A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Peace lily

Hi Everyone
Love coming in here and reading all the question and answers, now I have one of my own.
My peace lily is growing well and has had some small flowers already, but now most of its leaves have yellow tips and the ends turn brown. Can anyone please tell me what I'm doing wrong. Too much water, or not enough....
Thanks, you've helped before I'll be looking forward to you answer.

Hello Rosepetal. I have a peace lily. I just water throughly once a month and place in my west window, now that the sun isn't as strong. I don't fertilize it for i let it make it's own food from the sun. I am just now getting another small flower. Water it alot less now that it's fall. You can probably place in full sun also. Robert

Hi Rosepetal,

Dry brown tips on peace lilies are often a sign of underwatering or excess soil salts. Yellow and very dark brown tips are more often caused by keeping the soil a bit too moist. It is pretty hard to distinguish between the two and it is also pretty hard to get the watering "just right."

If your peace lily has wilted frequently, then you have been under watering and that is the likely cause of the leaf tipping. If the leaves have never started to wilt, then you may be keeping the soil just a bit too moist. The ideal time to water is just as the leaves are starting to wilt, but there is not much margin for error.

Excess soil salts cause leaf tip burn. The soil salts come from using hard water. If your water is hard, switch to distilled, filtered or rainwater. Also use only diluted fertilizer and avoid perlite in the soil mix.

Hi Rosepetal, Will, and Robert,

I have a peace lily that is doing the same thing -- turning brown and dying, and yellowing on the bottom stems/leaves. The middle of the plant is doing wonderfully well, with several beautiful blooms. We've had it for a little over 3 years, and it has just NOW started blooming though -- a couple months ago. I have been trying to pay attention to the moisture in the plant after watering. I thought I was letting it get too much water, but then when I've checked, it's always been dry. I will try to pay better attention to this. Is it okay to go ahead and cut off the dead leaves/stems? I have already done some of this to make the plant prettier, but now more is turning brown.

Thanks for the info,
Les

This is my second post on here -- I have just joined this forum, and am learning lots already.

Hi Les,

Once leaves start to turn yellow or green, they never regain their color so you might as well trim them off just to make the plant look nicer.

The gradual loss of older leaves is normal. If you are losing a lot all at once, then you may have a root problem. I suggest that you let the soil get dry enough so that the leaves start to wilt just a bit. That will give you a good idea as to just how dry you can let the soil get before it needs water.

Thanks, Will, for replying with the much needed info. I had been trimming the stems so I guess I've been doing the right thing. I've got to inspect it tomorrow and clean it up some, along with several others. I will pay more attention to the watering and the soil moisture, though. I have seen some of these plants that are so beautiful and healthy, I just hope I can get mine back on track.

By the way, when do they need to be repotted? Do they need to get rootbound?

Thanks again,
Les

peace lilies are much happier the more root bound they are. and if you have one that is not root bound, you will discover that the "babies" grow very close to the parent plant, creating a crowded effect. even in large pots.