Pothos Light Needs: How Much Sunlight Do Pothos Need?

If you’re considering buying pothos to display in your home, you’re likely wondering how much light this tropical plant needs to thrive. You’ll find that natural or artificial lighting can easily meet pothos light needs. To best understand how much sunlight pothos needs, it’s important to know how this plant grows in the wild.

As such, in this article, we’ll cover how much sun pothos receives in the wild and how you can best recreate this environment in your home.

So, without further ado, let’s jump in!

Pothos Light Needs: Pothos in the Wild

Belonging to the Arum (Araceae) family of plants, pothos is a member of the Epipremnum genus, which contains tropical plants native to Southeast Asia, the Pacific islands, and Australia. A tropical vine, pothos’s botanical name is Epripremnum aureum, and botanists generally agree it originated from the Solomon Islands of the South Pacific.

In its natural habitat, this plant with gorgeous variegated leaves grows in the understory of large tropical trees. As it grows under this dense canopy, it receives filtered sunlight through the tree leaves. This means pothos naturally thrives in medium-to-bright indirect sunlight. While you may picture this heat-loving plant soaking up all the sun’s rays, this understory plant suffers from leaf burn when grown in direct sunlight.

What does this mean for where you should place your pothos in relation to the sun and how much sunlight they should receive? We’ll explain below.

Pothos Light Needs: Helping Your Plant Thrive

Like all photosynthesizing plants (and yes, some plants gain nutrients without photosynthesis), pothos need access to light, which converts into energy. Pothos typically requires nine or more hours per day of sunlight to thrive. Pothos can also thrive as a houseplant grown in appropriate artificial lighting. It’s one of the reasons this plant is widely considered to be so adaptable and easy to grow.

Let’s break down providing pothos its light needs into two sections: using sunlight and artificial lighting.

Providing Pothos with Sunlight

Whether you’re growing pothos outside or as a houseplant, if you’re growing your plant in sunlight, you’ll need to ensure both the amount and intensity of sun exposure are correct for pothos.

If you choose to grow pothos in filtered sunlight outdoors, you can choose either a partially-shaded area such as in hanging baskets in a protected location on a porch or you can place your plant in a pot near the base of a suitable tree. By growing your plant at the base of a tree, you can provide your plant with filtered sunlight (through the tree leaves) and give pothos, which is naturally a climbing vine, a way to ascend up the tree’s trunk.

Choose a spot that produces ideally bright indirect sunlight, although medium indirect sunlight also works. Remember, you also want to ensure your pothos have access to at least nine hours of this indirect sunlight daily.

Now, if you’re growing your plant indoors, you can still provide it with adequate indirect sunlight by placing it near a window. Typically, the first three feet from a window is considered direct sunlight. The following 2-3 feet is considered bright indirect sunlight, so about 5-6 feet away from a window can be the perfect place for your pothos to grow.

It’s best to avoid placing the plant in south or west-facing windows as the sunlight will generally be too intense for this plant. Instead, try to place your plant, so it has access to north and east-facing windows. Again, make sure the sunlight access is for at least nine hours, especially in the growing seasons of spring and summer.

Potho Light Needs: Providing Artificial Lighting

Thankfully, if you don’t have a great option for growing your pothos in sunlight, you can definitely opt for artificial lighting. Essentially, pothos needs between 10,000-20,000 lux of lighting. First off, let’s explain what “lux” is. Lux measures the total illumination of a surface by light. It’s a unit of illuminance or luminous intensity.

For pothos, you can purchase grow lights specifically designed for growing plants or use any other lighting source that falls within 10,000-20,000 lux. LEDs or full-spectrum fluorescent tubes can both work great.

How close you place your artificial light source depends on what source you’re using and the intensity of the light exposure. Some bulbs can burn your plant, so make sure you understand what source you’re using. If you’re using grow lights designed for plants, you’ll typically want to set up pothos about one foot from the light source. Additionally, opt for about 12-14 hours of light when using artificial lighting since it’s not as strong as sunlight.

Inadequate Lighting

While pothos typically fares better in not enough sunlight than growing in full sun, it still can suffer from a light deficiency. Remember, pothos converts light into energy it uses to grow, repair itself, and remain healthy.

Here are a few signs you’ll typically notice when your plant doesn’t receive enough light.

1. A leggy appearance: This means you’ll see the emergence of long, thin stems that lack a full, leafy appearance. This legginess results from your plant essentially reaching out for more light.
2. Stretching toward the light source: If you’re growing near a window, you’ll often see the plant growing towards the window, stretching to access more light.
3. Pale stems: Additionally, since your plant needs adequate light to produce chlorophyll, you’ll also see pale stems as it begins to lose its green pigmentation.
4. For variegated or vividly colored cultivars, a reversion back to darker green pigmentation: This might sound like the opposite of our third point. However, for variegated or vividly-colored cultivars, such as “Neon” and “Marble Queen,” the plant will respond to a lack of adequate light by reverting back to a darker green pigment to better photosynthesize through increased chlorophyll. However, if this fails to address the issue, you’ll see the same paleness develop on these plants.
5. Stunted growth and emergence of smaller leaves: As your plant falls below its necessary energy intake, you’ll notice a lack of growth and smaller leaves.

How to Fix

Thankfully, if you see signs that your pothos plant is not receiving enough light, the solution is as simple as you may guess. You’ll need to place your plant in a more appropriate location, whether closer to a window or artificial light source. You may also need to make sure that your pothos is placed where it actually receives enough hours of light a day, even if the light intensity is correct.

Too Much Light

Too much light can be a common problem when growing pothos on a window sill, particularly south or east-facing. You’ll notice crispy, dry, grey/brown leaves that may even fall off when sunburnt. While pothos generally does fine with about 3 hours a day of direct sunlight, anything over that puts your plant at greater risk of developing sunburn.

How to Fix

To fix sunburn in plants, you’ll first need to snip off any affected leaves, especially those over 50% damaged. Sunburnt leaves won’t repair themselves, so removing them is normally best. Just make sure you use sterile snips to remove the leaves to lower the risk of introducing pathogens into the cut portion of the plant.

Once the leaves are removed, move the plant into a more appropriate location where it won’t receive too much light. Thoroughly water your plant if the soil is dry.

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