes, I know, clay pots are nicer looking, however, clay also takes water from the plant, they can easily break when the roots are growing and they usually do not have enough drainage power to keep Pothos happy.

If you insist on potting Pothos in clay pots, though, I suggest planting it in a plastic pot first (or any type of plastic container first ), and then putting all that into an adequate clay pot. With this, just make sure that the plastic container is not toughing the bottom of the clay pot (add pebbles at the bottom for example) and that the clay pot has drainage holes.

2. Bottom of the new pot

Before you start adding soil to the new pot, make sure that you cover the bottom of the pot with pebbles, coco chips or the like to ensure that the drainage is good.

There should be about 2 layers of pebbles (or about an inch and a half).

3. Prepare the plant

First of all, you need to carefully remove the plant from the outgrown pot. Do this very carefully and gently.

You will most certainly hurt some of the roots, especially those that are sticking from the pot, but pothos is strong and will recover quickly.

After you have removed the plant from the pot, you should remove as much of the old soil as you can.

Also, make sure to examine the roots for the disease, remove the dry or rotting sections with a sterilized knife or scissors, even if a possible disease was not the reason for re-potting.

Your plant is now ready to be moved to the new pot.

4. Soil

Choosing the right soil for the Pothos is not hard. Since it can grow in the water itself, you can use any of the soil mixtures.

What you need to pay attention to is that the soil is permeable, which means that it should easily drain the excess water.

To continue the potting process, cover the pebbles with a layer of soil and then put the plan inside.

Holding it in place, pour the soil around the plant, then a bit between the roots. The next step would be to press down the soil so it holds the plant by itself.

If you skip this step, the plant will not be fixed and essentially will not have a nice look. So, press down on the soil and around the roots firmly.

Do not worry about crushing the roots, they can take it.

5. Water and rest

After you have fixed the plant with soil, water it adequately.

The plant may look a bit lifeless in the following days, so do not overwater it. It is just a reaction to the new environment, and the plant will soon adjust to its new home and perk up.

Put the plant back in its perfect place and enjoy the sight!

Pothos Plant Problems and Solutions

Although I have repeatedly said that Pothos is almost indestructible – strong and easy to care for. there are still some problems that might occur with it.

Usually, it is nothing so serious due to the plant’s nature.

And you do not want your lush Pothos to turn yellow or have pests. It should always look its best.

Luckily, since the problems are quite often mild, the solutions are pretty simple, as well as determining the cause of your plant’s ailments.

So, let’s see what can fall upon your Pothos, and what you can do to help it regain its strength and glory.

1. Leaves turning yellow

One of the most common problems that can happen is pothos leaves turning yellow. The usual and least serious reason for Pothos turning yellow is exposure to too much sunshine.

Although it is a tropical plant endemically, Pothos does not enjoy exposure to direct sunlight and thrives in middle light. It can even develop rich and lush foliage in low light, although it is not recommended.

You want to have your Pothos in the shades of light to dark green (also depends on the Pothos variety), with thicker leaves, and a bigger number of them on the ve.

So, how do you fix yellow leaves Pothos?

If sunlight exposure is the problem, it is quite easy, just put the pot in a shade, but still make sure that the plant is getting enough sunlight, but not directly. You will see that in a few days, your Pothos will again be green, it really bounces back very quickly.

Other things besides sunlight can cause Pothos to go yellow, so if moving it to a shade does not do the trick, consider how you are using your fertilizer or root problems.

If you are using too much fertilizer, or a fertilizer that is not adequate for it, the leaves can react by turning thin and yellow.

Other, more serious issues include pythium root roots where the leaves turn yellow and fall, bacterial leaf spot-where water spots with yellow rings form on the underside of the leaf.

The solution for the fungal diseases and root rots is the correct amount of sunlight and water. If the soil does not drain well, the water remains in it causing the roots to rot.

Also, fungi reproduce much faster in moist environments.

To heal your Pothos from these ailments, place it in the correct sunlight (if excess water is the reason, you might even put it where it is warmer until the soil dries, you can place it back in the shade after you have eliminated the disease) and optimize watering.

If the plant looks really ill, you might want to consider repotting it.

This will remove all the drenched soil and you should also examine the roots and remove all the black, soft and watery parts which will hopefully leave you with enough roots to feed the healthy plant.

2. Insects and malformed leaves

Insects on Pothos are a very rare sight, however, they can attack it in search of food.

The main culprits are scale and mealybugs.

When the insects start feeding on your plant this may cause pothos leaves curling or malformation of the new leaves, parts of the leaves are eaten, or even stunted.

This is because the nutrients from the soil do not reach the leaves and they change their form.

Both insects attach both the stem and the leaves where mealybugs look like cotton balls and scale are like brown bumps.

The elimination process is simple yet it could be tiring, especially if you have a lot of plants, and/or it has a lush crown (which is the goal).

To get rid of the pests you should dip a cotton ball in alcohol and remove all the bugs leaf by leaf and stem by stem. You should check the plant again in a week and repeat the process.

It will take you a lot of time to do so, but your plant will be grateful to eat its own food again.

3. Browning

Pothos brown spots can also be caused by a variety of reasons.

The first one is chemicals, mostly inadequate fertilizers, but brown spots can also be caused by contact with household products e.g. you keep your Pothos in your kitchen but you accidentally splashed it with a cleaning solution, which essentially causes a chemical burn on the leaves. Even sprays like air fresheners or perfumes and deodorants can do the damage, so limit the use of the sprays and cleaners around your plants.

Watering the plant willy-nilly, without any routine can cause the leaves to go brown between the waterings.

Overwatering, on the other hand, can also be the reason because the oxygen can’t reach the plant.

Too much sun or too low a temperature can cause either a burn or frostbite that manifests as the leaf developing brown spots.

Note: when you are removing damaged leaves pay attention to two things.

Number one, use a disinfected knife or scissors to avoid exposing the plant to new bacteria and disinfect it before cutting off each leaf.

Number two, if a lot of the leaves are affected by any of these problems; do not cut off all the damaged foliage at once. Do it gradually, over a few days to a week, otherwise it will be a great shock to the plant and it will not thrive as quickly as it could.