The dying snake plant is often caused by overwatering and slow-draining soils, which cause the leaves to turn yellow or brown and droop with a dying appearance. Plants of the snake family are not tolerant of cold and can die in temperatures as low as 50°F.
In order to revive a dying snake plant, it is important to replicate some of the conditions of its native habitat, including watering it correctly, placing it in an area of indirect light rather than full sun, and ensuring that it is in a warm room.
Find out how to revive your dying snake plant if it is yellow or brown with drooping leaves due to overwatering or if the leaves have curled inwards with white patches from overwatering or cold stress.
Snake Plant Turning Brown or Yellow and Drooping
- There are symptoms: The leaves of a snake plant turn yellow and become mushy instead of firm.
- The causes: Pots and soil overwatered and unable to drain properly.
Adapted to growing in arid conditions, snake plants grow in tropical Africa where droughts are common, soil is gritty and there is little rain.
When too much moisture surrounds the roots of snake plants, they turn yellow or brown and their leaves become mushy as a sign of stress.
Because snake plants require quick draining soil, they need to be watered less often than most houseplants.
It is important to emulate some of the conditions of the snake plant’s native environment in order to prevent the leaves from turning yellow or brown by using a gritty or sandy, well draining potting mix and only watering the plants when they are completely dry.
It is contrary to the conditions to which it has adapted for the soil to not dry out between waterings and will cause the snake plant leaves to turn yellow with drooping leaves and root rot resulting in becoming a dying snake plant again.
In addition, snake plants should be planted in pots with drainage holes and water should be able to escape freely.
Surrounding pots with saucers and trays often causes excess water to pool around the roots, causing them to appear to be a dying snake plant.
What to do with Yellow or Brown Drooping Leaves on a Dying Snake Plant
- Reduce the amount of watering. If you are watering snake plants more than once a week, you are watering them too much. Generally, snake plants need to be watered every two to three weeks. When the leaves are brown or yellow, allow the soil to dry completely.
- Replacing the soil is necessary. Despite watering your snake plant regularly, it can still turn yellow or brown and droop if the soil is slow draining and moisture retentive. Empty the pot and replace the soil with specially formulated succulents (available at garden centers and on Amazon) that replicate the well-draining characteristics of the snake plant’s natural environment. This will significantly reduce the chances of the snake plant turning brown or yellow and turned it into a dying snake plant .
- Snake plants should be planted in pots with drainage holes. For the snake plants’ roots to avoid being in damp soil for too long, it is essential that excess water can escape freely from the base of the pot. It is best for snake plants to be planted in pots that are proportional to their size, as especially large pots hold more soil, hold more moisture, and dry out a lot slower, which can result in the leaves turning yellow or brown and become a dying snake plant.
Using the drainage hole in the base of the pot, feel the soil at the bottom of the pot to determine how often you should water snake plants. It is best to delay watering for a few days if the soil feels moist, but if the soil feels dry, now is the perfect time to water.
Snake plants with this schedule mimic their natural watering cycle, which involves heavy rainfall followed by a period of drought.
Snake plants typically require watering every 2 weeks, but this can vary depending on the climate and the conditions in your home, so it is best to establish the ideal watering cycle by feeling the soil to see when it is dry.
Make sure that there are no compacted soil or roots blocking the drainage hole in the bottom of the pot that could cause it to drain slowly.
In order for the roots of the snake plant to flourish, the soil around its roots has to be allowed to dry out completely and the watering schedule has to be adjusted, if it was accumulating moisture slowly.
During the next few weeks, the snake plants should show signs of reviving.
As long as the brown or yellow color is still spreading and the leaf feels soft, cut back the damaged leaves at the base of the plant as those leaves are unlikely to recover and this can prevent the rot from spreading to other parts of the plant.
Snake Plants Suffering from Severe Root Rot
When the snake plant leaves continue to discolor despite best care practices, root rot may be the cause, at which point it can be nearly impossible to save the plant.
If the plant is susceptible to dying back, it may be most effective to propagate by taking cuts of the healthy leaves.
Cuttings of snake plant leaves propagate readily, so you can have several new plants as a result of propagation, which may be the only way to save your plant.
Curled Leaves on Dying Snake Plant
- There are symptoms: The leaves of snake plants curl inward, with the leaves possibly splitting or appearing wrinkled.
- The causes: Underwatering, hydrophobic soil, or cold damage.
When snake plant leaves curl inward, it usually indicates that the plant is under watered or has been damaged by cold.
In some cases, underwatered leaves can also look wrinkled or even split at some point in the leaf.
People often interpret the advice that snake plants do not need a lot of water as watering the plant frequently rather than watering it with a small amount of water.
Snake plants are drought resistant and can go for a couple of weeks without water, but they do require a generous soak at each watering, which is then stored in the leaves as a strategy to cope with drought.
Some soil mixes can also bake hard when they dry out, which may cause leaves to curl inwards.
Water will then run off the surface of this dry soil and drain out through the drainage holes and down the pot’s sides
In this case, the snake plant can appear to have received a generous amount of water, but the water has not been able to penetrate the soil properly and the roots cannot absorb water, resulting in curled leaves as a sign of drought.
Frost Damages Leaves, Causing Them to Curl
A snake plant is a tropical plant that cannot withstand freezing or cold temperatures.
Snake plants grow at temperatures between 50°F (10°C) and (23°C) 75°F. Curling up will be their first reaction if the room gets significantly colder than this temperature.
Snake plants, when exposed to severe cold, develop white mushy areas to their leaves from one to four weeks after being exposed to the cold.
The leaves of your snake plant can turn brown if they come in contact with a frosty window when they are on a window sill.
How to Revive a Dying Snake Plant with Curling Leaves
If your snake plants have curling leaves due to drought stress:
- For 10 minutes, soak the snake plant in water. Submerging the snake plant for 10 minutes when its soil is repelling water allows the root system to draw up the much needed water.
- You should always soak your water generously. Too little moisture is absorbed and does not reach the roots when it is applied to the soil too lightly. Ensure that excess water drips out of the drainage holes in the base. Water the plants with a sufficient amount of water to maintain a healthy plant.
- The soil underneath your snake plant feels dry if water runs off the surface. If this is happening, replace the soil. Snake plants should be planted in a succulent and cacti soil that mimics the well draining, porous soil found in the snake plants native environment. Succulent and cacti soil allows water to penetrate properly and does not bake hard like some other potting mixes even when it is dry.
In the following week, your dying snake plant should show signs of recovering with proper watering practices and a 10-minute soak in water.
Instead of become dying snake plant, curled in leaves can store water again and recover to a plump full texture.
How to Revive Dying Snake Plant That Damaged by Cold
When your snake plant has been exposed to temperatures slightly below 50°F (10°C), it will recover from its curled appearance once it is placed in a room that is consistently warmer than 50°F (10°C).
You are more likely to lose your snake plant’s leaves if the leaves are white and mushy.
With sterile pruners, cut down the damaged leaf blades to the soil to prevent the damage from spreading.
Dying Snake Plant with Brown Spots
It is typically found in areas with shade, usually under tree canopy, in hot, sunny climates.
Even though snake plants can tolerate full sun in some cases, they prefer bright indirect light and can even survive in considerable shade.
When moved from a shaded area to direct sunlight, the snake plant can burn with brown spots on its leaves.
It is not possible to recover the sunburned leaf parts, but they do not kill the snake plant, so it can live for a long time despite sun damage to its leaves.
Nevertheless, it might be a good idea to cut the damaged leaf blades back to the soil to promote healthy leaf growth.
Snake plants can get very top-heavy, so pots with a large base prevent them from falling over. If they fall over, snake plants can suffer bruising.
Sum Up
The leaves of a dying snake plant turn yellow or brown and droop because they are overwatered and moist. If the temperature drops below 50°F, a snake plant will suffer cold stress and die.
The curled leaves may indicate cold stress if the plant is exposed to low temperatures or drought stress as the leaves store water.
Sunburnt leaves have brown spots. When exposed to direct sunlight, snake plans can develop brown spots and will turn them into a dying snake plant.
Reviving a dying snake plant requires infrequent watering, indirect light, and a warm temperature to prevent cold stress. Cuttings of leaves from healthy tissue can be used to propagate a dying snake plant.