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I have a beautiful peace lily with several blooms, but I am concerned about the growth pattern. Whenever a spath opens up it looks good for a day or two and then it starts to fold backwards. I have also noticed that some of the leaves that are sprouting up from the soil have turned yellow with browning tips. Anybody know what could be wrong? I water about every 3 days because I hear these plants like consistently moist soil. I may have hard water, but I'm not sure if that's contributing to these issues or not.
My two immediate thoughts are (and keep in mind that I am an extreme novice -- but I have managed to keep one of these alive for a couple years)
1) too much light. Get it away from any windows, and out from under any overhead lights. Put it in the darkest corner of the room, on a little table of its own. Also, get it away from any drafts (like vents in the floor, ceiling, or a window).
2) not enough humidity. Get a spray bottle and mist it lightly every day. If you've got a little drainage saucer under your pot, water shouldn't stay in it for more than an hour or two. The soil should be evenly moist, but not dripping. The leaves and blooms should be kept soft and not too waxy.
Especially the second one strikes me. See if a light misting (LIGHT, but not sparse) helps. I think the yellow leaves are from too moist soil, and the blooms are from too dry air.
Okay so I moved my peace lily to a new location because it was in the path of one of my AC vents and I spray it daily to keep up the humidity. I also cut back on watering to see if that would help with the yellowing leaves.
The Good News: A new bloom opened up a few days ago and shown no signs of folding backwards.
The bad news: One of the older blooms is turning brown and looks like its dying. I don't know if this is normal or if its dying because of something I'm doing wrong.
The other bad news: The tips of most of the leaves are turning brown. I'm guessing this is a watering issue, but I don't know what to do.
I read that peace lilies start to droop when they are ready for another watering so instead of watering every three days like I was doing, I decided to cut back until I noticed some "drooping". After like a week I noticed no drooping and when I felt the soil it was pretty dry, which I heard was a big no-no for peace lilies, so I watered it. I still tried to wait until it drooped for my next watering, but again a week went by and the soil was dry with no drooping, so I watered it. I can't get a good watering schedule because I don't notice any drooping before the topsoil gets dry. Am I not waiting long enough, causing overwatering? Or is the drooping so slight that it's hard to notice?
You DON'T want to wait for a plant to droop before watering. If it gets to this point all the time, the plant will be in distress and be susceptible to disease and such. Sticking your finger in to check for moisture (don't mistake coolness for moisture) is still the best way to see if your plant needs watering or not.
Peace Lilies are really very hardy plants -- almost every post I've read on this forum about them has a story of someone nursing one back from the brink of death (me included!) -- but that doesn't mean you should let them suffer! :-)
I've had my peace lily for five-and-a-half years now and successfully split it earlier this year.
The blooms do eventually turn brown and die off. When this happens, I trim the bloom down to the soil completely.
I think you are still overwatering your peace lily a bit. These are low maintenance plants and really only need to be watered once a week unless you've just split or transplanted your plant, or you have it in an area that's not very cool temperature-wise.
Peace lilies can also droop during the afternoon hours if they are exposed to too much afternoon sun.
