Many homeowners love prayer plants because of their multi-colored foliage. However, prayer plant yellow leaves will bring you a whole different story.
So, what makes the leaves turn yellow? How can you solve this problem? Don’t worry because your houseplants can recover their beautiful color with the tips we share here. So, let’s check!
Prayer Plant Yellow Leaves: Causes And Solutions
Their leaves turn yellow when prayer plants cannot produce enough chlorophyll or when external factors break it down. You can blame watering, light, nutrients, and temperature for prayer plant yellow leaves.
Today, we will focus on those elements and how they affect your plants. You can also find the solutions for each.
Watering
Watering is a huge concern for houseplants. Underwatering, overwatering, or low-quality water will all hurt your prayer plants, yellowing their leaves.
Underwatering
The potting soil will dry as a result of underwatering. Then, your plant can’t absorb minerals and water.
Moreover, the lack of water calls for chlorophyll’s breakdown. Hence, you may notice the prayer plant leaves start to curl and turn yellow. Some may droop.
Overwatering
The most frequent cause of prayer plant yellow leaves is overwatering. These plants don’t tolerate wet conditions and are susceptible to overwatering.
You are forcing oxygen to escape the soil when overwatering it. The roots grow thin and smothered and can’t correctly absorb minerals.
If you don’t fix it soon, your prayer plant’s root will rot. The moist conditions stimulate the growth of bacteria and fungi in the soil, destroying the weakened roots.
The signs of overwatering are leaves turning yellow and ending up brown. You may also notice the wet soil even if you have watered your plants for days.
Poor water quality
The water condition is poor when it contains excessive mineral salts, fluorine, chlorine, and heavy metals. They will affect the mineral absorption of your plant and cause prayer plant yellow leaves.
Solutions
All plants require proper watering. Here are some tips to water prayer plants correctly:
- Do not stick to a fixed watering schedule. Instead, water your plant if the top soil feels dry.
- Always check if the soil can drain properly and hold moisture.
- Make sure to select the right pot size for your plant.
- To improve aeration when overwatering, poke some holes in the soil with a chopstick.
- Repotting will be necessary if your plant gets root rot.
- The best water source for prayer plants is rainwater because of its modest acidity. You can also use filtered and tap water.
- If the water contains a lot of chloramines, leave it overnight to dissolve chlorine.
Temperature
Low temperature
Low temperatures and chilly breezes impact plants’ ability to absorb water, enzymes, and nutrients. It will prevent the production of chlorophyll. Moreover, if water freezes from inside plants, it could damage the cells and cause prayer plant yellow leaves.
And if the temperature rises over optimum ranges, the extra heat will disrupt normal plant growth. Some of these activities include chlorophyll production, mineral uptake, and water absorption.
Leaf burn, curling, and wilting leaves are all consequences of extreme temperatures, either excessively hot or cold.
Solutions
Try to maintain the temperatures between 65°F and 85°F. Let summer days not surpass 90°F, or nighttime low points drop below 50°F.
Next, transfer your plants from chilly, drafty spots during the winter, like doorways and windows, to cozier, less cold places.
Also, avoid placing plants near heater vents, stoves, fireplaces, radiators, or any other equipment that releases heat.
Lighting
Low light
Your plants can’t produce chlorophyll in dimly lit and dark environments. Prayer plant yellow leaves will start to turn yellow as a result.
On the other hand, excessive exposure to direct sunlight destroys chlorophyll, causing leaves to become yellow or form yellow spots. Moreover, it will lead to more water loss.
Solutions
Provide your plant with bright yet indirect sunlight. Do not place them near south-facing windows because the scorching afternoon sun will burn the leaves.
If you grow prayer plants outdoors, give them a shading sheet. Otherwise, plant them in a greenhouse or shade.
Nutrients
Like watering, your plants need the right amount of fertilizers. Both under-fertilization and over-fertilization are terrible for them to cause prayer plant yellow leaves.
Under-fertilization
Nitrogen, zinc, iron, nitrogen, and manganese minerals take part in the synthesis. Hence, the lack of these minerals will lead to chlorosis.
The following are signs and symptoms of specific nutritional deficits:
- Nitrogen: If your prayer plants don’t have enough nitrogen, their leaves will turn yellow, starting at the leaf edge and moving inward.
- Iron: Interveinal yellowing is a sign of iron insufficiency and starts on younger, upper leaves and stem tips.
- Magnesium: The yellowing process starts from the center to the edges.
- Zinc: The leaf base will first turn yellow, then the stem.
As you can see, because different minerals have certain effects on your plants, they will show different symptoms.
Over-fertilization
Overfeeding may result in salt accumulation in the soil or the root system. These two will block the nutrients and water for chlorophyll production from being consumed.
Furthermore, some fertilizers may influence the soil’s pH level, which could affect the accessibility of some essential elements like iron.
The soil may have crusts from fertilizers. Limited development, wilting, leaf burn, and yellow leaves will also be limited.
Solutions
Monthly treatment of liquid fertilizers is the best for your prayer plant yellow leaves. Try to do it during the growing season and avoid feeding them in the winter or fall.
Plus, use high-quality, well-balanced products because high concentrations of zinc, calcium, manganese, and phosphorus may impact iron absorption.
If your soil contains too much fertilizer, drain it by soaking it with water to dissolve salts or fertilizer residues. Repotting can also be an effective solution.
Consider giving it a modest dose of iron fertilizer if your plant is iron deficient. Also, keep the pH level at about 6.0 as well.
What Can You Do With The Prayer Plant Yellow Leaves?
You can’t keep the yellow leaves because they won’t turn green. Pruning is the best solution for prayer plant yellow leaves.
Pruning is a terrific method to eliminate the plant’s damaged or wilted leaves. If you want to prune your prayer plants, do it in the spring or the fall.
The prayer plants may benefit from having yellow leaves trimmed if they can focus their attention on greener foliage. Pruning or pinching ugly leaves to enhance the plant’s appearance is also a good idea.
As they start to wither, leaves are simple to pick by hand. We advise taking snippers if you run into trouble when trying to trim a yellow, old, or damaged leaf to prevent more harm.
Conclusion
Prayer plants are beautiful with their stunning leaves. So don’t let them lose their beauty. Try to use the tips we have shared to rescue your prayer plant yellow leaves.
Hopefully, you can keep your houseplants as long as possible. If you have any other problems while taking care of these plants, please share them with us. We will be glad to help you.
Thank you for reading!
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