Have your once elegant green yucca leaves turned a pale yellow? The leaves turning from green to yellow can be very disappointing, and it is the most common problem that I receive emails about!
I have personally revived many a yucca plant that had yellow leaves myself (in my job as a landscape gardener), so I have first-hand experience and some really great tips to help you diagnose the reason why your yucca leaves are yellow and how you can fix it!
Want to cut to the chase?
Usually, yucca leaves turn yellow as a sign of stress due to overwatering and too much moisture around the roots of your yucca. Yuccas are drought-resistant and require well-draining soil to avoid their leaves turning yellow. Yellow leaves can also indicate your yucca requires more direct sun.
I should also note that I’ve seen the leaves of a new yucca plant commonly turn yellow as a sign of stress due to the contrast in conditions between the garden center and your home or garden, which is essentially transplant shock.
Keep reading to learn why yucca leaves turn yellow and how to solve the problem…
Is the Soil Too Damp? Your Yucca Leaves turn Yellow Due to Too Much Moisture Around the Roots
So the most common reason that I see for Yucca leaves turning yellow is because of too much moisture around the roots caused by:
- Watering the Yucca too frequently.
- Growing Yucca in pots without drainage holes in the base.
- The use of a tray or saucer to catch excess water which keeps the soil too moist.
- Rich compost or a potting mix that retains too much moisture around the roots of the yucca.
So, I think for us to save our yellowing yuccas helps us to understand how they grow in their native environment… Yuccas are native to hot and dry environments such as dry deserts in Mexico and the Caribbean and arid regions of Texas in prairies and mountainous areas.
Therefore, our yuccas are drought resistant as they have specifically adapted to growing in dry sandy soils that do not retain much moisture and climates with relatively low rainfall.
If the yucca roots are consistently sitting in damp soil, this is contrary to their preferred soil conditions, and it can cause the leaves to turn yellow as a sign of stress.
Yuccas that are sat in damp soil for an extended amount of time are susceptible to the fungal disease root rot which turns the leaves yellow and then black and the leaves can droop down.
How to Save Overwatered Yucca Plants with Yellow Leaves
So how do we save it? The key to saving yucca plants with yellow leaves is to replicate some of the conditions of the native environment in terms of light, watering, and soil conditions.
- Are you watering more than once a week? if so, scale back the watering of your yucca plant. Yuccas are drought tolerant and should only be watered when the soil feels somewhat dry to a finger’s depth. Typically, it takes my yucca plants around once every two weeks, but this can vary according to different variables, such as the intensity of sunlight and the humidity of the climate, so adjust the frequency of your watering for your specific conditions.
- Yuccas should be grown in pots with drainage holes in the base to allow excess water to trickle out the base of the pot. If the pot has no drainage hole in the base, the soil becomes saturated, and the yucca leaves turn yellow, the plant develops root rot, and the yucca dies back. Transfer your yucca to a pot with drainage holes in the base and allow the soil to dry out so it can recover.
- Often, indoor yucca plants are grown with saucers or trays underneath the pot to catch any excess water. If the saucer or tray is not emptied and the pot is sat in a puddle of water, then the soil becomes saturated as it would in a pot with no drainage holes and the yucca leaves turn yellow as a sign of stress. It is okay to use a tray or saucer to prevent water from leaking into your home as long as the pot is not in standing water.
- Ordinary potting soil is great for retaining moisture but yucca prefers a well-draining potting mix so that the roots are not sat in moist soil. Amend the potting mix with around 1/3 perlite to 2/3’s potting soil if you are re-potting your yucca or if the leaves are yellow due to moisture-retaining soil. This replicates the conditions of the yuccas preferred soil type in its native environment.
I should highlight that I have tested growing yuccas in potting mixes with perlite, sand and grit, all of which worked great. Do you live in a climate of high rainfall?
Then I recommend that you repot your yucca with grit rather then sand or perlite. Why is this? Because grit has a much larger particle size than sand, which helps to create a more porous soil structure which helps improve the drainage of the soil.
I have personally found this particularly effective at mitigating root rot from excess rainfall. My potted outdoor yucca thrives despite rainfall that is much higher than its native environment.
Even if your potted yucca is indoors, I would recommend a very well-draining potting mix if you tend to overwater your plant! It is a mistake we all make!
Once you have adjusted the conditions to support a dryer soil mix around the roots of your yucca, the plant should begin to show signs of recovery if located in a good amount of direct sun (a south facing window if your yucca is indoors).
However, if all the leaves of the yucca are yellow and the plant has been in saturated soil for a long time, there is a good chance that the yucca has root rot, which more often kills the plant, so I must emphasize that best practices when it comes to watering and soil conditions is key.
(For how to establish the optimal watering frequency for yucca read my article on how to water yucca plants indoors).
Is Your Plant in Too Much Shade? Yucca Leaves Turn Yellow Without Enough Direct Sun
As we discussed, our yuccas plants are native to hot and Sunny areas of the Americas and the Caribbean, where they thrive in direct sun.
Is your yucca in a shady spot? If the Yucca is in too much shade the symptoms we have to look out for are its leaves begin to turn yellow and droop as a sign of stress.
I personally find that Winter is when my yucca plants struggle. Yucca plants can survive indoors in Winter as long as they are in a sunny South-facing Window with access to as much direct light as possible.
From my own experience, even if the yucca is in a sunny location, the lower leaves can still turn yellow as the intensity of the light and the hours of sun are significantly less in Winter (This happened to me when I lived in my apartment in New York with limited light in Winter). So, as a survival strategy, the yucca redirects its energy to the upper leaves as a response to lower light, causing the lower leaves to die back.
What I did was prune the lower leaves once they turned completely yellow and drooped as they do not recover, but the plant as a whole should revive once there is more sunshine either in the Spring or because you have moved it to a sunnier location.
Yuccas are relatively slow growing, so it can take some time for them to recover from a bout of sunlight deprivation but with patience, the yucca should recover in the Spring as long as it is located in as much sun as possible.
Top Tip: When living in an apartment with limited light, I was able to prevent my indoor Yucca plant from turning yellow by supplementing the natural light with a grow light. I put the grow light on for two evenings from November to January (along with my succulents!), and the yucca retained its green leaves.
Are Your New Yucca Plant Leaves Turning Yellow? (Transplant Stress)
A common problem with yucca plants that I often see is that their leaves can turn yellow not long after you have bought them from the store or nursery.
Yucca leaves turn yellow as a reaction to a contrast in their conditions when they are moved.
The yucca plant is acclimated to the specific conditions of the nursery greenhouse in which it was cultivated. Therefore, it can suffer some shock when it is moved from the garden center to your home or garden.
The effect is more pronounced when the disparity between growing conditions is greater.
For example, if your yucca has been growing with consistent temperatures, exposure to sunlight, and a specific water schedule, then it is likely to be different from the conditions in your home.
However, I find that the transplant stress is likely to be temporary as the yucca adjusts to its new home.
This happened to my yucca, and it fully revived as long as it is watered appropriately (around once every two weeks) and in as much direct sun as possible, which I can tell you are the two most important factors for keeping your yucca healthy.
Some of the yellow leaves may die back, as mine did, but new growth should come through. However, this may take some patience, as yuccas are relatively slow-growing, but growth is far greater in Spring and Summer.
I would wait for any of the yellowing leaves to wither back, and then you can Prune back any growth that has died back to encourage new growth.
Is the Soil too Dry? Yucca Leaves Turn Yellow Due to Lack of Water
While overwatering is a more common problem that I see, your yucca leaves can turn yellow if they suffer from serious drought as a result of underwatering.
In my experience, this is far less likely the cause of yellowing leaves as yuccas are resistant to drought, but it can still occur if the yucca has been neglected for a very long time or perhaps the yucca is in a small pot you are in a hot climate with low humidity which can cause water to evaporate too quickly for the roots of the yucca to uptake.
I have personally seen this happen with one of my customers’ outdoor yucca plants. It was planted in a black pot that was too small in proportion to the plant. I scratched back the soil and could see the roots were pot-bound.
What I’ve anecdotally noticed is that dark plastic pots conduct heat much more than lighter-colored ceramic pots. In the blazing sun at the height of summer, I can tell you that the soil in small, dark, plastic pots can dry out so quickly that the roots of the yucca can’t draw up moisture before the soil is dry, leading to yellowing leaves.
In this scenario, I replant the yucca in a pot one size up (only go for a slightly larger pot to avoid ‘overpotting,’ which can cause water to drain too slowly) and in a lighter-colored ceramic pot, which reflects the sunlight and keeps the soil cooler.
From experience, this is a very effective strategy for creating the right balance of moisture for a yucca, particularly in a hot climate.
Whilst yuccas do not require frequent watering (around once every two weeks or when the soil feels dry to a finger’s depth), they do require a generous soak rather than a light watering.
I think what happens is that people misinterpret the advice that “yucca don’t need much watering” to mean that they do not a great quantity of water, whereas it means they don’t need to be watered as frequently as most plants, but they actually require a good soak so that the potting soil is evenly moist.
The correct way to water a potted yucca is to soak the soil with enough water so that excess water trickles out the base of the pot. This ensures that the water has infiltrated the soil to reach the roots rather then just keeping the surface of the soil moist.
However, if the yucca has been neglected for some time, causing the leaves to turn yellow, then I find just watering from the top isn’t enough. So what do we do? What I’ve found works (with some trial and error!) is to give the yucca a drink by watering the pot from the pot, then letting the watering infiltrate and sit in a tray underneath the pot for 20 minutes.
What I usually find is that when I come back after 20 minutes, the water has been drawn up by the soil through the drainage hole in the base. This is the best method I have found to ensure the potting soil is properly hydrated and evenly moist after a period of drought, as once the soil has baked hard in the sun, it can often just run off the surface without soaking it properly.
This should rehydrate the yucca plant to help it recover.
After the initial soak, I recommend resuming a watering schedule of around once every two weeks or watering whenever the soil feels dry to a finger depth to keep the plant healthy and avoid yellowing leaves. Whilst I must emphasize that this isn’t going to save leaves that have turned completely yellow, the yucca should survive and regrow in the Spring. When your leaves have turned completely yellow, you can just cut them back to the base with pruners.
(Read my article, how to revive a dying yucca plant).
Do you have any more questions about yucca plants? Or do you have any insights and experiences you’d like to share? Please leave a comment below, and I’ll reply!! I love to hear from you all!
Key Takeaways:
- Yucca leaves turn yellow due to overwatering, slow-draining soil, or pots without drainage holes in the base. yuccas require well-draining soil, so if the soil is consistently moist, the yucca leaves turn yellow as a sign of stress.
- Yucca leaves turn yellow if they are in too much shade. Yuccas are adapted to full sun, so the leaves can drop, turn yellow, and die back without direct light.
- A significant contrast in the conditions from which your yucca plant was cultivated in your home or garden can cause yucca leaves to turn yellow. Yuccas acclimate to a specific amount of light, watering frequency, and temperature. When moved to a new location, the leaves can turn yellow as a sign of stress.
- The leaves can turn yellow if the yucca has been neglected and not watered for a long time. To avoid drought stress, water the yucca generously once every two weeks.