Why does my dracaena have yellow leaves?

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Leaves that once reached for the sky lose their green, feel soft and limp and sag towards the floor, with yellow-brown spots spreading at their centres and edges: a dracaena that has been watered too kindly. This easy houseplant asks only for drainage and a weekly watering at most, and the colour returns.

Here’s how to double-check that your plant has been getting too much water and care for it so the leaves turn back green again.

• Shown here is an overwatered Dracaena massangeana

It’s a few quick steps that won’t take much time.

• How to water dracaena
• Also: other problems with dracaena marginata

Dracaena leaves turn yellow

Overwatering is the most common cause for Dracaena leaves turning yellow.

• Leaves of the dracaena lose their green color and turn pale.
• They lose their crisp, semi-rigid bearing and start feeling soft and limp.
• Instead of reaching for the sky, they droop down and sag towards the floor.
• Yellow-brown spots develop at the center and edges of leaves which die off and dry up.
• Younger, topmost dracaena leaves are less affected than older, lower leaves.
• If you lift the plant out of its pot, roots are swollen, translucent and mushy or soft to the touch. These are the first stages of root rot.
• If nothing is done, even the dracaena stems start turning soft and floppy.

Usually these telling signs develop over the course of a couple weeks to a month.

Note that tips of dracaena leaves turning brown is another problem unrelated to overwatering: plant necrosis due to fluoride and salts in water.

How to check for overwatering

Finger-check for moisture

First of all, you should check with your finger how wet the soil feels.

• Soggy soil that smells moldy or foul is a clear indication.
• Sometimes the first inch of soil seems fine but below that it’s very wet.
• Soil gives a slimy sensation when you rub your fingers together.
• If you use plant mulch or organic material, it tends to turn blackish in case of excess water (twigs and wood that never dry turn dark colors).

In some cases, you can even see that plants send roots up out of the soil like in the case of this rotting sunpatiens.

Check the underside of the pot

• There should be a draining hole in the container so that excess water can flow out.
• Sometimes roots have grown through the holes and thickened so much that the drainage holes are “clogged”.
• Usually pots rest upon a saucer to collect excess water. In case of overwatering, this excess water remains in the saucer or pot-holder and is never thrown out.

Wrong watering schedule

• Perhaps you water the plant every day or couple days.
• Perhaps too many persons are involved and everyone waters the plant too often.

How to save a dracaena with yellowing leaves

Follow these simple steps to save your yellowing dracaena:

• Stop watering daily. Make watering your dracaena a weekly task, no more. Check with other persons so that there’s no double-watering. Use a watering planner or simply a small calendar with marks on the date to remember the last watering date.

• Check for holes at the bottom of the pot for optimum drainage. If it’s a plastic pot, sometimes the holes aren’t drilled yet or cut out. Use a drill or cutter and make at least three holes. If it’s a terra cotta or clay pot, use a ceramic drill bit for that, or simply protect the hole from clogging with a piece of mesh wire.

• Change the soil mix of your dracaena to something that drains much better. You can use river sand for a third, potting soil mix for a third, and garden soil. River sand isn’t salty. If you only have sea sand at hand, set it out in a thin-meshed sieve (or even cheesecloth) for a couple months and rainwater will wash the salts out. Don’t add any perlite, but hydrogel crystals can absorb extra water without endangering the plant.

• Remove rotting roots that may already have started turning mushy. These won’t recover and will be an open invitation for root rot fungus and the like. You can leave yellowed leaves until you’re certain they’re dead. Sometimes pale leaves can recover.

• Layer gravel or clay pebbles at the bottom of the pot a good two inches deep (5 cm).

• Remove the pot-holder and ensure that excess water is quickly thrown out. After watering the plant, promptly empty the saucer under the pot from any water that may have collected in it. A good solution is to spread gravel or clay pebbles in the saucer instead and rest the pot atop it. Not only will this keep excess water from touching the dracaena pot, it will also help the excess water evaporate, thus increasing air moisture which is good for the plant.

If all the above fails, or if you feel the plant is too far gone already, go ahead and behead it: each portion and cutting will have a chance to create a new plant.

Common dracaena varieties and what they need

Not every dracaena on the shelf behaves the same way indoors: some shrug off a dim corner, others sulk and yellow without good light. Use this table to match the plant you own, or the one you are about to buy, to the spot you have in mind.

Learn more about Dracaena water needs

The Dracaena plant evolved in a context of arid droughts interspersed with flash floods and heavy rain. This led the plant to develop specific qualities that make dracaena resistant to underwatering.

However, these tweaks that nature gifted Dracaena for dry climates become a huge disadvantage when the plant sits in constantly moist wet soil like marshes, swamps, or overwatered pots. It’s important to water it well!

There you have it! You shouldn’t be having any problems with your dragon plant anymore!

Read also:

• How to care for your Dracaena houseplant
• Why Dracaena can survive underwatering
• Dracaena marginata and Dracaena massangeana, the two most common Dracaena varieties.