Chinese Money Plant: Everything You Need to Know About The Pilea Peperomioides
The Chinese Money Plant is a fascinating and eye catching plant; there is no doubt about that!
I’ve had my Pilea Peperomioides, (its scientific name), for three years.
I’ve been propagating and growing several Chinese Money Plants since my first plant started growing “pups”, which actually happens very fast!
Also known as the “Sharing Plant”, ( due to its incredible production of pups that can be cut and rooted into new plants), The Chinese Money Plant is a fast growing and relatively easy plant to maintain.
It can grow into a beautiful trailing plant with several clusters of green “pancake” like leaves along its trunk, or, it can be trained to grow upwards into a tall, majestic plant.
The beauty of buying one Chinese Money Plant, is that after only a few months, you can have a multitude of these plants and can experiment growing them in different ways; letting them trail, train them with a stake, letting some pups grow all around the base, or cleaning the pups out!
You can also share your baby Chinese Money Plants with the people you love!
(WARNING! I rooted almost 40 plants out of my three years old Chinese Money Plant! And that doesn’t even count all the pups I let grow in the pot with the Mother plant and the other plants I rooted from the mother plant…Yes, she’s a Grandma!!!)
Anyway, here are some facts about the Chinese Money Plant you should know about before we get into the care aspects!
The Pilea Peperomioides is native to the Cang Mountain range of the Yunnan Province in Southern China, where there is a consistent temperate climate with high humidity.
It’s no surprise that this plant does well in closed terrariums! (For more on this topic check out some of my Pilea growing experiments described in my previous article about Propagating and growing baby Chinese Money Plants!).
But, without any further ado, let’s dig into the Chinese Money Plant care!
October 2018 – This is a picture of my Chinese Money Plant the day I took it home from the store.
October 2021 – Fast forward three years; this is how the same plant has grown! I trained the main trunk with a bamboo stick, and I let the pups grow wild at the base of the original plant.
light
The Chinese Money Plant thrives in bright, indirect light.
I’ve tried different light exposures and I have to say that this plant loves a lot of bright light, as long as it is not direct sunlight.
Its ideal location is by a North facing window!
I had one relatively mature Pilea in a South facing room with a lot of light, but still far away from a window. It was doing OK, but not as good as the ones by the North facing window.
So, I tried to move it closer to the window, where it was getting a few hours of direct morning light. It was doing good at first, but then the leaves started fading in colour and looking droopy.
These signs were an indication that even the few hours of direct morning sunlight were scorching the plant’s leaves.
So, I just moved it with the rest of the Chinese Money Plant family by the Living Room North facing window.
It perked up within a couple of days!
Exposure Tips; Rotate your Chinese Money Plant once a week or every time you water it, so that all sides of the plant are exposed to the same amount of natural light. It will also help you keep your plant straight and balanced, rather than having stems and leaves tilted toward the light!
Three years old mother Pilea standing tall by the Living Room North facing window.
Humidity
The Chinese Money Plant is fairly adaptable when it comes to humidity levels. However, it does particularly well in high humidity conditions.
There are a few ways to increase humidity levels around your plants;
- Grouping your plants by species. Grouping plants together will help them raise the surrounding humidity levels.
- Misting your plants. I mist all those plants that thrive in high humidity with distilled water. Our tap water is really hard, so I want to avoid any calcium deposits on the leaves. In order to make misting effective, make sure that the water droplets actually fall into the top soil, and not just on the leaves.
- Using a tray filled with pebbles and water. Filling a saucer with small pebbles and adding water so that it barely reaches the top surface of the pebbles, helping maintaining higher levels of humidity around the plant. However, it is important that the bottom of the pot is not submerged in water with the roots stagnating in it. This will cause root rot in the long term.
I find that for my Chinese Money Plants, simply grouping them and misting them a couple of times per week is effective enough.
The beautiful details of the Pilea leaves.
Watering & fertilizing
They say that the best way to water your plants is to feel the soil moisture with your fingers, rather than to stick to a schedule.
I tend to agree with that!
Although, the Chinese Money Plant has been quite consistent in its watering needs. I pretty much water all my Pileas on schedule once a week, no matter the age, nor the size of the plant.
The one things is worth mentioning though, is that I have all my Chinese Money Plants in terracotta pots.
I noticed that when I had Pileas growing in plastic pots, they needed less water.
That’s because terracotta is more porous, while plastic is not. Even though both pots have drainage holes, the water absorption is very different.
The porosity of terracotta allows the soil to dry out faster.
In a plastic pot, there is no porosity, so if the soil doesn’t drain well, there is a risk of stagnation, with consequent root rot.
I am a big fan of terracotta pots for indoor plants.
I have seen plants recover in no time when repotted into terracotta pots from plastic!
But back at watering Chinese Money Plants; allow the soil to dry out between waterings, then give it a good amount of water until you see it draining out into the saucer. Discard excess water after a couple of hours.
Pileas grow fast, which means they need to be fed!
I fertilize mine every two weeks between Spring and Fall and once a month throughout the Winter with a Liquid Plant Food.
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repotting
Since the Chinese Money Plant grows fast, you’ll be tempted to repot it into a bigger pot quite often, but I recommend you resists the temptation and wait for the right time to do so!
When is the right time, you may ask?
Spring is the answer! Even if it looks like the plant is about to pop out of its pot!
In-fact, the Chinese Money Plant, is one of those plants that enjoys being root bound, (having its roots crammed in its pot).
However, there are exceptions to this rule; pests and diseases!
In this case it doesn’t mean you are upsizing your plant’s pot; you are simply replacing it!
If your Chinese Money Plant is infested by pests, such as gnats or thrips, you need to take your plant out of its pot, remove as much soil as possible without damaging the roots, and rinse off the roots well before repotting with fresh soil.
If it is Spring and your plant is in need of a bigger pot, go ahead and pick a pot that is one size bigger than the existing one.
(For example, if your Chinese Money Plant is planted in a 6″ pot, you want to repot it in a 8″ pot, not 10″!!)
Don’t miss the article on Repotting Indoor Plants to learn all the tricks!!
Make sure that you plant your Pilea into a pot with draining holes and add some Perlite to the potting mix. I use a ratio of 4 parts soil to 1 part Perlite to add drainage properties to the soil.
Read my article on Plant Drainage to learn more about proper drainage and its importance.
This Pilea was infested by Gnats. Being planted in a plastic pot placed inside a container did not provide proper soil ventilation, causing the formation of the fungus that brought gnats.
First, I removed as much soil as possible from the rootball.
Then, I rinsed and washed off as much soil, (and gnats), as possible!
You can see that the Chinese Money Plant root system is not that big. That’s why you shouldn’t rush repotting your plant when it grows.
Repotting the plant into a terracotta pot with draining holes. I prepared a mix of potting soil and Perlite to add draining properties to the soil as well.
Here’s the same plant a few weeks after being repotted into a terracotta pot with fresh soil.
training or trailing
Once the Chinese Money Plant starts growing and gaining some height, you’ll notice it will start leaning over.
You can mitigate the leaning towards the light, by rotating your plant once a week or every time you water it.
However, at some point you will need to decide to steak your plant or to let it trail.
It is actually a harder decision to make than you think!
If this is your first and only plant, you’ll probably be inclined to stake it, so it can keep growing upwards.
If you do that, I recommend you allow the pups growing at the base to continue to grow in the pot, rather than removing them. This will allow you to have a full base while the mother plant will continue to grow in height.
As the plant continues to grow in height and age, the older bottom leaves on the main trunk will start to get yellow and fall; it’s normal! (That is why you are allowing the pups to grow at the base; so that they can fill the void of those bottom leaves falling!!)
You will also notice that pups are starting to grow along the main trunk!! (Another great way to fill a bare trunk!).
If you decide to let your plant trail, I am going to warn you: the moment the trunk collapses is not going to look pretty!
But don’t panic!
Your Chinese Money Plant will adapt its trunk and leaves to bend and tilt toward the light! So give it a couple of weeks to start looking like a decent trailing plant!!
This is my first Chinese Money Plant. I decided to train this plant on a tall bamboo steak, so it can grow upwards.
(Notice the nice filling bush of bottom growing pups!)
With this Chinese Money Plant, I tried the trailing option and I am quite happy with it!
Especially considering how it started…keep scrolling to see how it looked like when its trunk first bent over!
As you can see, when the trunk first bent over, all the leaves were still facing down because they were used to facing up, towards the light when the trunk was still upwards.
It took two weeks, (right photo), for the trunk to bend up like a hook towards the light, and for the leaves to tilt to face the light!
Isn’t it fascinating how plants adapt to their surroundings?
propagating
The Chinese Money Plant is one of the easiest indoor plants to propagate!
I wrote an in-depth article about propagating the Pilea with step by step instructions, and you can click here to read it.
For the sake of this article, I will keep it simple.
As mentioned several times throughout this article, the Chinese Money Plant produces several “pups”, which are plantlets formed at the base of the main trunk, or even along the trunk once the plant matures.
These pups are easy to cut off from the main plant and root into new plants.
You can either root the cuttings in water for a few weeks, or plant them directly in soil.
I tried both techniques and have been successful both ways.
However, I always recommend the water rooting technique because it allows the roots to form and grow properly before getting planted. This way, you can witness the growth as well!
(It’s a fun and great learning activity to do with kids!)
Propagating Tips; Use sharp scissors when cutting pups off! Try to dig deep into the soil to find the pup’s connection to the main trunk, then cut the pup as close as you can to the main trunk. That way, your pup will pull out of the pot with some roots already formed!
These are the amount of pups I retrieved in one shot from one Chinese Money Plant. I rather let the pups grow a bit before cutting them off, so I can get more at once and their roots are more developped.
After approximately 8 weeks the roots are developed enough to be planted into little pots!
Within a couple of years, you too can take a nice Family Portrait!
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Hey you! Are you a middle-aged mother of tweens and/or teens?
- Do you feel like you are constantly running around, taking care of everyone else’s needs but your own? It’s all schedules, appointments, and endless to-do lists. There is just no time for you, and it feels like what you do is never really acknowledged.
- You are always exhausted because you are dealing at the same time with tweens and teens kids that are emotionally evolving, aging parents needing more help and support, as well as your perimenopausal symptoms.
- You often feel guilty for dedicating some time to yourself instead of prioritizing your children’s healthy dinner, a phone call to your parents, or dusting the living room shelves.
- Despite your best efforts, you constantly feel inadequate and ‘not enough’.
If you relate to this, click the link below to get my FREE ‘Reclaim 10 Hours in Your Day With My 5 Day E-Mail Guide Without Sacrificing Family Time, Even If You Are Already Multitasking From 5 am Till Midnight’.
Are you ready to reclaim your energy and find your purpose beyond motherhood? Click the link to Start
Hey Midlife Mom!
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I just bought my plant from Lowe’s sale shelf. It does have little bumps on some of leaves. What is this?
Hello Carolyn,
Would you care to send me some pictures by email so that I can provide some feedback?
The bottom leaves on my plant keep “drying” at the stem and falling off. I’ve tried researching this, with little luck. I don’t know if this is natural plant progression, or something I’m going wrong!
Hello Genevieve, lower leaves loss is common in winter. However, too many leaves is not healthy!
Is your plant in a draining pot of the right size? I find that many Pileas are planted in pots that are too big and tend to have too much moisture, especially if there is not enough drainage.
Is your Pilea getting enough natural light?
I’m having the same trouble as Genevieve. I have a long ugly leafless stem, which is topped by beautiful growth since I moved the plant. What can I do about that ugly stem? I need to repot the plant, could I do something then?
Hi Leah,
Does your plant has a lot of pups too?
I find that by removing almost all the pups, (you can place them in water too root), you’ll encourage your Pilea’s new growth. Some of that growth may occur along “the ugly stem”. I have one Pilea that I keep on a supporting stake and since it’s quite tall, it has a lot of exposed stem, but with time, it ended up growing new branches along that stem.
AMAZING ARTICLE!! Thank you really
This post answered every question I’ve had about my money plant. Thank you.
Such an informative article and fun to read too! I’m always delighted to get an email My Tasteful Space with more interesting plant info!