Shangri La Pothos also known as Spinach Pothos is a rare and costly plant. Its folding leaves need proper light and water to keep their natural shape.
A little bit of disturbance in light can destroy the looks of sleeping pothos.
Therefore, before buying this plant you must learn about its growing needs and maintenance methods.
In this growing guide, I will discuss all its growing needs, propagation methods, and common problems.
Let’s start with the basic knowledge:
What is Shangri La Pothos?
Shangri La Pothos is a family member of golden pothos. It is also famous as Sleeping Pothos and spinach pothos due to the appearance of its leaves.
It has beautiful wrinkled green leaves with light green variegation. Sometimes the variegation looks light yellow.
The normal size of this plant is 3 meters with a 1-meter spread in ideal growing conditions. Even with improper care, the minimum size it can achieve is 50 cm tall with a 40 to 50 cm spread.
This low-maintenance pothos plant is suitable for many locations. You can grow it in your home or in the office.
Use the small size pot to control its length. This will not affect the roots and health of sleeping pothos. Because it has a small root ball and does not need frequent repotting.
This means you can grow it in small to medium size pots for its entire life. Just refresh the potting mix from time to time to keep it healthy and alive.
Pothos La Shangri takes almost 5 years to get fully matured.
How to Grow and Care for Shangri La Pothos?
Below Shangri La Pothos care guide will help you to grow this plant easily. All the methods are tested on Shangri pothos.
Light Needs of Shangri La Pothos
Moderate bright light is best for variegated Shangri la pothos. It is the light condition that is not too low or too bright for the plant.
Because in low light pothos la Shangri grow small size leaves and lose all its variegation. It is a horrible appearance of this plant.
On the other hand, too bright light pushes the plant to open its leaves. And believe me, you will not like Shangri la pothos with open leaves.
Therefore, to avoid all light-related problems the best place for this plant is an east-facing window.
There it can enjoy morning sunlight for 1 to 2 hours then moderate bright light for the entire day.
Or
If you are living in a low-light home then the solution is Grow Lights.
Choose LED grow lights, they are cheap have a longer life span, and need no maintenance.
Install grow light 28 inches above the plant and turn it on for 5 to 7 hours daily. Turn it OFF at night and let your plant take some rest.
200 watts of grow light is sufficient to grow spinach pothos in low light locations.
Watering Pothos La Shangri
Sleeping Pothos need 20 % less water than other pothos plants. Use clean filtered water without heavy minerals.
The roots of this pothos plant are prone to root rot.
To keep your pothos disease-free, you must learn the watering technique.
First of all, check the soil of the Shangri la pothos. Insert your finger in the potting mix, if you feel it is dry this means your pothos need water.
And give clean water to your plant.
But if the soil feels moist this indicated that your spinach pothos has a good amount of moisture in the soil.
Do not water your plant at this time, wait for some days and re-check the soil.
You can take the help of soil moisture measuring meter if you want an exact reading of soil moisture.
Check the price of the latest moisture testing devices on Amazon.
Potting Soil for Sleeping Pothos
Any type of loose potting soil will work best for Shangri la pothos. A succulent potting mix is a perfectly good choice.
Just to make it best from good add a few ounces of coco coir or peat moss.
You can also use a regular potting mix if you have it at home. Just mix regular potting soil and succulent mix in equal parts.
The combination will result in well-draining and good aerated potting soil.
Keep in mind that La Shangri Pothos needs good aeration in the root zone.
Temperature
The general home temperature is good for Shangri La Pothos. Pothos are not very picky about the temperature.
Keep your home temperature in between 50 to 85 Degrees F to keep your pothos thriving.
Upto 95 F is not a problem for pothos but it is considered too hot and increases the respiration rate.
This affects the water absorption rate and overall health of plant leaves.
Below 50 degrees F is not suitable for Pothos La Shangri plants. They cannot tolerate cold temperatures.
Also, to protect your plant in the winter season. Move your pothos from large windows and doors to a warm location.
No need to adjust your home thermostat every day. Just keep note of the warm locations of your home and place your pothos there for winter.
Humidity Requirement
Normal home humidity is good for growing and caring for Shangri La Pothos. But it won’t mind if you give it a little bit of extra air moisture.
In fact, it is good to place your pothos in highly humid conditions to encourage the proper growth of leaves.
The best solution to low humidity is having a good efficient humidifier.
With one humidifier you can give nice relaxation to many plants.
If the leaves of your pothos are developing brown tips and spots. This means the moisture in the grow room is not sufficient for the plant.
Fix it as soon as possible or your entire plant will turn brown and crispy.
You cannot solve the low humidity by supplying more water to your Pothos La Shangri plants.
Because a little bit of extra moisture in the soil than the required amount can cause root rot.
Fertilizing Pothos La Shangri
Fertilizing Shangri Pothos is an excellent idea but doesn’t overfertilize pothos. To prevent overuse of fertilizers.
Fertilize pothos only in spring and summer. Once in the spring season and thrice in summer.
Use liquid fertilizer and dilute it to its half-strength. Use clean water to dilute the concentrated nutrient solution.
Check Amazon for the Best deals on Pothos Fertilizers.
Never ever give nutrient supplements in winter or in rainy days. Winter is a dormancy period plants take rest at this time of the year.
Pruning Needs
Pruning is required to keep the pothos in good shape and under controlled size.
Pothos grow many leaves per stem and mostly the bottom leaves quickly turn yellow due to age factors.
Bottom leaves are older leaves and this is the natural process of shedding old leaves.
You should prune these old yellow leaves once they turn yellow. Do not wait for them to fall off naturally.
Save your plant energy by removing them manually.
Also, cut dry and damages leaves. If the base of the plant is covered with leaves, then you must remove some bottom leaves to allow the air to flow through easily.
Fresh airflow keeps the pothos disease-free and reduces the chances of overwatered pothos.
Repotting
Shangri La Pothos is a slow-growing plant. Like other slow growers, it does not need frequent repotting. It stays in a small to medium size pot for its whole life.
You must know the repotting signs before thinking about repotting them.
If the roots are visible over the soil this means your plant is suffering in the pot and need repotting. Secondly, if the roots are coming out of the drainage hole.
This also indicated the need for repotting pothos.
- For repotting it choose a 2 inches wider pot and fill it with fresh soil.
- Unpot your pothos, remove old soil from roots, and inspect roots.
- Now place your pothos in the new pot and fill it with fresh soil.
- Gently tap the base of the pothos.
- Follow the regular care and you are done with repotting your pothos.
Toxicity
Pothos La Shangri is not only a beautiful plant it is also toxic to humans and animals. Ingestion of its parts in large quantities results in toxicity.
Call the poison control center immediately.
Do not place it near the kids and teach your pets to not to eat the plant parts.
Climbing Support
Pothos are natural climber plants and need some kind of support to climb. In jungles, they climb on a large tree with the help of their aerial roots.
When growing indoors one should use a moss pole to give climbing opportunities to La Pothos.
This way you can direct the direction of the pothos. Otherwise, they can climb on anything that is near them.
I use moss poles and my all pothos plants are large in size than normal. Because they don’t have to find support to climb.
They just use areal roots and grab the moss pole and cover the entire length.
How to Propagate Shangri La Pothos?
You can easily propagate Shangri La Pothos from stem cuttings. This method is better than the root division technique.
We are going to use water as a growing medium for propagation. You can use potting soil if you want. But in my experience using water for propagation increase the success rate.
Step-by-step process:
- Choose a healthy 5 to 6 inches stem and cut it from the plant. Or cut a long stem and make multiple pieces 6 inches long. Each cutting piece must have a leaf node.
- Remove all the leaves that are at the bottom.
- Do not touch the top leaves they are required in propagation.
- Take a clean glass of water and dip the cutting in it.
- Place the jar in a clean place away from sunlight.
- Indirect bright light is sufficient for the development of new roots.
- Change the water of the glass when it gets unclear.
- Within a few days, you will see new growing roots.
- Once they reach 1-inch long transfer the stem cuttings into different plant pots.
- Place each plant pot in an indirect bright place and follow regular care.
- After transplanting the stems give clean water to keep the soil moist.
Note: Not all stem cuttings will develop roots. If you propagate 5 stems cutting hardly 3 or 4 will develop healthy roots.
Common Problems
Pests Infestation
Sap-sucking pests are common if you do not keep the surroundings clean. Always check for pests when you give water to pothos.
Once you find pests on your plant use insecticidal soap to rinse your plant.
No need to identify the type of pest because the insect-killing soap works on all types of pests.
For pathogens, you need to use fungicides. They make your plant sick and eat its stems and leaves like fungus.
Take your plant outside and use tap water to rinse it. Then keep it separate from other healthy plants.
After 20 days of treatment spray neem oil on it.
It will speed up the healing process.
Yellow Turning Leaves
Yellow pothos leaves mean you are overwatering your plant. Check the soil and if it is waterlogged. The best solution to this problem is repotting your plant in new fresh soil.
An excessive amount of water also invites fungus bacteria. It is the common cause of root rot in pothos.
Use well-draining potting soil and plant pots with a drainage hole to reduce the chances of root fungus due to overuse of water.
Conclusion
Shangri La Pothos is an excellent plant for homes and offices. Just take care of light and water you will never face any problem with it.
Occasional fertilization is a must to keep the plant thriving.
If you have any doubts, you can contact us or leave a comment below.
