Why does my yucca have brown tips and yellowing leaves?
I’ve had this yucca for a couple months now and it has started getting browned tips and dropping leaves. The soil is moist. The app says it needs more sunlight, but the store I bought it from said it would do fine in low light. Any recommendations? Thanks!!
13ft to light, indirect
8” pot with drainage
Last watered 10 months ago
4
Hi Hannah! What a beauty! 🤩 I wouldn't be too unduly concerned about the yellowing leaves... From what I can see they're the oldest leaves and will just yellow and die naturally (which is how that lovely "scaled" stem forms, like on a Dracaena!).
Brown tips on Yukka is generally down to EITHER UNDERwatering (it feels so weird to type that! Lmao 🤣 generally I'm telling folk their plant issues are down to OVERwatering! Lol) but I don't think that's the likeliest cause here... It can also be down to salt or mineral build up in the soil (either from a touch too much fertiliser, or from using straight tap water usually). Depending where you are in the world you might get away with simply standing your water out for 24hrs (preferably on a windowledge) to let the chlorine gas off... I'm in Scotland so this works fine for me! BUT, if you have Chloramine instead of Chlorine in your tap water, or your local government adds Fluoride, or you suspect the might be heavy metals (for example) in your water I'd recommend either buying distilled or buying a Zero Water Filter, both of which will provide water without the nasties that can hurt our green babies. Most of mine, as I said, handle our fantastic tap water brilliantly but I do have a couple of "divas" (read Calathea, for the most part! Lmao 🤣) that really don't like anything but pure H2O! Lol
The can do ok in lowER light, but to really live her best life she should be getting bright, indirect light (houseplants favourite! Lol... I generally translate that to "she likes to see the sky but not the sun" as a rough guide!) but if you've not got a suitable position for her near a bright window, if invest in a cheap full spectrum lightbulb or grow light (it's done wonders for my jungle! I have a deficit of bright, natural light in my flat 🫣🤣). @seymoir started a #light group of you're interested in learning more about growlights etc.
This is all pretty general, but I hope it helps a bit? 🥰 She looks pretty damned healthy to me tbh! So it's only minor tweaks you need, if anything, imo xxx
Brown tips on Yukka is generally down to EITHER UNDERwatering (it feels so weird to type that! Lmao 🤣 generally I'm telling folk their plant issues are down to OVERwatering! Lol) but I don't think that's the likeliest cause here... It can also be down to salt or mineral build up in the soil (either from a touch too much fertiliser, or from using straight tap water usually). Depending where you are in the world you might get away with simply standing your water out for 24hrs (preferably on a windowledge) to let the chlorine gas off... I'm in Scotland so this works fine for me! BUT, if you have Chloramine instead of Chlorine in your tap water, or your local government adds Fluoride, or you suspect the might be heavy metals (for example) in your water I'd recommend either buying distilled or buying a Zero Water Filter, both of which will provide water without the nasties that can hurt our green babies. Most of mine, as I said, handle our fantastic tap water brilliantly but I do have a couple of "divas" (read Calathea, for the most part! Lmao 🤣) that really don't like anything but pure H2O! Lol
The can do ok in lowER light, but to really live her best life she should be getting bright, indirect light (houseplants favourite! Lol... I generally translate that to "she likes to see the sky but not the sun" as a rough guide!) but if you've not got a suitable position for her near a bright window, if invest in a cheap full spectrum lightbulb or grow light (it's done wonders for my jungle! I have a deficit of bright, natural light in my flat 🫣🤣). @seymoir started a #light group of you're interested in learning more about growlights etc.
This is all pretty general, but I hope it helps a bit? 🥰 She looks pretty damned healthy to me tbh! So it's only minor tweaks you need, if anything, imo xxx
@JenniB81 thank you for your reply!! I haven’t had a yucca before so I didn’t know the dropping of old leaves was normal. Big relief! I will get a grow light to help her out. And I have been using filtered water from my fridge (I’m in the USA). I will have to do some more research about the chlorine etc.
@JenniB81 I did also fertilize it about a month ago… I don’t know when the store I got it from fertilized so maybe that’s the culprit.
@WhollyCutgrass fertiliser burn is a thing unfortunately (and REALLY hard to know if you've accidentally over fertilised until she starts showing signs! Lol) but I wouldn't worry too much 😊 like I said she looks really healthy to me tbh! I think you'll be just fine 🥰 xxx