I could make this into an ultra long detailed article, delving into each of the symptoms that your peace lily might have, and explain the various causes. Said article would be, ooo, a good 5000 words long, and it would basically be a lot of repetitive content.
You see, peace lilies only have a set number of symptoms they can display, but each symptom can be caused by a load of different things.
For example, if your peace lily has yellowing leaves, this can be a result of:
- Underwatering
- Overwatering
- Pests
- Lack of light
- Crappy water quality
- It’s just old, and the plant feels like it’s no longer worth supporting (D:)
So what I’m going to do instead, is go over all the things that can cause issue in peace lilies, and you’re going to pick the one that you think applies to your lily.
How will you know? I’m going to go in order of how likely that the issue is the problem. So you can elimiate the things you know it isn’t as you go. The old Sherlock Holmes approach.
First, I’m going to list the issues that your peace lily might be facing:
- Leaves turning brown
- Leaves turning yellow
- Crispy edges to the leaves
- Straight up dying
- It’s not flowering
- It’s stunted
- It’s not growing
- The leaves are curling
- It’s drooping
- Brown leaf tips
- I’ve probably missed some. The cause will likely be below.
Now let’s get into the likely causes. Work through them from top to bottom. If you suspect that, for example, you’ve been overwatering, sort that out BEFORE trying anything else. Don’t start treating with fungicides etc until you’ve exhausted other avenues – it’s so much more likely to be, for example, root rot than a bacterial infection.
To avoid this article becoming a behemoth, I’ve linked relevant pages as I go.
This article is peace lily specific BUT the general theme applies to most plants. Although I tend to assume it’s a light problem with *most* other plants. However with peace lilies we start with:
Overwatering
Overwatering can cause pretty much all of the above symptoms. In fact, overwatering often masquerades as underwatering because it cause root rot and if the roots can’t absorb water then *technically* your plant is underwatered ever though it’s swimming.
I have a whole article on overwatering here, so there’s little point in me repeating myself. If you struggle with this, wait until your lily droops (not technically best practice, but it’s better than you were doing), check the soil is dry (don’t overlook this – just stick your finger in soil, or empty the plant out of the pot ), and water if it is.
Overwatering is a catch all term for lack of oxygen in the soil – it happens when the soil can’t dry out fast enough. Common causes are pots that are too big, too dense of a potting mix, not enough light, too low of a temperature etc etc.
Underwatering
If your peace lily droops and the soil is dry, give the rootball a good soak. I like to bottom water peace lilies (or use a self-watering pot)to ensure they are sufficiently hydrated.
Underwatered peace lilies can also get brown or yellow leaves, lack of flowering etc etc. If the roots are dry and brittle, you’re likely underwatering.
Too much light
Peace lilies can tolerate a decent amount of light but they don’t like change, so if you increase the light quickly, they can sulk.
Peace lilies like long hours of crap light. A north or east facing window is totally fine, but five feet from a south facing window is their favourite.
Not enough light
Long hours of crap light. Long hours. Crap.
If you want to put your lily in a room with no windows it will need a grow light BUT a cheap one from Amazon will do. Like one of these.
Light requirements for peace lilies
Too cold
Peace lilies are generally cold tolerant, but if it’s too cold for you, it’s too cold for your peace lily.
Cold peace lilies either won’t grow or will produce stunted growth – hardly aesthetically pleasing but ultimately won’t harm the plant. HOWEVER, low temperatures mean that the soil stays wet for longer after watering so can cause root rot.
Too hot
Again, if you’re too hot, your peace lily will be too.
There’s not a lot you can do about this other than move your plant to a cooler spot if possible. Hot peace lilies can droop because the water is evaporating out of the leaves reducing turgor pressure holding them up. I think they also try to reduce their surface area to reduce the volume of water exiting their leaves.
Basically, hot weather can cause inadvertent underwatering.
Temperature requirements for peace lilies
Pests
Peace lilies aren’t particularly pest-prone, but it does happen.
There are SO MANY posts on social media of people asking for help with their plants but flat out refusing to believe they have pests. You don’t have to be able to see them to know they’re there. After you’ve been in the plant game for a while, you can just tell.
If you suspect pests but can’t see any, then just be sure to hose your plant down and clean each leaf individually. Do this twice a week until your plant looks better. If there are no pests it won’t hurt the plant.
Poor soil quality
Peace lilies are NOT picky about soil type, but I’ve seen some…situations on Reddit.
Don’t use soil that you’ve dug up from outside. It’s too dense. Buy houseplant soil. Add perlite but peace lilies like to stay o the damper side to raw houseplant soil is fine. Bottom water so the fungus gnats can’t get a hold.
Soil requirements for Peace Lilies
Your cat is eating it
Weird looking marks on the leaves? It crops up SO OFTEN on Reddit and the top comment is ALWAYS ‘show us a picture of your cat’. Peace lilies are mildly toxic to cats but are unlikely to cause harm past an upset stomach (not to be confused with true lilies, which can cause fatal organ damage to cats)
Poor water quality
Brown tips are a sign of water quality issues BUT they’re also the result of salt build up in peace lilies that you can’t avoid.
Plants need some salts and they do not give a single shit about how they look.
Peace lilies are one of those plants that are prone to brown tips. It’s not a problem, other than aesthetically.
It can be a sign of physical damage or the plant being too cold, but if the brown…ness doesn’t travel up the leaf it’s likely not a ‘real’ problem.
Peace lilies are one of those plants that are more precious about water quality –
(if a plant prefers to be on the moister side, they will likely be picky about it’s quality – calathea are the same. Cacti do not care about water quality – within reason – at all)
– BUT they’ve been in cultivation for decades (centuries?) so they’ve been bred to put up with tap water. My rule of thumb? If you can drink it, your peace lily likely can.
Filtered water is probably best. If you want to give purified water you need to ensure you’re fertilising well or adding nutrients to the soil somehow.
My peace lilies can have tap water, and they can thank me for it.
Low humidity
Peace lilies typically don’t care about humidity, for the same reasons they don’t care about water quality much.
They will, however, be happy with inconsistent humidity in the way a Calathea won’t, so they are a candidate to live in the bathroom, assuming it doesn’t get too cold in winter (I don’t keep any of my plants in the bathroom over winter).
Not enough nutrients/fertiliser
I’ve literally never seen this in peace lilies other than in the peace lily I keep in leca because I haven’t fertilised it in forever. It has yellow leaves, but still flowers and is growing big leaves.
BY THE WAY
One of the most common causes of yellowing leaves is that the leaf is simply too old or small and the plant feels that it’s taking more than it gives. What you’re seeing is a murder, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
I do need to feed my leca lily. I’ll do it this weekend.
You know what? I’ll go and do it now.
Ok, I’m back, and feeling VERY productive.
So yeah, if your plant is very old and hasn’t been repotted in years, then feed it.
Too many nutrients/over fertilised
Unless you’re fertilising VERY often, then this is unlikely to be an issue. I actually tried to over fertilise my plants by fertilising them with every watering at full strength (the fertiliser at full strength, not me)
I’m not saying it never happens, just that it’s not likely, especially not peace lilies.
However, if you’re worried that this is the case, just put a reminder in your calendar for 4 months and don’t fertilise until then.
Bacterial infection
I have literally never had a plant with a bacterial infection. Never. it does happen, but it’s likely due to a care issue that will go away if you fix it, and if you’re attacking these in order then you’ve probably already solved it elsewhere.
Unless you mist. Do you mist? Stop it. Read this about humidity requirements for peace lilies.
And that’s it! If you’ve read this and haven’t yet found a solution for your peace lily problem, leave me a comment and I’ll answer it.
Further reading:
(suggestions, not homework)
