Variegated Pothos plants are absolutely beautiful, and Marble Queen is one of the most striking.
However, if the conditions aren’t ideal, you may see that the plant starts to lose its variegation, in which case, you need to act quickly.
It is fixable, provided that you don’t let all the leaves revert, otherwise, it can be impossible to encourage the plant to produce variegated leaves once more.
It’s frustrating when your Pothos plant – or any plant, for that matter – starts growing all green leaves when the variegation is so gorgeous.
But there are two simple ways to encourage stronger variegation in your Pothos plants, so let’s get started.
How To Encourage More Variegation In Your Pothos Plants
Marble Queen Pothos can start to produce leaves with lots of green and not much else seemingly at random, but there are reasons why your plant will do this.
It is very frustrating, especially considering that variegated plants tend to be much more expensive than those with solid, single-color leaves.
It’s worth mentioning that the majority of variegated plants have unstable variegation, which means that they will revert to their solid green when they are struggling.
Non-variegated growth also grows much faster than variegated growth, and if you let the plant keep producing more solid green leaves, it will start to have less variegated ones until there are none left.
There are two ways you can encourage your Marble Queen to produce more variegation, and both methods will also work for other species of variegated plants, too.
Trim Back The Plant To Encourage More Variegation
Cutting back any plant can be a little nerve-wracking, especially if you are very attached to it! But the reality is that most plants will grow stronger with the occasional haircut, and the new growth tends to be denser.
But when it comes to managing variegation through pruning, it’s worth being smart about it. Don’t just chop away!
You need to choose carefully where along the vine you cut, as this affects the variegation that the plant will produce.
Put the scissors down for a minute. Take a look at the vine without the scissors in your hands. Start at the end of the vine, and work your way back.
Stop at the first leaf that has a great level of variegation – and ideally, what you want the rest of the plant to look like.
Take your scissors, and cut just below the node of this ideal leaf.
The idea is that once the plant produces new growth again on this vine, the new leaves will have a similar level of variegation as the leaf you cut back to.
With all plant care, nothing is exactly a solid guarantee, but there is a good chance that the new growth produced from the node will be much more variegated.
Repeat the process for any other vines that are growing nearly solid green leaves, leaving the beautiful variegated leaves attached to the plant.
Give The Plant Plenty Of Light
As variegated leaves have less chlorophyll, these plants need substantially more light than non-variegated leaves do.
Without enough light, the plant will produce more chlorophyll as a survival mechanism, which means that the leaves will turn greener.
You’ll also notice this in non-variegated plants. If you put two plants of the same species in different light levels, you’ll notice that the ones in less light will have darker leaves.
So when it comes to giving Marble Queen plenty of light, put it immediately in front of a window, preferably one that has some direct sunlight in the morning.
This will help stop the plant from reverting in the first place, but you may still need to use the method above if the plant still keeps putting out non-variegated leaves.
Should You Propagate Reverted Pothos Leaves?
While normally, it’s a good idea to propagate any plant material you cut from a Pothos plant, it’s not a great idea to propagate the leaves you take off when you’re trying to fix a plant’s variegation.
Well, you can do that, but only if you want a plant that doesn’t look like the variegated original. Propagating reverted leaves will result in a solid green plant, which is fine if that’s what you want, but it is a waste of time and space if you don’t!
Final Thoughts
Variegation in plants can be unpredictable and unstable. But it’s not difficult to manage, either.
If you give your Pothos enough light, and you selectively prune back any leaves or vines that are turning mostly green, this will help encourage the plant to produce more variegated leaves (See also Pothos NJoy Care Tips).
It’s not an exact science, but it gets easier as you become more familiar with the process.
