My ZZ plant is growing a new stem but at the same time I seeing lots of yellow leaves. This happened close to the time this app flagged watering (approx 30 day cycle). I keep pushing the watering thinking that I might be doing it too frequently but it’s unclear to me. Any ideas?
How much light are you giving it? In less light, even if you’re barely watering it, if it’s not photosynthesizing enough, a lot of the water just sits. I would move it somewhere that gets a little more light and see if that helps fix the watering (more light, plant drinks faster. Less light, plant drinks slower)
1 like
Maybe check the roots? Root rot is a possibility or it bey be time for a different size pot
0 likes
I took a look at the ZZ plant from your profile, and given the size of it, my best bet is that it needs more time to dry out between waterings. Once some ZZ plants mature and grow really big, some can hold off on being watered 3-6 months, even to a year. I would wait at least 30-60 days before watering yours. You might want to check the roots, then try to neglect it in terms of watering for a while. If you find there’s any root rot, come back and let us know and I’d be happy to walk you through how to treat it. If the roots are good, though, and you find more yellow stems or leaves, cut the yellow stems at the base of them, and remove the yellowed leaves. Let the soil completely dry out. One easy way to tell if it’s dry enough to water is to take a bamboo/barbecue skewer, stick it all the way to the bottom of the soil, then pull it out. If the soil sticks to it, wait at least 2 days, then test again. If the soil comes out clean and dry, with nothing sticking to it, it’s safer to water then. You want the soil to be bone dry. The other possibility could be that it’s in a pot that’s too big or doesn’t provide enough drainage. I know with the rhizomes of this plant and thick roots it tends to have that one might want to opt for a larger pot, but ZZ’s actually enjoy being a little more snug in their pots, so pot it in something no more than 1-2 inches larger in diameter to the width of the plant’s rootball. It currently looks like it might be in a pot that’s a little too big for it, so it might be sitting in a lot of excess, moist soil, which can make it take longer to dry out and lead to overwatering and root rot, or the yellowed leaves you’re seeing.
0 likes I would personally opt for a plastic pot with plenty of drainage holes or a terra cotta pot with at least one large drainage hole. If you’ve got a Lowe’s or Home Depot around, you’ll probably be able to find at least one pot of either option for fairly cheap, especially a Terra cotta one. Take a measurement of the width of your plant’s root ball before going to the store if you need a new pot, that way you can compare the size of the pots to what size you really need for yours. The last possibility I can think of is that the soil isn’t well draining enough. If it’s in a regular potting mix, has never been repotted in fresh soil, or is in something of Miracle Grow brand, that could easily be the culprit, or at least another contributor. I used Espoma’s Organic Cactus and Succulent mix for the ZZ I repotted to gift to a friend, and I would recommend getting a good well-draining cactus mix for this plant. Anything other than Miracle Grow will do, and if you’re not sure if it’s well-draining enough, add some perlite and orchid bark to increase the drainage of the mix. In short, you can try all three options here—checking the roots, repotting in something smaller, possibly with new soil if need be, and letting it dry out completely, allowing it to get bone dry between waterings, and using a skewer to test the soil’s dryness should help the plant recover a lot faster—but you can try any of those options and see if that helps it. Hope this helps.
0 likesThank you all for taking the time to reply. I followed your advice and repotted my plant into a smaller pot. While the roots were out, I noticed that there were so many dead roots tangled up in the new ones from all the shoots I had lost over the course of the year, it’s no wonder the plant wasn’t thriving. I’ve already seen a huge improvement in the two weeks of repotting.
