Philodendron Cuttings Not Rooting

[JohnAndSancho]

A friend sent me some philodendron cuttings a while ago, and I've been patiently trying to water root them. Instead of roots, they're growing new leaves in the water, and turning the water green in the process. I'm changing the water out regularly, I think I'm doing everything right - I'm really jealous of the people on YouTube that get results in like 2 weeks. 

 

This was her first time ever shipping plants, so while she put everything in moss, the moss was dry, but I can't be mad because she sent me some really cool stuff and I just want to get it all going. One of them has lost all of its leaves and is just a little nub and even it's trying to grow leaves instead of roots.

I don't have a pothos or any rooting hormone to add, so any tips or tricks would be appreciated. I'm also water rooting some Ti cuttings and I just watched a YouTube video of this dude who just snipped them and scraped the bark and plopped them straight into dirt. 

I did successfully water root a cutting from my Mom's ficus tree and I don't remember how long it took that to grow roots, but it damn sure wasn't 2 weeks. 

[metalfan]

I never, ever root things in water. Never have, never will. Water makes flimsy, fragile, easily breakable roots. Its much better to root in a 'solid' substrate...especially something like a Philodendron. Damp sphagnum moss, 'dirty moss' (moss mixed with a little perlite and fir bark) or just stick the cutting directly into soil.

[JohnAndSancho]

8 hours ago, metalfan said:

I never, ever root things in water. Never have, never will. Water makes flimsy, fragile, easily breakable roots. Its much better to root in a 'solid' substrate...especially something like a Philodendron. Damp sphagnum moss, 'dirty moss' (moss mixed with a little perlite and fir bark) or just stick the cutting directly into soil.

Good to know @metalfan. I guess I'll make some more fancy planters tonight. 

[meridannight]

Philodendra should be easy as long as you have high humidity. However, the cuttings should be fresh. You mentioned that these were cuttings 'sent by a friend'. If they were unrooted and sent in the mail, then it's very difficult. They go into stress without light and if they dry out and it will be very difficult to get them to grow again. If you have anything sent to you by mail make sure it's rooted first. 

 

[JohnAndSancho]

16 minutes ago, meridannight said:

Philodendra should be easy as long as you have high humidity. However, the cuttings should be fresh. You mentioned that these were cuttings 'sent by a friend'. If they were unrooted and sent in the mail, then it's very difficult. They go into stress without light and if they dry out and it will be very difficult to get them to grow again. If you have anything sent to you by mail make sure it's rooted first. 

 

She sent me more that were rooted and they're gorgeous. The pothos are kinda struggling, not dead but not thriving either. The room is staying in the 70s+ with 60% humidity now, and I added some willow to their water to try and bump them up. I guess some of them are more fragile than others. 

[TropicsEnjoyer]

@JohnAndSancho I recently took a burle-marx cutting that had an aerial root stub. I put it in a ziplock bag with wet perlite, leaving the leaves outside, and waited around 3 weeks. It has 2 nice white roots growing now and all I did was let it sit under a grow light. 

Might wanna try this, and I like that perlite doesn’t really harbor rot.

[JohnAndSancho]

2 hours ago, TropicsEnjoyer said:

@JohnAndSancho I recently took a burle-marx cutting that had an aerial root stub. I put it in a ziplock bag with wet perlite, leaving the leaves outside, and waited around 3 weeks. It has 2 nice white roots growing now and all I did was let it sit under a grow light. 

Might wanna try this, and I like that perlite doesn’t really harbor rot.

This is an idea, since I've got tons of baggies and just bought about 10 cu ft of perlite in anticipation of potting up all these bananas and papayas and (hopefully) some palms germinate. 

[meridannight]

On 10/17/2025 at 5:09 AM, JohnAndSancho said:

The room is staying in the 70s+ with 60% humidity now

The ideal that plants want would be 75%+ RH and temps between 27-35ºC (80-95ºF). I know it's difficult for a lot people to achieve (or even want to achieve) inside their homes. But that is the golden zone in which plant growth will go crazy. My home is under such conditions -- it happens that I am a tropical species myself, can't stand low humidity nor temps below 80F -- and I have Philodendra growing aerial roots more than they grow roots inside the pots. I don't even have to root my cuttings if I want to propagate, I just chop them, plant them immediately and they grow on as if nothing happened.

If you have less RH than that then you might wanna bag the cuttings you're trying to root. You can still keep them in water, just bag the whole glass with your cuttings and that will help with less than ideal RH. 


Below is an image of one of my Philodendron erubescens 'Red Emerald' plants. It's not the wildest I have in terms of aerial root growth, but I have all my old images on another Mac and it's difficult to get them to the Mac I use for online browsing. So, currently this is one of the examples I can show. Lots of long aerial roots growing out all over the place. This what high humidity and warm temps does to these plants.  

[JohnAndSancho]

42 minutes ago, meridannight said:

The ideal that plants want would be 75%+ RH and temps between 27-35ºC (80-95ºF). I know it's difficult for a lot people to achieve (or even want to achieve) inside their homes. But that is the golden zone in which plant growth will go crazy. My home is under such conditions -- it happens that I am a tropical species myself, can't stand low humidity nor temps below 80F -- and I have Philodendra growing aerial roots more than they grow roots inside the pots. I don't even have to root my cuttings if I want to propagate, I just chop them, plant them immediately and they grow on as if nothing happened.

If you have less RH than that then you might wanna bag the cuttings you're trying to root. You can still keep them in water, just bag the whole glass with your cuttings and that will help with less than ideal RH. 


Below is an image of one of my Philodendron erubescens 'Red Emerald' plants. It's not the wildest I have in terms of aerial root growth, but I have all my old images on another Mac and it's difficult to get them to the Mac I use for online browsing. So, currently this is one of the examples I can show. Lots of long aerial roots growing out all over the place. This what high humidity and warm temps does to these plants.  

I have another room that's - it's hard to explain but it's an add on to the house and I'm turning this into my grow room. It's not connected to the central HVAC, it's a large room - probably 500 SQ ft or so including a large walk in closet. YouTube.com/dbljzzl has some footage and the "Wall of Bananas" I'm working on. I guess I could move some philodendrons in there since long term I plan to grow them for cuttings. 

[metalfan]

If your plant already has ANY adventitious roots, it does not need the water step

[JohnAndSancho]

7 hours ago, metalfan said:

If your plant already has ANY adventitious roots, it does not need the water step

Nada. 

[metalfan]

If you aren't having success with water I would try dipping it in rooting hormone and putting it in well draining soil

[GeneAZ]

When you place the cuttings in water to root, is the container clear allowing light to penetrate?  Also, with 70F air temperatures, the water in that container would be cooler; probably in the 55-65F range.  Also, do you have a clue as to what the pH of your water is?  Higher pH like 7.8 to 8.0 will stall all growth.

[JohnAndSancho]

On 10/23/2025 at 2:15 PM, GeneAZ said:

When you place the cuttings in water to root, is the container clear allowing light to penetrate?  Also, with 70F air temperatures, the water in that container would be cooler; probably in the 55-65F range.  Also, do you have a clue as to what the pH of your water is?  Higher pH like 7.8 to 8.0 will stall all growth.

I have no idea what the PH is, but yeah - small clear containers on a heat mat with water and a splash of peroxide has been my go to method for everything from water rooting to seed soaking. I know we have very soft water here - aside from the humidity, it feels like it takes a lot longer to dry off after a shower than it did with the hard water in Texas. I have no idea what that means in terms of PH, I was a marketing major and my background is hospitality and sales. I'm kind of the token idiot around here. 

[metalfan]

show us photos of your cuttings

[JohnAndSancho]

2 hours ago, metalfan said:

show us photos of your cuttings

This is kind of an old thread. Everything has rooted or died by now, except the pothos which I think 3/4 are dead but I'll get pics when I go back to the grow room later. I need to finish bracing my bench, hang some lights, and pot a dozen or so things. 

[JohnAndSancho]

1 hour ago, JohnAndSancho said:

This is kind of an old thread. Everything has rooted or died by now, except the pothos which I think 3/4 are dead but I'll get pics when I go back to the grow room later. I need to finish bracing my bench, hang some lights, and pot a dozen or so things. 

I think these are all various pothos. I'll have to go through my texts to see what's what. This one rooted out, looks good, and is growing. 

These, not so much. And it looks like it's time to change the water or just compost these. My friend just threw them in a care package since I mentioned using pothos to water root other plants. 

[metalfan]

That's a mess. You are rotting them. Take them out, clean them up and pot them in either moss or soil