How and when to fertilize money plant

Money plant, golden pothos, Ceylon vine, silver vine, and you could go on with the list of names that this popular vine has. It has its origins in the islands of French Polynesia, that is, it develops especially in temperate climates, although it is currently grown as a houseplant in almost all latitudes in the world. Due to its great popularity, we could not stop writing an article on the use of fertilizer for money plant, how and when to apply it and more.

1. NPK values – What do they mean?

If you’ve already fertilized some other garden plant with some commercial fertilizer, you probably notice that each package has three numbers separated by a hyphen. In case you are an inexperienced gardener, you may not know what these numbers mean and how important they are.

Since I consider it extremely important to know what these three issues are, we will begin this post by explaining it. They are what are known as NPK values. Where each of the letters represents one of the main nutrients.

• N stands for nitrogen. It is the main nutrient that influences the growth of a plant.

• P stands for phosphorous. It is responsible for promoting the formation of roots and the development of flowers and fruits.

• K stands for potassium. It is very useful to help the transfer of water and nutrients in your plants.

Therefore, each number is the percentage by weight of each nutrient with respect to the total weight. In case you do not finish understanding, we will see an example:

“Suppose you bought a small bag of 5-10-15 mix fertilizer that weighs 1kg. So 50g of the total is nitrogen, 100g is phosphorous and 150g is potassium. The rest is completed with minor elements.”

I think that with the previous example it must have been more than clear that they are NPK values. Therefore, we can continue with this article on money plant.

2. How to care your Golden Pothos?

One point for which Golden Pothos is so sought after is the ease with which it develops. Wherever you locate it, both outdoors and indoors it grows with all its might.

However, as easy to grow as it is, there are certain cares that you must carry out. Although this post is aimed at fertilizing the money plant, we want to make sure you know how to grow it correctly. Therefore we will begin by listing the most important care that you must perform.

• Temperature: if we must determine an ideal temperature range for its growth, it is between 17 ° and 30 ° C. Low temperatures damage it, so it should be kept indoors in winter.

• Sunlight: the best thing about sunlight is to look for a semi shady place. Too long in direct sunlight can burn your leaves.

• Irrigation: the irrigation must be regular but not excessive. Every time you water, be careful not to puddle the soil. In plant rest seasons (fall and winter) try to decrease the amount of water.

• Soil: the most important thing regarding the soil is that it drains easily. If you have it in a pot, always make sure it has good holes for the water to drain out.

• Reproduction: creating new money plants is super easy. It is enough to cut a cut of between 15 and 20 cm and place it in a container with water. You will see how in a couple of days it will start to develop racies. And once you have a good amount of roots, you can perform the transplant.

• Pruning: the need for pruning of this plant is not great. Always use it to control its size and eliminate old and / or diseased branches.

• Fertilization: Depending on where you grow it, indoors, outdoors or in water, the need for fertilization will vary. We will deal with this point in depth.

3. Best fertilizer for Money Plant or Golden Pothos

When recommending a fertilizer for your money plant, it is really difficult to select just one. This creeper is suitable for the use of many types of fertilizers, whether commercial or homemade.

No matter what type of fertilizer you are going to use, always do it carefully. Apply them regularly in small amounts, as excess nutrients can be fatal to your golden pothos.

For a better understanding of this section, we will divide our recommendation between commercial and homemade fertilizers. It is up to you to decide which one best suits your plant.

3.1 Commercial fertilizer

The money plant is undoubtedly one of the most popular houseplants, so you will see that there are commercial fertilizers specially created for it. Depending on the brand, there may be some composition changes, but they will all be well tailored to your needs.

If you can’t find a special fertilizer for golden pothos, keep in mind that the nutrients they need the most are nitrogen and potassium. Knowing this, you can select a 7-3-6, 8-4-6 or 7-4-7 mix, either of which works great. As you can see in all cases, the nutrient with the highest concentration is nitrogen and potassium.

Finally, it should be mentioned that many gardeners recommend the use of balanced fertilizers. A very common example is 15-15-15. Being a widely used fertilizer, it is very easy to find in any nursery.

3.2 Natural organic fertilizer

These days, more and more gardeners are trying to do without commercial additives. Especially not to apply strange chemical products to your plants. Therefore, they opt for organic alternatives, which have many advantages and some disadvantages.

In general, and especially in houseplants, it is more practical to use commercial fertilizers. But we will see that there are several homemade organic fertilizers that can be very useful for you.

• Compost: This results from the decomposition of organic waste that we generate in the home. Its composition is very heterogeneous, but it always has a high degree of nitrogen. Whenever you are going to apply it, do it when it is completely decomposed.

• Earthworm Humus: The only difference it has from normal compost is that California earthworms break down. If you can get these worms it is a very good option to get organic fertilizers.

• Milk-based fertilizer: One of the easiest fertilizers to make is this milk-based. Make a mixture of 90% water and 10% milk and apply it directly. It will add some nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous to your money plant.

• Fertilizer with fish tank water: Another way to get fertilizer in a more than simple way is to wash the water from a fish tank. So, if you have a fish tank at home, save the water from the fish tank when you clean it, then you can apply it as irrigation, you will be providing enough nitrogen.

The biggest downside to any of these homemade fertilizers compared to commercial ones is that we don’t know exactly their composition. That is why you must apply them very carefully so as not to exceed the amount of nutrients.

4. How and when to fertilize Money Plant

As we said before, growing a money plant is quite simple. So you can imagine that fertilizing it will not be a complicated task. Also, it will have taken you longer to finish reading this post than to carry out the fertilization.

If you choose to use commercial fertilizers, start by reading the instructions for use. Every good fertilizer has instructions in its container. In general, for a mixture of fertilizers 7-3-6 or similar, the dose is 10 ml for every 10 liters of water.

You can replace commercial fertilizers with a homemade one. The ones that best adapt to this plant are compost (provided it is well fermented) and earthworm humus. Another option is to make a mixed application, agreeing to the use of commercial and domestic fertilizers.

Regardless of the type of fertilizer you choose, fertilization should start in May and end in October. It can be applied every 15 or 20 days, always accompanied by abundant irrigation.

The cultivation of this plant directly in the water is also very common. In these cases, the need for fertilizers is greater, since the water does not have many of the necessary nutrients. Therefore, every time you change the water, it is good to apply a little fertilizer. Add a liquid mixture 7-3-6 in a quarter of concentration of what is recommended in the container. This should be sufficient for the proper development of your money plant in water .

5. Money Plant fertilizer (video tutorial)

To finish, we will watch a video (from ujjwal mitra channel) on how to prepare and apply a homemade fertilizer to your money plant or gold pothos. It is a simple preparation based on milk diluted in water. I have no doubt that it will be very useful to watch the video to understand in a more graphic way part of what is seen in this article.

And so we come to the end of the article, I hope you have no doubts about fertilizing your money plant. 🙂