As a Pothos lover, I have propagated my way into having too many Pothos. This affords me the opportunity to take some chances to see how well they do under certain conditions. In this post, I want to talk about Pothos cold tolerance.
Pothos Cold Tolerance
Pothos are tropical vining plants. They don’t like the cold. That said I’ve read varying accounts of how low of temperature they can tolerate. When looking it up in the past I’ve seen people report Pothos cold tolerance at 60 degrees or 50 degrees Fahrenheit. I had seven Pothos in my greenhouse this winter (Golden Pothos, Marble Queen Pothos, Neon Pothos, and Satin Pothos). They were okay through most of the autumn until it got down into the thirties a few nights and I hadn’t set up my automatic heater yet. They did survive but I lost a vast majority of the leaves and vines. The leaves closers to the soil faired much better.
Tolerance and thriving are two different things. If you want to keep your Pothos somewhere that is consistently in the fifties, your plant may tolerate it. It will not grow well in that condition though. If you’re keeping somewhere that is consistently in the fifties during the winter, that’s a different story. In the winter your plant may go dormant anyway due to shorter periods of light.
In my experience, Pothos can survive quite low temperatures. Technically, my greenhouse Pothos survived several nights down in the thirties. Granted they didn’t do well, but they survived nonetheless. If you keep them above 50 degrees Fahrenheit, they should be fine as long as it isn’t indefinitely. To really thrive, Pothos should be kept at around 70 degrees or higher though.
Pothos Cold Damage
While I’m on the subject of Pothos cold tolerance I also want to touch on Pothos cold damage. This is the aftermath of what happens after your Pothos has been exposed to the cold. All the Pothos in my greenhouse that were exposed to extreme cold over several nights became limp and the leaves curled downward. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture for you guys. When I noticed I was in triage mode and it totally slipped my mind to take pictures. However, my greenhouse example is probably on the extreme end anyway. I do have another less extreme example though.
I have a Neon Pothos that I literally keep directly touching a window as you can see above. As you can also see, I live somewhere that gets snow i.e. it gets cold. While my house is comfortably in the low seventies, it definitely feels cold if you put your hand next to the window. Glass is not a good insulator. Every winter I get some funky leaves on this Neon Pothos, especially the ones close to the window. It’s most likely cold damage to the Pothos because it’s isolated to the leaves closest to the window. See a closer picture of the cold damage below.
What Can You Do About Pothos Cold Damage
Unfortunately, you cannot undo what’s already done. The cold damage is permanent. In most cases, the ones pictured above you can keep the leaves on your plant. There’s no need to remove the damaged leaves. They will just be a little funky-looking. You can prevent future cold damage by regulating the temperature around your Pothos.
Does your Pothos have cold damage? Post your questions in the comments.
I'm a long time plant lover on the quest to happily coexist with as many plants as I can. Let's grow!