How to Grow Devils Ivy

Choose a pot with good drainage holes and use a good quality potting mix like Yates Specialty Potting Mix Indoor Plants & Ferns.

Remove the plant from the container, gently tease the roots and cut away any circled or tangled roots. Give the foliage a light prune to encourage new shoots.

Position in the middle of pot and backfill with potting mix, gently firming down. Water in well.

Help protect your plants from fungus gnats by applying a layer of Yates Gnat Barrier to the top of the mix.

Water when the potting mix is dry – insert your index finger to the first knuckle, if it's dry, water and if it feels moist, leave watering for a few more days.

Feed fortnightly from spring to autumn with Yates Thrive Indoor Plants & Ferns Liquid Plant Food or use a Yates Thrive Plant Food Spikes Plants & Ferns which feeds for 2 months.

• Re-pot every couple of years to help keep the plant happy and healthy. 
• To promote lush healthy foliage growth, from spring to autumn feed every 2 months month with Yates Thrive Plant Food Spikes Plants & Ferns. It's as simple as pushing a spike into the potting mix towards the edge of the pot. The spike is out of sight and there's no mixing or measuring required.
• Remove any brown leaves to keep the plant looking tidy and gently wipe the leaves regularly to remove any dust.
• If stems become too long or you'd like to promote thicker, bushier growth, stems can be trimmed. You can propagate more plants using these stem pieces by simply placing them in glass or vase of water. Make sure each piece has at least two nodes (bumps on the stem) where roots and shoots can develop.
• If fungus gnats (annoying tiny winged insects that fly around the house) are a problem in your indoor plants, apply a layer of Yates Gnat Barrier granules over the surface of the potting mix. This deters the female fungus gnat from laying her eggs and helps break the fungus gnat life cycle.
• Green thumb tip: to retain their leaf colours and patterns, variegated Devil's ivy will require brighter light than greener varieties.

Devil's Ivy do best in moderately moist soil. Make sure the pot has good drainage with holes in the bottom. If the plant is sitting in a saucer or inside another decorative cover pot, don't let the pot sit in water and empty out water shortly after watering.

You can water plants inside the home, however, every week or so, it's a good idea to take the plant outside and give it a thorough soaking through. This will help to flush any built-up salts from fertilisers, as well as give you an opportunity to wash the leaves.

Devil's Ivy can be pruned to remove dead, diseased and damaged stems; to keep a better shape; and the encourage multi-stemmed branching.

Always use sharp and clean pruning tools, such as secateurs, and prune half a centimetre after a growth point.

Pruning is best done in spring and early summer. Remove no more than a third of the total foliage volume. Water a day or so prior to pruning.

There is no one cause of plant leaves going brown. If you find that only very old leaves are dying off every now and then, then this is just the natural lifecycle of a leaf (leaf senescence). However, if you find many of your Devil's Ivy leaves are dying and falling off, this is a sign of plant stress. This may include issues with light, water, temperature, drafts, humidity, pests and diseases.

Signs of Overwatering

If the plant is wilting; the leaf tips are brown; the leaves are yellow and mushy; and/or the potting mix is wet and maybe smells bad, this means you need to allow the potting mix to dry out more in between watering sessions.

Signs of Underwatering

If the plant is wilting; leaves are dry and shrivelled; and/or the potting mix is shrinking away from the edges, this means you need to water more often.

See How to Water a Devil's Ivy Plant for more info.