My Indoor Plant Has Yellow Leaves... What is the Problem?

Question: My indoor plant has yellow leaves, what is the problem?

Answer: 

People have often asked me that question as I was working through an account taking care of the interior plants in their office. Sounds like a simple question, right? It's not and there is not a simple answer...in fact, there are many things that can cause yellow leaves on your indoor tropical plants. I will give the short list here on what I have found to be the most common cause of yellow leaves on interior plants and I have seen lots of yellow leaves in the twenty plus years I have been on the job, taking care of interior and exterior plants.

First let me say that if you just find a yellow leaf or two every once in awhile, don't worry about it. These should be the oldest leaves and it is normal for a leaf to eventually find its way to plant heaven, just like everything else, plants and their leaves age!

Reason Number 1 - If you seldom take care of your plants, leaving them to their own devices until you find them laid out on the floor...Well shame on you! That will cause yellow leaves, lots of them. Unless your plant is a cactus it will need to be watered on some kind of a schedule that you two work out between yourselves...You need some advice, click here!

Next reason...let me tell you a story, don't worry, it's really short. One day, while caring for plants on a big account, a woman came up to me and said she needed advice on a plant problem she was having at home. She said that her plant was turning yellow and she couldn't understand why because she was watering it everyday! I kind of laugh at things like this because it almost seems silly but sometimes folks don't realize you don't need to and you can't water your indoor plants everyday... Unless you want to kill them! If you are one of those people that believes the cure for what ails any plant must be MORE WATER....You need some advice, click here!

You get the point, don't be too extreme when caring for your plants, they will appreciate it.

Very low light can cause a plant, especially a fairly new plant, to turn yellow and lose foliage because a plant can support only a certain amount of foliage with limited light. The response to inadequate lighting is going to be turn yellow, turn brown and then...well you know what happens next. A plant will naturally thin itself until it has the amount of foliage it can support in the light it receives. PS...this doesn't mean you should put your indoor plants out on the patio to fry!  Click here if you want to!

These are really the main reasons that indoor plants turn yellow, believe it or not. If your plant has insect problems, you would most likely be able to see that and that is another reason too but not as big a problem as the other three listed above. 

Anyway, keep those indoor plants alive and growing because plants are good for us all...Thanks!