Do peace lilies dislike clay pots?

11 years ago

My peace lily is 3 months old. It came in a funeral basket and stayed there for maybe 6 weeks. I potted it in an old terra cotta pot and moved it from a southeast window to a few feet from a northeast window. It's getting yellow spots but I really don't think it's getting too much sun! All the other plants it was with were medium or highlight plants so I had it right in front of the window for the first 6 weeks. Can yellow spots be from too little light too? Too little water? I definitely have a tendency to underwater more than overwater my plants. I'm a somwhat experienced houseplant grower and am surprised to be having trouble. I really want to save this peace lily!

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flora_uk

11 years ago

brodyjames - I should suspect that any problems you had were due to the lack of a drainage hole, rather than the pot being ceramic. Besides you say both your pots are glazed so they would behave the same as a plastic pot regarding evaporation.

I think it is a little harder to keep plants happy in terra cotta but I don't think that is necessarily the problem with the OP's Spathiphyllum. The change of pot is only one of the variables, the others being the light, root disturbance and, presumably, a new medium. You could test one of those variables by putting the plant back where it was and seeing if that makes a difference. As well as having reduced the plant's light by change of aspect there is the concomitant reduction due to less light overall at this season. So the plant has had quite a lot to deal with.

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Comments (7)

brodyjames_gw
11 years ago
Hi Orange,

Yes! Terra cotta pots, being unglazed, allow water to evaporate at a faster rate than a glazed or plastic pot. Since peace lilies like damp/moist conditions, your pot will dry out quickly, making your PL very unhappy. I can't say that this is what is causing the current problems with your plant, but I think it may cause problems in the future. I just repotted my plant from a glazed pot with no drain hole to one with a drain hole and am already seeing an improvement. My problem was excessive salts in the soil. Hopefully, Al (Tapla) will be along shortly to give you the 411 as to why all this stuff is important and how it affects your (our) plants.

Nancy
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You can cut the plastic away. But, for me, it's easier to turn it upside down and tap it on the edge of a counter, porch, deck, something that won't squash the leaves, and allows room for it to come out of the pot. Put some of your potting soil in the bottom of the new pot that will be its new home and tamp it down. Put the plant in and see that the top is at about 1-2" from the top. You don't won't to put soil above the original soil line. You want it to be at the same level it was in the original pot. Then fill in soil around the sides, tamping it down as you go. Then water. If the soil on the sides sinks down a bit, add some more around the perimeter. Sometimes I add a little Osmocote (time-release fertilizer) to the soil mix, or you can fertilize it with super bloom afterwards to minimize the shock to the plant of being repotted. You'll probably notice that you won't need to water it as much as when it was root bound in the old pot, although peace lilies can grow in water. Susan
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Every single new leaf that has come up gets brown tips before it unfolds and will end up like the others in the picture and eventually the whole stock dies and the stalk just falls off. I have tried trimming the bad leaves by cutting them to take stress off the plant but that has not helped. That is what you see that may look like new leaves, but it is not. This has been going on for almost a year, and at one time it was a full beautiful plant. I have had the plant in several locations in my home with more light then low light and then more light. I read that someone in another thread posted how they put theirs in the bathroom for warmth and humidity and since we have a sunlight in ours, I figured I would try that, but not directly under the light. I dont know how I feel about putting it on the porch since we have animals that may disturb it. I don't know if it needs fertilizer and what kind? I'm worried at this point it may kill it. I have never fertilized it (but never did any of my ivy plants and they were ok). I'm wondering if it is disease.
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tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
11 years ago
PLs, like virtually all plants commonly grown as houseplants, love pots that allow gas exchange through the walls, which terra cotta does. I have a very high % of my plants in terra cotta and another form of unglazed clay pots that are more highly fired than terra cotta, made by Tokonoma. The more water-retentive your soil is, the greater the advantage offered by terra cotta. The shorter the required interval between waterings, the better .... from the plant's perspective.

Peace lilies may live in riparian settings in situ, but in containers they like a damp, not a wet soil. Damp = about as wet as a well-wrung out sponge.

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orangeleaves
Original Author
11 years ago
This is what the sad little flower looks like that popped up :( I rescued two peace lilies from near death at lowes and they are doing better than this one. One was repotted, the other was not.
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
11 years ago
That's a flower that's past its' prime. Not an indicator of the plants' health. The individual flowers don't last long.
orangeleaves
Original Author
11 years ago
It never even bloomed as a full flower. It grew as a green flower then when it reached height turned yellow. Never was white or pretty like the ones that were on it in August. Is that typical for late year blooms?
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
11 years ago
AFAIK, PL's don't have a particular bloom season and just bloom when they get the right mix of conditions.When folks find a spot where theirs blooms, they don't usually then move it again, except to repot when necessary.Its' reputation for resenting changing conditions is accurate, IMO/E.

*Adding test sentence in regard to new edit post feature.*

This post was edited by purpleinopp on Tue, Nov 27, 12 at 12:24

Do peace lilies dislike clay pots?

flora_uk

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brodyjames_gw

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Do peace lilies dislike clay pots?

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brodyjames_gw

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