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Problem with peace lily

16 years ago

I've had a giant peace lily for five years without a problem. It's grown over six feet tall. But over the last year, it continues to shoot up new leaves, but either they don't unfurl or they only partially open (about 8-12 in. from the tip remain closed). It was transplanted last summer (but the leaf problem existed before that). Any ideas what's going on, or a solution?

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Comment (1)

jeannie7
16 years ago
Myself, I've had very bad luck with Spaths (peace lily), I just cant bring them to bloom and your problem is hard to understand if you have had the plant for so long and only after its being re-potted does it put up a fuss.

Some plants just like to be left alone and only repotted when it breaks the pot.
Spaths do no take kindly to fluorine in the water and such is suggested to be allowed to sit for 24 to 48 hours before watering and when watered, watered fully to drainage, then allowed to dry down between.
Since spaths do take to low light situations, the present light should not be any concern. But, with the returning light now and in the days ahead, I think it would not do any harm to give the plant increased energy to make it able to do what it can do...including opening of leaves fully.

The plant once given water fully, should be allowed to go bone dry between waterings. Drainage must not sit under the plant much more than 10 minutes before being dumped.
Bright light---as much as you can give it at this time I think will help encourage the plant to open its leaves.
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It does look like simple physical leaf damage...either from your cleaning or from being brushed/bumped up against at one time or another. About the funky leaf....I bought a big Spath *simply because* it had several leaves like this....I thought it was a cool mutation. (I like the unusual.) Since I brought it home nearly a year ago, it still puts out a deformed leaf or two occasionally, and it, too, is otherwise healthy. Most of the cool newer Spathiphyllums on the market result from mutations of existing Spaths. (I think!)
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What you have is an aglaonema commutatum. The red bud is a berry...pretty ripe too. About a millimeter under the skin and pulp will be a stone-like seed. The public library used to have a few of these plants and they'd put out berries like that(in my experience it is kinda rare to get them). Sadly those plants got thrown out recently and I can no longer collect seed(bummer). When it gets even redder and starts to shrivel,pop it off and rub the skin and pulp off with a paper towel. Then put it in a ziplock with a tiny bit of water and check on it occasionally as it will soon germinate. Once it has,put it on top of a little media(premoistened) and bag the container,or put a cloche of some kind over it to trap humidity...jars work pretty well for this. A few years ago,I had a handful of these guys going and took pics like the one in this post.
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Rain water, snow melt, distilled water, as well as air conditioner or dehumidifier condensate are pretty much free of dissolved solids, but bottled water can be very high in dissolved solids, so it isn't reliable as an effective hindrance to necrosis of leaf tips and/or margins. When plants wilt while the soil is still moist, it's a very good bet the soil is too wet, and starved of enough oxygen for roots to function normally, which, since water uptake is an energy driven process, causes loss of turgor and wilting. Unless root function is severely compromised, affected plants normally regain turgor and stand up again as they close stomata in preparation for the dark cycle. If a plant wilts during the day & recovers turgidity at night while the soil is still damp or wet, it needs less water in the rhizosphere or a soil that has better aeration/holds less water at container capacity (when saturated). Al
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Yellowing leaves might mean not enough water. Brown tips mean there isn't enough humidity. Peace lilies like it humid. Mist the plant with water once a day, or put it on a dish filled with gravel and filled with water (the gravel keeps the roots from rotting). Another way is double potting it. I put my potted 4" peace lily in another 8" container and filled the outer layer with peat moss and kept the peat moss damp. The water evaporates and raises the humidity around the plant. My peace lily really loved this and was 60% bigger than another peace lily that I didn't do this to. I only had one spare container. lol
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