Problem · Plants
Why Plant Leaves Turn Yellow
Do not add fertilizer first. The soil tells you which problem you have.
Quick answer: If lower leaves turn yellow and the soil stays wet, water less or move the plant to a pot with a drainage hole. If the soil is dusty and the pot feels light, water thoroughly. Empty the saucer.
Wet soil or dry soil
How to check
Push a finger two inches into the mix. If it comes out wet several days after watering, stop. If it comes out dusty, water until it runs out of the drainage hole, then empty the saucer. A yellow leaf will not turn green again.
What to do
- Get the plant out of a cachepot with no hole.
- Water by soil moisture, not by a fixed calendar.
- If roots are black and mushy, trim them and repot into a pot with a hole.
- Give brighter indirect light before you feed a stressed plant.
- One or two oldest leaves, with normal new growth, can just be aging. Remove them.
What not to do
Do not fertilize a plant that is sitting in wet soil. Extra feed does not correct a drainage problem.
Related guides
Illustrations explain the problem. They are not product tests.