There are many (many) different types of pothos plants, but few are prettier than the variegated varieties. One of my favorites is the Baltic Blue Pothos. Beginner-friendly, fast-growing, and easy to propagate, this plant is a great option for seasoned plant parents and complete beginners alike.
As usual, I’ll give y’all all the details you could ever want to know about these plants, from general care tips to personal tried-and-true pointers. I promise, you’ll be so happy that you decided to add this lovely variety to your collection – I have four of my own, and they make me smile every single day.
Table of Contents
- What’s So Special About the Baltic Blue Pothos?
- Optimal Lighting & Placement
- Selecting Soil and Proper Watering Practices
- To Fertilize Or Not to Fertilize, That is the Question
- Pruning & Shaping Your Baltic Blue Pothos
- Repotting a Baltic Blue Pothos Plants
- Propagation Techniques That Work
- Common Baltic Blue Pothos Pests & Problems
- Baltic Blue Pothos Safety Considerations
- Other Plant Posts
What’s So Special About the Baltic Blue Pothos?
Baltic Blue Pothos plants, also known as epipremnum pinnatum ‘baltic blue’, are a tropical plant hailing from Asia and Australia. This plant is best known for its deep blue-green leaves. These rich green leaves, paired with a higher likelihood of developing fenestrated leaves later in life, help visually differentiate it from the Cebu blue pothos.
New plants don’t take very long to grow, and mature indoor plants can reach anywhere from 10 to 12 ft. tall. Outdoor plants can grow up to 30 feet tall or even higher in the right conditions. This trailing vine works great for home decor, as it will hang down from any basket, bookcase, or shelf you place it on. Alternatively, you can allow it to grow upwards by supporting it with a moss pole.
Being easy to grow is one of the reasons why so many plant parents love this plant. It is tolerant of low-light conditions, thrives on minimal water, and grows quickly. Even better, pest problems are relatively rare with this plant. Like some of the other pothos plants, it also excels at removing air-borne contaminants from the space around it.
Optimal Lighting & Placement
Like many other pothos plants, the Baltic Blue Pothos loves bright indirect light. Direct sunlight can be harmful to it, scorching the leaves and bleaching the foliage. While giving it enough bright light is important, controlling the overall light exposure is a must if you want your pothos plant to look its best.
If possible, I recommend placing it near an east or north-facing window. These locations will give the plant enough light without overdoing it. A west or south-facing window will work in a pinch, but you’ll want some affordable window shades. I have them at the cabin, Mine sit near a north-facing window where the light filters through redwoods. Indirect, but strong enough for steady fenestration. That way, you can easily prevent the plant from getting too much light, even if the sun is beaming in from outside.
Aside from lighting, humidity and temperature are also things to consider. For temperatures, you’ll want to keep your plants above 55 degrees Fahrenheit at all times. Being a tropical plant, it does not do well with extended colder temperatures. Slightly humid conditions are ideal, with 60% humidity being a good goal.
If you’re struggling with low humidity levels, then it might be worth investing in the best plant humidifier or a pebble tray for the area you can get.
Tip
There are many different types of lighting in interior design that you can use to optimize your plants’ light exposure. Consider integrating artificial grow lights if you’re struggling to provide your plant with enough light. Baltic Blue Pothos thrives in 200–500 foot-candles of light. A simple light meter or even a phone app can confirm this.
Selecting Soil and Proper Watering Practices
Proper watering and soil selection go hand in hand. Even with the right soil, it’s easy to overwater your Baltic Blue Pothos plants, causing potential issues like root root. With that in mind, you’ll want to opt for a well-draining soil. Combining 50% indoor potting mix and 50% perlite is a great combination. his mimics the loose, aerated forest floor these plants grow in naturally, preventing root suffocation common with heavy soils. mix in orchid bark, which mimics chunky organic debris and boosts oxygen flow. My plants root faster and avoid the dreaded root rot.
Aside from using a well-drained soil, you’ll also want to make sure that the pot you’re using has drainage holes. This allows the plant to get enough water without letting the water build up in the bottom of the pot.
For actual watering practice, you’ll want to water at the base of the plant. Generally speaking, you can expect to wait from seven to ten days between waterings, but this isn’t a precise number. The “soil feel” is much more important. If the soil feels dry, then it’s time to water the plant. If not, just wait a bit. You can easily test the “soil feel” by sticking your finger in the first few inches of soil.
To Fertilize Or Not to Fertilize, That is the Question
The Baltic Blue Pothos is best described as a light feeder. During the active growing season, fertilizing every four to six weeks is a good practice. Using a balanced liquid fertilizer at this time of the year will help your plant get larger leaves with bushier growth. I find that 10-10-10 and 20-20-20 mixes work best.
While these may be hard to kill indoor plants, it’s still important to remember that you can fertilize them too much. General over-feeding can cause yellowing leaves, and high-nitrogen mixes can limit variegation. If you don’t have any trouble remembering schedules, then a water-soluble fertilizer can be a great option. However, if you can sometimes forget things, then I’d probably suggest a slow-release granular fertilizer instead, as these are more of a set-it-and-forget-it solution.
Pruning & Shaping Your Baltic Blue Pothos
Strictly speaking, you don’t actually need to prune the Baltic Blue Pothos. However, you might want to anyway, either to shape the plant, to propagate it, or to encourage dense new growth. In my experience, water propagation has about an 85% success rate if the cutting has 2–3 nodes submerged.
Pruning can also be useful for removing leggy growth (which can happen when the plant is placed in less-than-ideal lighting). For the best results, I always recommend cutting at the node if you want new shoots. This helps maintain consistent variegations on new leaves.
Tip
Want even more flora for your living space, but struggling to keep up with the day-to-day needs of your individual plants? Consider picking up one of these faux Fiddle Leaf Fig trees.
Repotting a Baltic Blue Pothos Plants
Every one or two years, you’ll probably need to consider repotting your Baltic Blue Pothos plant. If you start to notice roots coming out of the drainage holes on your plant’s pot, then it’s definitely time to grab a new pot. Being pot-bound isn’t good for your plant, as it stunts growth and can cause complications in the long run.
Repotting is easy, though. To start, just find a pot that’s an inch or twice wider in diameter then your current pot. As always, make sure it has drainage holes! If interested, you can switch from a standing pot to a hanging basket (or vice versa). This is the perfect time to do it.
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Once you’ve selected a pot, you’ll want to loosen the root ball of the current plant with your fingers before removing it. Take a good look at the roots once you’ve removed the plant, trimming damaged, coiled, or twisted roots. Take some fresh potting mix, partially fill the new pot, then place your pothos in the center.
From here, simply fill up the rest of the pot with soil, securing the plant in place. Give it a little bit of water, then wait for the soil to dry out as normal again before resuming your regular watering routine.
While you’re at it, check out this post on other great outdoor live hanging plants!
Propagation Techniques That Work
Buying new plants is the easiest way to get different plants, but you can also expand your Baltic Blue Pothos collection without spending any money through a process called propagation!
There are a few different ways to go about this, but they mostly all involve basically the same process: start with stem cuttings and grow a new plant from them. Below, I’ve detailed your different options.
Baltic Blue Pothos Soil Propagation
This method isn’t as commonly used for these particular plants, but I still thought it was worth mentioning. To start, you find a healthy vine with two to five nodes. Then, grab some shears or a sharp pair of scissors and cut a six-inch stem from the plant, making sure that the cutting has a few leaves. Cut just below the node.
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From here, remove the leaves from the bottom of the cutting, then dip the base of the cutting in rooting hormone. Plant the cutting in a new pot with fresh soil. Lastly, find a suitable place for the pot, ensuring that it will have the proper light and humidity in its new home. Continue watering as normal.
Water Propagation
The more popular—and arguably more successful—propagation method is water propagation. Like before, you’ll need to gather a suitable cutting from the plant. However, instead of placing it in soil, you’ll place it in a jar. Pour water into the jar until the bottom nodes are covered with water, but make sure that the water isn’t touching the leaves.
From here, change the water out every week, and wait for roots to form. Once the new roots are at least an inch long, you can transplant the plant into a new pot. When potting, make sure to pack the soil down slightly, just enough to hold the plant in place.
Give it a good watering, place it in an area with bright, indirect light, and try to keep the soil moist for the first week. Gradually water less until you’re back to a normal watering schedule.
Check out this post if you love tiny plants in tiny pots!
Dividing the Root Ball
If your Baltic Blue Pothos is already fairly large then you have another option available: dividing the root ball! Basically, all you need to do is grab a small knife, use it to cut the root sections apart, then plant the separated divisions into their own pots. When doing this, make sure that each division has at least one node. Otherwise, they won’t grow!
Common Baltic Blue Pothos Pests & Problems
As a plant parent, it’s a good idea to learn how to keep flies away from indoor plants and take other basic preventative measures to protect your plants. Thankfully, the Baltic Blue Pothos isn’t prone to many particular issues like more sensitive plants, but there still are some common problems and pests you might run into.
Here’s a quick overview:
- Mealybugs look like tiny cotton bumps on your plants’ vines and stems. Spray your plant with a 1:2 mix of soap and water or neem oil to remove them.
- Spider mites leave brown and reddish spots on the undersides of your plants’ leaves. Since they thrive in dry areas, I recommend first treating the plants with neem oil, then increasing humidity in the area to get rid of them. When I spotted spider mites on one of my plants, I increased the humidity to 60% using a pebble tray and applied neem oil spray weekly until no webbing remained.
- Scale insects often look like brown or grayish bumps on your plants. It’s hard to manually remove them, but you can kill them off using neem oil.
- Yellow leaves can be a sign of either overwatering or underwatering. Take note of your watering schedule and adjust as needed. Overwatering poses a bigger issue as it can lead to root rot, but both should be avoided if possible.
- Leaf burn happens when a plant is exposed to direct sunlight, and can result in brown spots of your plants’ leaves. The easiest solution is to just move your plants into an area with bright but indirect sunlight.
Baltic Blue Pothos Safety Considerations
Despite their many unique characteristics, Baltic Blue Pothos have one major issue that they share with other pothos plants. These plants contain calcium oxalate crystals, which aremildly toxic and can lead to vomiting, difficulty swallowing, and a few other complications.
This is unlikely to cause issues from simply touching the plants (although I would still recommend wearing gloves), but it can definitely cause issues if the plant is ingested. As such, please make sure to keep these plants out of the reach of your children and favorite four-legged friends!
On the plus side, these pothos plants—despite being semi-toxic—can actually help remove toxins from the air in your home. They’ve been proven to remove formaldehyde, benzene, xylene, and other common air pollutants from the air, making having multiple of these plants an easy way to improve your indoor air quality.
FAQs About Baltic Blue Pothos
These plants will climb is given something to grow up (like a bamboo pole), but they will trail if simply left to hang.
Despite both being pothos and both having “blue” in the name, these two are actually completely different plants. While the Cebu Blue is best known for its silvery-blue leaves, the Baltic Blue has darker, deep-green leaves that are larger and smoother. They do develop a blueish hue to them, but only with age.
Yes. Being a tropical plant, the Baltic Blue Pothos prefers areas with bright indirect light and a humidity level of around 60%.
Other Plant Posts
Well, I think that about sums things up for this plant! Hopefully, I’ve taught you everything you wanted to know about this plant (if not, just leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you!). There are many different types of pothos plants to go over, so I hope you’re enjoying the journey so far as I attempt to cover them all. Best of luck to all you experienced and new plant parents alike. I will see y’all soon with more pothos posts!
