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    Peace lily leaves turning yellow

    Peace lily leaves turning yellow? It may be your tap water.

    Peace lilies are dramatic — they droop, they yellow, they recover. But when leaves keep yellowing at the edges and tips brown at the same time, the water is the pattern behind it.

    • Removes chlorine, chloramine and fluoride
    • Adds back 20+ minerals
    • 30-day money-back guarantee

    Free shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee · plus sales tax where applicable

    Watering a houseplant with the Pearl Roots filtered watering can
    Quick check

    Is it your water?

    • Leaves yellow from the edges inward, and the tips are brown and crisp.

    • The plant droops less than an hour after watering, then perks up — the roots are stressed, not thirsty.

    • You water from a city tap or a softened line, and your spider plant or dracaena has brown tips too.

    Two of three and it's the water:

    The cause

    Why peace lily leaves yellow

    Peace lilies are among the most chlorine- and fluoride-sensitive plants people keep indoors. Chlorine and chloramine irritate the fine feeder roots every watering; the plant responds by giving up on its older leaves, which yellow and thin.

    Fluoride and salts travel to the leaf edges and tips and accumulate there, which is why yellowing and brown tips so often arrive together on this plant.

    Overwatering yellows peace lilies too, but that yellowing starts at the base and the soil smells sour. Bright direct sun bleaches leaves pale and yellow with scorched patches.

    Clean filtered water being poured onto a houseplant
    Pearl Roots filtered watering can

    Watering Can With Filter and Remineralizer for House Plants

    Filters chlorine, chloramine, fluoride and lead as you fill it, then adds back 20+ minerals

    Free shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee

    plus sales tax where applicable

    The fix

    Three steps to try

    Switch to filtered, remineralized water tonight and keep the soil evenly moist, never soggy.

    This removes chlorine, chloramine and fluoride from every watering and stops the root irritation that drives yellowing.

    Flush the pot once until water runs freely from the bottom.

    A full can of filtered water dissolves accumulated salts and carries them out the drainage holes.

    Remove leaves that are more than half yellow at the base; leave the rest.

    A mostly yellow leaf will not recover, but a leaf with only edge yellowing can still photosynthesize. Watch the leaves that open after you change the water.

    FREE GUIDE

    The Tap Water Plant Guide

    Which 12 houseplants react to tap water, how to tell water damage from overwatering, and four ways to fix it — including the free ones.

    We will show you the guide right away. We may email you occasional plant-water tips. No spam, and you can ask to be removed any time.

    Pearl Roots filtered watering can

    Watering Can With Filter and Remineralizer for House Plants

    Filters chlorine, chloramine, fluoride and lead as you fill it, then adds back 20+ minerals

    Free shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee

    plus sales tax where applicable

    Fair questions

    What else it could be

    A pot-bound peace lily yellows because it can't hold water — check for roots circling the surface. Low light slowly pales the whole plant. Both are fixes that pair with, not instead of, better water.

    Questions

    Frequently asked questions.

    Ready when you are

    Better water, tonight's watering.

    • Free shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee
    • Free shipping
    • 30-day money-back guarantee
    • Replaceable filter packs