Basically, the yucca is a very robust and easy-care houseplant - although it does not belong to the palm family (as is often wrongly assumed) but to the agave family. The yucca, also known as palm lily, can become ill, mainly due to mistakes in care, but also due to an unsuitable location. Clear indications of this are yellow or brown leaves and a conspicuous loss of leaves.
If the yucca palm sheds a lot of leaves at once, the care is probably wrong
Many causes lead to leaf loss
There are many reasons why your yucca sheds its leaves. These usually turn yellow or brown at first, dry up and eventually fall off. With some diseases, only a few brownish spots appear on the leaves - which can spread quickly in the case of a fungal, bacterial or virus-related infection - or only the tips of the leaves turn brown or black. If only the lowest leaves turn yellow and die off, this is normal: this is how the yucca develops its trunk; it wilts from below and forms new shoots above. However, if the discolored leaves appear in the middle of the tuft, there are other reasons behind them.
The possible causes at a glance
For a faster diagnosis, we have put together a brief overview of the possible causes.
- Yellow / brown leaves, possibly with a soft stem: waterlogging
- dried leaves with dry substrate: too little water
- yellow leaves v. a. at the end of hibernation: wrong (too warm) hibernation, lack of light
- Yellow leaves: lack of light
- Yellow/brown leaves only on the side facing the sun: sunburn
- Yellow/brown leaves without recognizable external causes or just leaf spots: disease or pest infestation caused by fungus/virus/bacteria (especially watch out for gall mites!)
- Do the fallen leaves and other foliage feel sticky?
Appropriate countermeasures
As is well known, prevention is better than cure, which is why you should take care of your yucca carefully and, above all, in a species-appropriate manner: Then you will most likely be spared worries about falling leaves. If the plant is nevertheless already affected, you should diagnose and treat it according to the following scheme. First, take a close look at the yucca:
- Is it too dark or maybe in the blazing sun?
- Is the substrate dry or rather moist?
- Have you changed anything recently, for example the watering interval or the location?
- Was the yucca moved to a new location too quickly?
- Was the room yucca put outside or vice versa?
- Is there any evidence of a pest infestation?
- Was the plant perhaps exposed to (cold) drafts?
- Are other neighboring plants also showing the same symptoms?
You can use this questionnaire to narrow down the possible cause more precisely and then act accordingly. Of course, this includes eliminating the cause - and removing the damaged leaves, if they have not yet fallen off by themselves.
tips
In severe cases - for example if there is wilting caused by waterlogging - the only thing left to do is to cut off the remaining healthy parts of the yucca and plant it in fresh substrate for the purpose of rooting.