What causes Peace Lily Yellow Leaves and Solutions

Peace lily plant growers face many problems like peace lily leaves turning yellow, brown spots on leaves, wilting and leaf drooping. All these are common problems for the new growers.

There are many reasons responsible for the paling and yellow leaves of lily plants. But according to my experience with these plants. There are 4 causes that turn beautiful green foliage into yellow color.

Most of the time people think it is the excess water that is causing yellow leaves. But in 90% of cases, water is not responsible for yellow peace lily leaves.

Read this post till the end to understand why your peace lily leaves are tuning to yellow color.

You need to identify the cause at the paling stage before they turn into a yellow color. Because once the leaves turn yellow. No fertilizer and technique can turn them back healthy and green.

The only solution for yellow leaves is to cut them from the plants and fix the cause. Before your entire turn into yellow color

In this post, you will know about the 4 main causes of peace lily yellow leaves and some basic care steps.

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What are the reasons responsible for peace lily yellow leaves?

The normal color of peace lily leaves is beautiful dark green. You need to look for the issue once the green color starts fading. At this time, you can reverse the color by fixing what is wrong.

To identify the reason for yellow leaves, follow the below-written steps.

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Direct Sunlight

Peace lily does not require direct sun rays. It is best to grow it in a shady place where it can get indirect bright light. Because the direct fall of sun rays on the peace lily leaves make them dry. The plant stores water in its leaves. When the sun rays fall on them the leaves become warm. As a result, the stored water content starts vaporizing.

Once the leaves go out of the water, they start losing their natural color. This Process turns them from dark green to yellow.

Moreover, if your plant is in stressful growing conditions. This means if the grow room temperature suddenly changes up and down. This put the stress on plants and turns the leaves into yellow color.

Problem with Soil

The second reason for peace lily yellow leaves is the soil that you use to grow them in pots. This is a houseplant of short height. You do not need to feed its a high number of fertilizers.

New growers use highly nutritional potting soil for growing peace lily. This is the wrong approach because this kind of pre mixed potting soil has high percentage of NPK.

Yes, it needs NPK but in a limited amount. Pre-mixed soil is best for plants that required a continuous supply of nutrients.

Any normal soil mixed with organic compost is best for growing peace lily. Always mix compost in your garden soil before using it for lilies. Because this makes the soil particles lose and give room for roots to grow.

Tightly packed soil cut the oxygen supply to the roots and this results in yellowing leaves of peace lily plants.

The second main thing about the soil is it should be well-draining soil. No doubt peace lily needs moisturized soil all the time. But there is a difference between wet soil and slightly moisturized soil.

The soil can save your plants from excess water.

For example, Let’s say if you accidentally pour extra water in the pot and the soil absorbs it completely. Now, how you take out the extra water from the soil. There is no such method.

If the soil has good draining properties then the soil let the excess water go out through the draining hole of the pot.

Unsuitable Water

Every water on the earth is not for drinking and watering plants. Some waters are hard, some are soft and some contain salt and other minerals.

We all know that tap water has many additives that are not suitable for growing houseplants. Plants need clean water. Rainwater is best for all types of plants on the planet. But it Is not possible to give rainwater to indoor growing plants every time they need water.

So, what you can do is you can use the filtered water for watering peace lily. This water does not contain calcium like our tap water. Calcium blocks the root’s absorbing pores and your plants become nutrient deficient.

Nutrient deficiency and root block also turn the green leaves of lily into yellow leaves.

Sometimes new growers kill their plants by continuously using tap water for watering peace lilies.

The golden rule is

Water that is free of heavy minerals and is suitable for human consumption is best for plants.

To know if the water is causing the problem. You need to tilt the pot and check the bottom hole. Look for the salt build-up. If the salt builds up is present change the water and soil of the pot. This will save your plant from dying. Also, you have to remove the yellow leaves of peace lily before shifting them to the new soil.

Naturally yellow leaves

Yes, the peace lily leaves at the bottom of the plants turn into yellow color naturally. The plant turns the bottom leaves to yellow color to kill them. Because it needs extra energy to produce a heavy bloom.

The upper part of the plant remains dark green but only the bottom leaves suffer. Once it produces heavy bloom. The plant automatically starts producing tiny new leaves at the bottom

Basic caring tips

Fertilizing peace lily

The plants like to eat fertilizers like 10-10-10. This is the best combination for the peace lily. If you go up and choose high strength fertilizers like 20-20-20. Your plant cannot handle it and you will surely get yellow leaves due to the over-fertilization.

The best practice is adding some organic compost to the potting soil.

Because the compost is made by using organic waste. So, it has many organic nutrients that are easy for the plant roots to absorb.

If you want to use pre made fertilizers. Then the liquid plant fertilizers are a perfect choice. Miracle grow is the top manufacturer of houseplant fertilizers. Do not use powdered fertilizers they can block the rooting area.

Buy a bottle of liquid fertilizers and read the instruction on the bottle before fertilizing the plant. All liquid fertilizers are in concentration form. You have to dilute them by adding them to the water.

Normally 1 cap of nutrients is enough for 1litre of water.

Fertilize your peace lily once in 70 days.

If you are using soil mixed with compost then do not use any fertilizer. Because the compost has everything for the plant.

Humidity and peace lily

Most of the time the plant is showing signs of low humidity. But people think it is turning yellow due to some unknown problem.

If your plants only show the brown tips. This means the problem is with the humidity, else is good. You need to increase the humidity in the place where you have a pot of peace lily.

To increase the humid level, put the tray of pebble filled with water under the pot.

Or

You can use a humidifier. If you don’t use a water tray or humidifier then you need to mist water on leaves twice a day in summer and once in winter.

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