Yucca palm, palm lily gets yellow leaves – what to do?

First of all, do not water the plant until you know the cause of the yellow leaves. This request is clearly placed in front here because the friendly care of the average German hobby gardener makes this warning seem appropriate at this point: The dutiful hobby gardener takes care of his plants, and because he knows that plants need water, he gives you more than enough of it than too little, even in normal cases. But if a plant looks sick, and even has yellow leaves that indicate that it is drying up, the gardener’s hand automatically reaches out to the watering can: ‘First of all, water it well, it cannot do any harm, and then we will Explore what is lacking in peace! ‘.

Which yucca is it?

When buying a yucca, we are often told that this plant likes and needs high humidity. In the vast majority of cases, however, exactly the opposite is true. In the trade you can choose from a large number of yuccas, the genus comprises around 50 species and over 25 subspecies, almost all of which are cultivated and sold. So it would be best if you first determine which yucca is in your living room, then you can assess “how much too damp” you have kept this palm lily up to now, and then you may have already figured out the cause of the yellow leaves:

If you divide the yucca according to their origin, the main part of the yuccas grows in very dry regions, e.g. B. in the Chihuahua desert in Mexico and in the parts of the western USA and Mexico traversing Sonora desert or in Texan mountain regions, these species (in alphabetical order) belong to it, the species that are very well known to us are also with the German names specified:

  • Yucca arizonica
  • Yucca angustissima
  • Yucca baileyi
  • Yucca baccata or blue palm lily
  • Yucca brevifolia or Joshua palm lily
  • Yucca campestris
  • Yucca carnerosana
  • Yucca coahuilensis
  • bordering on yucca
  • Yucca constricta
  • Yucca declined
  • Yucca elata or soap palm lily
  • Yucca finallyiana
  • Yucca faxoniana
  • Yucca filifera
  • Yucca glauca or blue-green palm lily
  • Yucca harrimaniae
  • Yucca grandiflora
  • Yucca linearifolia
  • Yucca madrensis
  • Yucca nana or dwarf palm lily
  • Dangerous yucca
  • Yucca potosina
  • Yucca queretaroensis
  • Yucca reverchonii
  • Stiff yucca
  • Yucca schidigera
  • Yucca schottii
  • Yucca rostrata
  • Yucca treculiana or bayonet palm lily
  • Yucca thompsoniana
  • Yucca torreyi or Torrey palm lily
  • Yucca whipplei

The yuccas that do not grow in the desert then grow e.g. B. in Texas, definitely not a wetland, but also a rather dry environment compared to us:

  • Yucca cernua
  • Yucca flaccida or flaccid palm lily – Yucca elata + Yucca pallida hybrid
  • Yucca pallida
  • Yucca rupicola
  • Yucca arkansana

Then there are a few yuccas that come from semi-arid areas with a slightly more humus soil, e.g. B. in the southern United States or in forest areas in Mexico:

  • Yucca aloifolia or gray palm lily
  • Yucca capensis
  • Yucca elephantipes or giant palm lily
  • Yucca filamentosa or filamentous palm lily
  • Yucca gloriosa or candle palm lily
  • Yucca jaliscensis
  • Yucca valida or Datillo palm lily
  • Yucca mixtecana
  • Yucca recurvifolia

Accordingly, although few yuccas – the latter – can tolerate a slightly higher humidity for a while, it really cannot be said that yuccas like high humidity.

Yuccas are not palm trees either, the name yucca palm is just as wrong as the fairy tale about the high humidity, with the palm trees that mainly grow in tropical rainforests they do not even share the same plant order.

It could very well be that this widespread and fundamental fallacy is responsible for the yellow leaves on your yucca, as many palm lilies have to exist in damp bathrooms where they have absolutely no business. Put them in a dry environment and the problem is solved – if in doubt, at least for your next yucca.

Has your yucca been badly cared for?

Next, you should briefly check whether your yucca has had to endure other gross grievances for a long time because you misjudged your needs. There should be mentioned:

Too little light

As already mentioned, yuccas mostly come from Mexico and the part of the USA directly above, areas that are very close to the equator and offer the plants a correspondingly high light intensity. Then they often grow in the desert, where “shadow” is a foreign word.

This means that palm lilies here have to live in a light in winter that does not meet their needs at all. If you’ve read that yuccas get along pretty well even with little light, that’s true, yuccas are exemplary frugal.

But not every yucca, if a yucca is never allowed to enjoy the light outdoors in summer and has to make do with the darkest corner indoors, it can be that your palm lily (which may have been pampered with a lot of light in the rearing operation ), cannot withstand such treatment forever …

In any case, it is worth trying to give the yucca with yellow leaves a little more light, either in a completely new location or at least outdoors in summer.

Too much water

The yuccas are largely desert plants and thus belong to the succulents, i.e. to the plants that get by with very little water and do very well with it. Yuccas have come up with a special trick for this, they belong to the so-called CAM plants, plants with a special metabolism (which is precisely called Crassulaceae acid metabolism). This so-called CAM mechanism enables the yucca to lose little water during (hot) days.

If you eagerly watered your yucca during the last heat of summer, because you were of the opinion that more water would evaporate now, this could be the reason for the undesirable development. Even in hot periods, a yucca does not have to be watered more than usual, and in winter it takes a break and hardly needs watering during this.

The yucca suffers from your underfloor heating

You will be able to read different opinions on whether yuccas like underfloor heating or not in different testimonials. This diversity of opinion is easy to explain: The palm lilies do not have an aversion to underfloor heating because they reject modern heating systems, but because it gets too warm for them from below. It will therefore depend on how many degrees your underfloor heating ramps up to in between. The desert plant certainly likes a bit of warmth, but if your underfloor heating often shoots up to over 30 degrees in between, it will probably not like it …

Wrong wintering of the yucca

It is not uncommon for yuccas to simply overwinter too warm, which they could acknowledge with yellow leaves. Please note for winter storage:

  • Different types of palm lily can withstand a lot of cold (even in Mexican deserts it gets really cold) and are hardy when planted in our garden.
  • Other species (e.g. the popular Yucca aloifolia and elephantipes) can only withstand temperatures close to the frost line for a very short time, but want to be kept cool during the winter.
  • These yuccas should be overwintered at temperatures of around 10 degrees, in a bright room with very little water.
  • If you (have to) overwinter a yucca in a warm living room, you should expect that it will get some yellow leaves over the winter.

Repot

Even if yuccas can cope with fairly small pots, at some point they will not have enough space in the root area. So let’s see if the whole pot is only made up of roots. If so: Repot and cut back the roots a little so that new fine roots can form.

Too much fertilizer

As I said, we Germans treat our plants with care, and in many cases this includes giving our plants too much fertilizer. Everyone knows that overeating can be just as harmful as undernourishment …

The yucca do not have to be fertilized at all in the garden and only very moderately (every two weeks, once a month) in the tub, and only in the months from May to August. Too much fertilizer is very quick to apply, especially with finished concentrates, and there are some nutrients that can cause yellow leaves in abundance.

There are also yellow leaves when there is a lack of fertilizer? Yes, but hardly in Germany, we are known to all relevant analysis institutes as “masters of overfertilization”.

Diseases

Yuccas are prone to various diseases and pests, especially during the winter in a warm room, so you should check whether you can see any signs of viruses, fungi or small animals.

The treatment 

When it has happened, the first thing to do is to eliminate the care errors (or diseases).

The yellow leaves will eventually fall off by themselves, but you can usually peel them off after a while.

If you suspect that too much water is “the culprit”, you should repot the yucca and look very carefully at the roots, because they could already be rotten. Then you should cut away the rotten roots and put the yucca in fresh soil.

If you notice any rot, you should also check that the trunk is still okay, i.e. not mushy or soft to the touch. Such a trunk can no longer feed the leaf mass in the upper area, in this case you can (and must) cut off the upper healthy part. Because you can then root in water and then plant.

If shoot tips have already died on this upper part, you can also cut straight at the top and seal with tree wax or, as a makeshift, e.g. wax, so that it does not dry out from above while it is rooted from below.

Conclusion
If a yucca gets yellow leaves, this is often only due to incorrectly assessed location requirements, but it can also have a number of other causes. If you keep the palm lily drier, the problem is often solved. And by the way: The fact that a yucca sheds a few leaves in the lower part of its life is part of normal growth.

Kira Bellingham

I'm a homes writer and editor with more than 20 years' experience in publishing. I have worked across many titles, including Ideal Home and, of course, Homes & Gardens. My day job is as Chief Group Sub Editor across the homes and interiors titles in the group. This has given me broad experience in interiors advice on just about every subject. I'm obsessed with interiors and delighted to be part of the Homes & Gardens team.

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