11 plants you can grow in water, no soil needed

The nice thing about growing a plant in water is that it costs you nothing to try. A cutting off somebody else's plant, a jar, and a windowsill. No mix, no pot, no repotting, and you can watch the roots come, which is genuinely the most interesting part of growing anything and normally happens where you cannot see it.

It is also the least intimidating way in for anybody who has decided they cannot keep plants alive. Most of what kills a houseplant is watering, and you have just removed watering from the equation.

The 11

Pothos

The one to start with. A cutting with a couple of leaves and a node roots in about a fortnight and will keep going in water indefinitely. Copes with low light and with neglect.

Peace lily

Will live in water for years with just the roots submerged. Change the water every couple of weeks. Worth knowing the sap irritates, so keep it away from where a small child or a cat would chew it.

Lucky bamboo

Not actually a bamboo, it is a dracaena. Stand it in a vase with pebbles to hold it upright and keep the water topped up above the roots.

Spider plant

Snip off one of the babies that hang down on runners and put it in water. Roots in a week or two and you have a whole new plant for free, which is why everybody has one.

Heartleaf philodendron

Same method as pothos and just as forgiving. Handles a darker corner better than most.

Mint

A stem off a supermarket bunch will root in water within a week. Worth knowing that mint in a garden bed takes over completely, so keeping it in a jar or a pot is the sensible move anyway.

Sweet potato vine

Sit a sweet potato with its bottom half in water and it sends out roots and then vines. More of a project than a houseplant and children find it fascinating.

Coleus

For colour. Take a cutting, put it in a bright spot, and it roots quickly. The leaf colour is better in good light and goes dull in a dark corner.

Tradescantia zebrina

Silver and purple striped leaves, and it grows fast enough that you notice week to week. Sold under a few old common names, one of which is a slur, so it is worth asking for it by the proper name or as an inch plant.

Basil

A cutting with a couple of leaves roots in about a week. Keep it out of the fridge and in the light and you have basil on the bench instead of a bag going black in the crisper.

Begonia

A leaf or a stem cutting will root, and the patterned leaf varieties are worth doing for the look alone.

Making it work

  • Cut below a node. That bump on the stem is where roots come from. A cutting with no node in the water will sit there and do nothing.
  • Strip the lower leaves. Any leaf sitting under the water rots and fouls the whole jar.
  • Change the water. Every week or two. When it goes cloudy it has already gone too long.
  • Let tap water stand. If yours is heavily chlorinated, leave it out overnight before using it.
  • Bright, indirect light. Direct sun through glass onto a jar grows algae and cooks the roots.
  • Clear jars. Half the point is watching it happen.

When to move it into soil

Some of these will live in water forever and some do better potted up once the roots are a few centimetres long. The thing nobody mentions is that water roots and soil roots are not the same, so a cutting that has been in water a long time takes a while to adjust after potting. Move it while the roots are still short, keep the mix properly damp for the first fortnight, and it transitions without sulking.

Shop related products

The garden centre carries mixes, pots and fertilisers, and the plant benches change every couple of weeks, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is in. What is online sits in garden products.

More for indoors

I have a jar of pothos on the kitchen windowsill that I have been meaning to pot up for about two years and it has not held it against me.

Cheers,
Candeece

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