Keeping your Peace Lily happy means making sure that it gets plenty to drink. These plants aren’t fond of dry spells; their health and growth will suffer if they go too long with too little moisture. We’ve prepared a list of 5 clear signals that will let you know when your Peace Lily needs water.
The clearest sign that it’s time to water your Peace Lily is that the potting mix is drying out. When the top inch of soil no longer feels damp, give your plant some water. A thirsty Peace Lily’s foliage will droop and its leaves will curl. They may also turn yellow, brown, and brittle at the edges.
Some of these signs of stress can have other causes besides underwatering. So be careful not to overcompensate by adding more water than your Peace Lily can handle. Along with telling you the signs of a thirsty Spathiphyllum, we’ll explain what else might be causing its symptoms.
How Much Water is Good For a Peace Lily?
A Peace Lily, or Spathiphyllum, is not a bog plant that likes to grow in mud and sludge. It’s also not a desert plant that can go for weeks without a splash of water. It’s a rainforest plant. That means it does best when its roots are a little moist but not smothered in wet soil. Your Peace Lily’s potting mix should be about as damp as a washcloth that you’ve just squeezed out.
When its roots dry out completely, your Peace Lily can’t sustain healthy growth. It’s even worse when the soil is sopping wet for too long. A waterlogged environment stifles the roots and lets harmful microorganisms multiply. That’s how you get root rot, which is one of the quickest ways to kill a houseplant.
So how often should you water to keep a Peace Lily healthy? This is tricky to answer. Your plant’s pot won’t always dry out at the same rate. It depends on things like the size of the container, the humidity in the air, and the amount of heat and sunlight your plant receives. Some of these factors can change quite a bit from day to day.
That means you shouldn’t put your Peace Lily on a rigid watering timetable. You’re better off taking a more fluid approach (pardon the pun), watering only when the need arises. (Learn more about watering Peace Lilies here.) Here are the 5 things you’ll notice when your Peace Lily needs water.
#1: Soil Getting Dry
If you get this one right, you may never see the other signs on this list. The perfect time to water is when the soil is almost dry, but your Peace Lily isn’t thirsty yet.
One tool that can make this easier is a moisture meter. Its long probe lets you measure how damp the soil is near the roots. Your Peace Lily needs water when the display shows that the growing medium is just a little bit moist.
A wooden chopstick or barbecue skewer can serve the same purpose. Poke it to the bottom of the pot and leave it for about a minute, then pull it out. If the end is a little damp, but not soaking wet, your Peace Lily is ready for a drink.
For an even lower-tech method that still works well, use your finger. Push it about an inch into the potting mix and see how it feels. Still damp? Wait another 2 days or so. If it’s dry, water your Peace Lily.
Whatever method you choose, you should test every 2-4 days. In the fall and winter, when your Peace Lily is growing slowly and using less water, you can scale this back to once a week.
if you ever see the soil getting so dry and crusty that it peels back from the pot, it’s definitely time to water. Your Peace Lily is probably miserable.
#2: Leaves Curling
As your Peace Lily starts to feel the pinch of thirst, its leaves begin to look rumpled. The tips curl inward or upward and the edges fold toward each other around the midribs. Sometimes the leaves take on a slight corkscrew shape.
You’re seeing this because the cells in your Peace Lily’s leaves are no longer full of water. This makes them deflate and crumple like half-empty balloons. At the same time, they fold up and in to shrink the area that’s exposed to the air. This helps to slow down the escape of water vapor.
This doesn’t always indicate that you’re underwatering your Peace Lily. Sometimes it happens because the leaves are losing moisture faster than the roots can replace it. (More on that here.) Strong direct sunlight, dry air, and high temperatures can all cause this effect. Watering will help with those problems, but you should also get your Peace Lily into a cooler, shadier spot.
Overwatering can also choke off the moisture supply to the leaves by suffocating the roots. Check to make sure the soil is dry before you decide it’s time to water your Peace Lily.
#3: Stems Drooping
This problem usually goes hand-in-hand with #2. Water pressure keeps the stems of your Peace Lily taut and upright, just as it keeps the leaves full and smooth. When there’s too little liquid, the stalks of your plant will slump over.
Some care guides claim you should wait to water your Peace Lily until it gets a little droopy. In our opinion, that’s bad advice. Letting your plant repeatedly wilt from thirst will weaken it over time. It may never achieve its full potential for growth and flowering.
All of the same problems that can cause crumpled leaves can also cause wilting stems. In addition to underwatering, check for things like overwatering, sun exposure, low humidity, and excess heat.
#4: Leaves Turning Yellow or Brown
When your Peace Lily needs water for long enough and doesn’t get it, the leaves begin to die. The chlorophyll drains away, turning the surface yellow. Then the cells wither up and dry out. This creates brown, crispy sections that feel more like a potato chip than a living plant. The process usually starts at the leaf edges and moves in.
Leaf discoloration can also be a sign of overwatering. In that case, the leaves tend to get yellow, floppy, and soft instead of dry and crumbly. This starts with the lower parts of the plant but moves upward fairly quickly.
Once again, sun scorch and extreme heat are other possible culprits. If just the tips of the leaves are drying out, there may be too many minerals in the soil. This can happen from giving your Peace Lily too much fertilizer or hard tap water. Low humidity could also be an issue. Be sure to check the soil before adding more water.
#5: Stunted Growth
This isn’t a sign that your Peace Lily needs water right this minute. It’s more of a wake-up call that you’ve been giving it too little hydration for a while.
Spathiphyllum plants are somewhat slow-growing. But when they’re healthy, they can grow up to 6 inches per year. And they’ll usually put out at least a few new leaves every spring and summer. If your plant is staying shrimpy, it may not be getting enough to drink.
Dim lighting can also suppress a Peace Lily’s growth. If it shows no other signs of thirst, it might just need more bright, indirect sun. Confining it in a pot that’s too small can have the same effect. So can a lack of fertilizer.
How to Water a Peace Lily
Now you know how to tell when your Peace Lily needs water. Do you know the right way to quench its thirst?
Here are the main points to remember when watering your Peace Lily:
- Gulps, not sips. Give your plant enough water to saturate the soil. There should be a trickle of water coming from the hole at the bottom of the pot when you’re done.
- Use filtered water. Tap water often contains more minerals than your Peace Lily would like. Give it filtered water when possible. If you can collect rainwater, that’s even better.
- Not too hot or cold. Room-temperature water is best for this tropical plant. That’s why we don’t recommend the “ice cube trick”. The cold may shock and damage your Peace Lily.
- AM, not PM. The ideal time to water a Peace Lily is in the morning. The soil will have time to dry out while the sun is up, reducing the risk of overwatering.
If you want to take a deep dive into your Peace Lily’s watering requirements, take a look at this article.
Final Thoughts
The best way to know when a Peace Lily needs water is to keep an eye on the soil. That should help you avoid more dramatic signs of thirst, like slouching stems and crispy leaves. Be attentive to your Peace Lily’s needs, and it will grow into a stunning tropical beauty.