Its name may mean “Golden Pothos”, but you don’t want your Epipremnum Aureum to get too yellow. Leaves turning sickly yellow on a plant can be an important indicator that it’s in poor health. But there are many possible causes for this symptom, so how can you tell why your Pothos leaves are turning yellow? This article will cover the nine most common reasons why a Devil’s Ivy can get jaundiced leaves.
A few yellow leaves here and there may not indicate a problem. There are some benign reasons for Pothos leaves to turn yellow, and we’ll talk about those below too. But if large portions of your plant are becoming discolored all at once, it’s usually safe to assume something has gone wrong. Here are nine typical reasons for discolored Pothos leaves.
Reason #1: The Leaves Are Turning Yellow From Age
We know how distressing it can be to see your plant turning an unhealthy color. However, be wary of overreacting to the first leaf or two that goes yellow. Your attempts to “fix” a healthy plant might actually harm it.
Pothos leaves naturally get old and die, even though the plant itself can keep growing and growing. If it’s just a couple of the older leaves that are yellowing, you probably don’t need to worry.
Reason #2: Your Pothos Leaves Are Variegated
If your Pothos leaves are turning yellow, pay attention to how they’re turning yellow. The pattern of the color change can be pretty significant. If you’re just seeing a few streaks or blobs of yellow, your Pothos might simply be developing variegation.
Most Pothos plants grown by indoor gardeners are cultivars of Epipremnum Aureum, the Golden Pothos. It’s called that because it tends to develop yellow or yellow-green speckling. This isn’t a disease; it’s just a mutation that changes the plant’s pigmentation.
Even if you didn’t buy a variegated Pothos on purpose, the change can sometimes happen spontaneously. This is called “sport variegation”. Not only is this not harmful, but it actually makes your plant (or any cuttings you take from it) more valuable!
However, you can rule out variegation if:
- The entire leaf is fading to yellow
- Yellow coloring is appearing around leaf tips and edges and spreading inward
- Circular patches of yellow that feel wet or squishy
Those are all signs that this leaf is on its way out. And the last one could indicate a serious problem: see reason number nine below.
Reason #3: Thirst Is Making Your Pothos Turn Yellow
Failing to water your Pothos can stunt its growth and kill off its foliage. When you see lots of leaves turning yellow in random spots all over the plant, underwatering is one likely cause.
Often, this color change occurs first at the edges of your Pothos leaves. The discoloration then moves toward the center, and the areas that turned yellow first become brown and crunchy. Other signs of underwatering include drooping and curling foliage.
As the problem gets worse, the affected leaves die and drop off of your Pothos. Meanwhile, growth slows down, and the new leaves that emerge may be smaller than usual.
Check the soil when you see these symptoms. If it’s still damp, you can rule out underwatering. Dry soil – especially if it’s so dry that it’s shrinking away from the inside of the pot – means your Pothos is probably dehydrated.
Give your Devil’s Ivy a nice big drink of water. You need to soak the soil all the way through, getting all of the roots nice and damp. If the potting mix contains lots of peat moss, you may need to submerge it completely underwater to rehydrate it. Hold the pot below the surface until it stops releasing air bubbles.
In the future, make sure to give your Pothos a drink whenever the top one to two inches of soil feel dry. It’s a good idea to check this every couple of days, especially if your plant is in a sunny space.
Reason #4: Overwatering Is Causing Yellowing in Your Pothos
Pothos leaves turning yellow may also indicate that the soil is too wet and the roots can’t get enough oxygen. This weakens them and reduces the flow of crucial resources to the leaves.
Sludgy soil also breeds fungi and bacteria, and the weakened roots can’t fight off these microorganisms. They become infected and start to decay, which is how you get the dreaded condition known as root rot.
Persistently wet soil is the most obvious indicator of overwatering. If the potting mix isn’t drying out between waterings, you’re giving your Devil’s Ivy too much to drink.
Your plant will also show its distress by wilting, yellowing, and browning. These symptoms will usually hit different parts of the plant at first, instead of showing up all over the place as they do in cases of underwatering. The leaves closer to the soil turn yellow first, while brown leaf tips show up on the newest growth. Also, the wilted leaves will feel soft and saggy instead of stiff and papery.
If your Pothos develops root rot, you may notice other symptoms too. The soil can develop sour or musty smells. Fungus gnats may move in, feasting on the decaying roots. And squishy, limp stems and slimy brown spots may appear on the foliage as the rot moves up the plant.
You’ll probably want to read our article on identifying and treating root rot in Pothos. The short version is that you need to clip off all the rotting roots and repot your plant in fresh potting mix. Choosing a blend with good drainage, as described in this post, will help you avoid overwatering in the future. Waiting until the upper soil is dry before watering is also crucial.
Reason #5: Your Pothos Is Over-Lit
Pothos prefer more sunlight than many people realize, but it’s possible to give them too much of a good thing. Direct sunlight – sitting right in the unfiltered rays of the sun – can burn your plant’s leaves. You don’t want your Devil’s Ivy to get more than two to three hours of direct sun per day. If it does, its leaves can be damaged.
Sun scorch turns the leaves yellow, tan, brown, or even black. Often, you’ll see large brown spots where the light was most intense, surrounded by yellow and tan blotches where the exposure was less harsh. This damage clusters on the side of the plant that’s facing the window. That’s usually how you can identify the problem.
There’s not much to be done about sun damage on your Pothos except wait for the plant to grow new, healthy leaves. Move it to a spot where it won’t get any direct light at all for a week or so to remove the stress. And boost the humidity if you can.
You may want to trim off the dead parts of the leaves for aesthetic purposes but leave the green parts in place. Your Pothos needs that healthy chlorophyll to absorb sunlight and fuel its recovery.
Reason #6: Cold Shock Is Turning Leaves Yellow
Pothos plants can also quickly turn yellow when they get too cold. These plants evolved in the balmy weather of French Polynesia, and they don’t tolerate winter cold well. Even brief exposures to temperatures below 50 degrees can deliver a severe shock to their systems.
The symptoms look a lot like overwatering (so check the moisture levels in the soil). Your Pothos will slump down while the leaves curl up and turn soft. Yellow and brown spots can appear, and sometimes parts of the leaves and stem will get squishy and slimy.
Prune away any mushy areas, or the rot can spread. Make sure to wipe your scissors with disinfectant first – you can use rubbing alcohol or watered-down bleach. And move your Pothos to a more comfortable area. Give it some lukewarm water to help refresh its depleted leaves.
Don’t try to rapidly warm your plant, though. We’ve seen posts from panicked plant owners who tried to use space heaters or hair dryers to save a chilly Pothos. This will backfire by causing more stress. Just leave your Devil’s Ivy in a space where the temperature is comfortable and steady – somewhere between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
Reason #7: Your Pothos Is Root Bound
Plants need room to grow within the soil as well as above it. If your Pothos leaves are turning yellow, they may have run out of space. We call this getting root bound.
When the roots reach the edges of the pot, they start doubling back or circling around each other. Over time, they cram together so tightly that some roots block other roots from absorbing enough water or nutrients. As a result, your Pothos no longer gets all of the ingredients it needs to support its existing foliage. Some of the leaves then start to die off.
The symptoms will sound familiar if you’ve been following along so far. The leaves of a root bound Pothos turn yellow, wilt, and develop brown, crispy tips. How do you distinguish an overcrowded plant from an overwatered or dehydrated one?
One important clue is what happens when you water your plant. Normally, it should take a little while for the water to soak through the soil and drip out the bottom. The pot will feel heavier afterward because of all the moisture the potting mix has absorbed.
But a root bound Pothos may have very little soil left to trap and hold moisture. Most of it has been pushed out or absorbed by the roots. So any water you add starts running out of the pot almost immediately, and the weight doesn’t change much. You might also see roots pushing out of the top of the soil or through the drainage holes at the bottom, desperately looking for any room to expand.
If your Devil’s Ivy is root bound, transfer it to a pot that is two to three inches wider. Do this every two years to prevent this issue in the future. You can find more detailed instructions here.
Reason #8: Your Pothos Has a Nutrition Problem
Improper nutrition can also cause leaf yellowing. This can result from too little fertilizer or too much. A nutrient shortage may deprive the foliage of critical ingredients, while a buildup of mineral salts in the soil can damage the roots.
There are 17 different chemical nutrients that plants get from fertilizer. Don’t waste time trying to figure out exactly which one is the reason your Pothos leaves are turning yellow. Instead, think through your care routine to figure out if you’re over or under-fertilizing your plant.
Have you been providing a moderate dose of liquid fertilizer every four to six weeks? If so, a shortage probably isn’t the problem. But if you’ve recently increased the dose, or if it’s the middle of winter and you’re fertilizing your Pothos just as much as you did in the growing season, you could be overdoing it.
If you’re not using liquid fertilizer, when was the last time you gave your plant some compost or slow-release pellets? You should be doing this every spring to ensure a steady supply of nutrients. If it’s been over a year since you replenished the soil, your Pothos might be undernourished.
Are you watering your Pothos from the top, giving it an extra-large drink every so often? If not, fertilizer salts may have been slowly accumulating in the potting mix. This is especially likely if you’re using a dense soil without many coarse ingredients.
If you think your Pothos is low on nutrition, add a little bit of balanced liquid fertilizer to its water. This should quickly correct the problem. To correct an excess of fertilizer salts, rinse them out of the soil with a long, deep drink of water. Use four to five times the total volume of your plant’s pot.
Reason #9: Pothos Leaf Infection or Infestation
Yellowing leaves could also be a sign that your Pothos is dealing with parasites. Round, moist, yellow blotches on the foliage could be fungal or bacterial infections. They’ll tend to keep spreading, often turning brown in the middle as they get bigger. The only cure is to cut off the diseased leaves. While trimming, disinfect your cutting tools to keep the illness from spreading.
If the yellow areas are irregular and look somewhat fuzzy or blurry, you could be looking at scarring from bugs. Many common houseplant pests can attack Pothos, including scale, mealybugs, aphids, spider mites, and thrips. Here are some symptoms to watch out for:
- Odd, discolored bumps or blisters
- Sticky slime, often with soot-gray mold growing in it
- Flecks or fuzzy blobs of white
- New leaves looking shriveled or deformed
- Dirty-looking webbing in the foliage
If you think your Pothos is infested with bugs, move it far away from your other plants while trying to treat it. Try to wash as many of the pests off by spraying down the plant or holding it underwater for 30 minutes or so. (Make sure to let the soil dry out afterward!)
Next, wipe down the leaves and stems with cotton swabs dipped in rubbing alcohol. Finally, treat it with a spray of insecticidal soap or neem oil.
Many Pothos pests are very stubborn, so be prepared to go through this treatment cycle a few times. But with patience and thoroughness, you can often free your plant of its invaders.
When your Pothos leaves turn yellow due to health issues, there will usually be at least a few other signs. Pay attention to your plant’s surroundings and the condition of the soil, and think through your own care habits. Once you know why your Pothos is discolored, you’ve got a very good shot at nursing it back to health.