Tried bottom watering my pothos for 3 months straight

Anthony Hill · 2026-06-17T01:35:04.467623+00:00

My pothos was getting yellow leaves no matter what I did. Read online that bottom watering prevents overwatering, so I switched to it completely. Turns out the pot had a weird drainage setup and the roots were sitting in stale water the whole time. Plant nearly died before I figured it out. Anyone else have a plant that just refuses to cooperate with the trendy methods?

harperp243mo ago

Switched to a pot with a visible drainage hole and my pothos perked right up.

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torres.blair3mo ago

Honestly, are we sure it's not just the plant being dramatic? @harperp24, a drainage hole isn't a magic fix. I've had pothos in plastic nursery pots with plenty of holes that still got root rot because I was overwatering. Sometimes the trendy methods work, but a lot of it just comes down to the soil mix and how fast it dries out.

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henryt183mo ago

Ugh I totally feel you on this one... I did the exact same thing with my snake plant. Switched to bottom watering because everyone swore by it and then realized the pot I had was one of those ones with a glued on drainage plate. Water just sat there for days... my snake plant looked worse than when I was top watering. Sometimes the basics just work better for certain setups.

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