How to Solve Your Houseplant’s Yellowing Leaves Problem

Pro tip: If you’ve overwatered your air plant, allow the plant to dry out to save it. Air plant experts suggest mini portable fans to help remove the extra water that may linger on your air plant’s leaves between waterings.

Aloe vera

Aloe vera doesn’t like change when it comes to its environment. “Water only when the soil is dry and keep that watering schedule consistent,” Emily advices. Remember, aloe vera is a type of succulent and lives in dry and arid regions naturally, so it prefers less water than say a more tropical plant does.

Pro tip: Succulents want lightweight sandy soil that dries quickly, Emily says, so a poor soil choice for your aloe vera—and a pot that doesn’t meet its needs (almost all plants need pots with good drainage)—will cause poor plant health. She suggests repotting your aloe vera if it hasn’t been planted in the right soil or pot.

Bromeliad

Because a bromeliad’s leaf color can vary widely, what you want to be looking for is not so much a specific color, but a change in color. Emily warns that “yellow leaves are a symptom, not a diagnosis.” In the case of say, “a bromeliad Guzmania, their leaves are naturally jaundiced.”

Pro tip: “If your bromeliad’s bracts get papery with yellow tips, move it out of the direct sun.” Emily also recommends looking for new leaf color changes and brown tips. “You can spot a sick leaf even on a canary yellow bromeliad frond—it fades,” she adds. “Get that tropical beauty out of the direct sun. It’s getting a sunburn.”

Burro’s tail

For the burro’s tail, yellow leaves indicate that the plant is receiving too much intense light. Emily’s advice is to “keep light bright, but indirect.” Although it’s possible to save a plant with a yellow leaf or two, you must address the plant’s issues early to ensure the plant will make it through its distress. (She suggests moving your plant off that “hot, bright windowsill.”)

Pro tip: Be careful to find the balance. Some plants may yellow as they struggle to find bright enough light to keep producing the chlorophyll that greens up the leaves. “Indirect light doesn’t mean a dark corner—brighten it up! You’re much less likely to be able to save the leaf itself,” she says. This means sometimes you will need to remove the yellow leaf by cutting it off the plant, which will allow you to “invest your energy in keeping the still-green leaves thriving.” Luckily, in most cases, “The burro’s tail prefers to communicate with dropped leaves rather than yellow ones.”

Calathea 

The calathea’s leaves can turn yellow for many reasons including “overwatering to just being irritated with you.” Avoid tap water with this plant, and be careful in striking a balance in terms of sunlight or moving its pot around. Emily says that Calathea is “known for its looks, not its easygoing nature.”

Pro tip: Calathea may need more attention than many other plants, so you might want to consider doing some deep research on this plant before bringing it into your home.