The big debate: should you cut leaves that are yellowing or leave them alone?

I keep seeing posts where people immediately snip off yellow leaves on their houseplants, and I totally get the instinct, it looks bad. But I've been noticing that when I let those yellow leaves hang around for a few extra days, the plant actually pulls the last bit of energy out of them before dropping them on its own. I tested this on my monstera back in February, the one leaf I cut early led to a slower new leaf coming in, while the one I left alone dropped naturally and the plant pushed out a new one in like a week. On the flip side, I've also had leaves that were yellow from overwatering, and leaving those on just let rot spread. So it feels like it depends on why the leaf is yellow, not just the color itself. How do you guys decide when to cut and when to wait it out?

2 comments

2 Comments

reeseanderson10d agoTop Commenter

That bit about overwatering yellow leaves is key, I think most people miss the distinction. The leaf's energy drain vs. the rot risk is the real deciding factor for me.

wyatt_fox6810d ago

Has anyone else tried just pinching off the yellow tip instead of the whole leaf? That worked for my pothos, the rest of the leaf stayed green for weeks. @reeseanderson is right though, with overwatering you gotta cut fast or it's a mess.