Yes, you can put pothos cuttings in soil with no water-rooting step in between. Tuck a node cutting into a moist, well draining mix and it roots fine on its own. Rooting pothos in soil this way is a real, proven method, not a shortcut that costs you a healthy plant.
Here is the part that throws people off. For the first few weeks the cutting looks like nothing is happening at all. No droop, but no obvious growth either, so it feels stuck. Then a small bud pushes out at the top, and that new leaf is your signal that roots have already taken hold below the surface.
The buried node does the work while you wait. It sits in the dark, damp mix and starts pushing out fresh roots within a couple of weeks. You just cannot see any of it, which is why the wait feels longer than it is.
Cut a 1 to 1.5 inch (2.5 to 3.8 cm) piece with a node and an attached leaf, then strip any lower leaves.
Use a moist, well draining mix such as soilless potting mix, perlite, or vermiculite for aeration and steady moisture.
Push the node into the mix so it is covered while the upper leaf stays above the surface.
Maintain even moisture without sogginess and place the pot in bright indirect light at room temperature.
Expect rooting in about 3 to 4 weeks, with new buds and leaves signaling that roots have established.
The real advantage here is the kind of roots you end up with. Roots that form in soil are soil roots from day one. They grow thick and branched, built for pulling water out of a damp mix. The cutting never has to swap one root system for another.
Compare that to water rooting. Roots grown in a glass come out thin and stringy because they float in pure water. When you move them to a pot, those roots struggle and many die back, and the plant stalls while it grows replacements. That stall is transition shock, and direct soil rooting skips it entirely.
Your mix matters more than anything else for this. UF/IFAS points to a soilless potting mix, perlite, or vermiculite, since each holds moisture while still letting air reach the node. Roots need both water and oxygen, and a dense, heavy soil chokes off the air. Plan on about 3 to 4 weeks before you see top growth.
Watering is where most cuttings fail, and the fix is simple. Keep the mix lightly moist, never soggy. Pothos handles being a touch too dry far better than sitting in wet mud, so when you are unsure, hold off. A waterlogged node rots before it ever roots, and a rotted node never comes back.
Rooting hormone is optional, not required. A pothos node will root in plain mix on its own, but a quick dip in powder helps a little more in soil than it does in water. If you have it, use it. If you do not, skip it and your cutting still roots. Bright indirect light and room temperature do the rest while you wait.
So direct soil propagation is the cleaner path for pothos. You trade a few weeks of staring at a pot that looks idle for a plant that never has to recover from a move. Take a healthy node, give it the right mix, keep it on the dry side, and the new leaf shows up right on schedule.
Read the full article: Pothos Propagation: A Complete Guide
