Noticing brown spots on your peace lily can often be a worry, especially after all the time and care you’ve put into looking after them. In this article, you’re going to find out why brown spots occur on your peace lily and, more importantly, what you can do to get rid of them!
So keep reading to find out!
What Causes Brown Spots On Peace Lilies (And What To Do About It)
There are a whole bunch of different reasons you might start to notice brown spots appearing on your peace lily. Fortunately, most of them are fairly easy to solve, so you don’t need to panic too much just yet.
Here are the different reasons!
Too Much Light
The amount of light your peace lily needs is a lot less than you might think. Peace lilies grow in tropical rainforests where they’ve been sheltered by the canopy of other trees. You should bear this in mind when you’re deciding where you’re going to place them in your home.
If you place them in an area where there’s too much sunlight, it may end up burning their leaves and flowers, and this could be the reason brown spots have started appearing on their leaves and flowers.
Fortunately, this is a very easy problem to fix.
Solutions
Plant Positioning
If you think that your peace lily has been getting too much sunlight, then the solution is incredibly simple. You just have to reposition your plant to somewhere with less. You can do this by moving them to an East facing window, as this will generally give them the perfect amount of light.
However, if you don’t have one in your house, you can also use other plants or shades to reduce the amount of light hitting your peace lily.
Also, take note that the area you place your plant in should be dependent on the seasons as well. During the hot months when the sun is stronger, your peace lily will need to be further away from sunlight. However, during the winter, when the sun isn’t so strong, you can move your plant to an area where it gets a bit more light.
Try Artificial Light
If you can’t seem to get the balance of sunlight right, another alternative is to just get rid of it altogether and use artificial light instead. A standard fluorescent bulb will be adequate, and you just need to space your peace lily about 12″ away from it.
However, in case you’re trying to get your peace lily to bloom, use a light that provides red wavelengths as this is the best for growth.
Temperature
In times when the temperature is too high, you may also notice brown spots are growing on your peace lily. Water will evaporate a lot faster in warmer environments, which not only will cause brown spots, but you’ll also notice that your peace lily leaves are beginning to curl.
Fortunately, again, there are a lot of simple fixes to this.
Solutions
Make Sure The Temperature Is Right
The most obvious solution is to make sure you’re keeping your peace lily in an environment where the temperature is between68 and 85°F.
No Drastic Temperature Changes
You should also make sure that you’re not allowing drastic temperature changes to happen around your peace lily, as this can still be damaging. This includes making sure that there are no drafts, open windows, or sudden heat spikes from a radiator or AC unit that could end up damaging your plant.
Be Aware Of Sunlight
As you have probably gathered by now, too much sunlight can be harmful to your peace lily. But did you ever consider that if your peace lily is around direct sunlight, then it’s also going to raise the temperature as well, causing evaporation to happen a lot sooner?
This is just another reason to keep your peace lily away from direct sunlight!
Humidity
Trying to get the humidity right around your peace lily can be a pain, but there are definitely solutions! So when considering why your peace lily has brown spots on it, you should also think about the humidity levels in your room.
If your Peace Lily is turning green,however, then it could be a sign of something else.
Click here to find out what it means and what you can do about it!
If the air is too dry, then it’s going to be disastrous for your peace lily, as the plant and soil will dry out quicker as well.
Solutions
If you think your peace lily isn’t getting enough humidity, here are some things you can try!
Misting Them
The easiest solution is to simply get a spray water bottle and mist your peace lily. This way, the leaves, and plants are going to get wet, reducing the amount of evaporation. And some of the water will also sink into the soil! Doing this 2-3 times a week in warmer, drier climates should be the perfect amount.
Get A Humidifier
You can also get a humidifier and place it near your peace lily as well. If you’re willing to splash out a little bit more, then they’re definitely worth it! As once you have one, you can just place it near your peace lily, and you’ll never have to worry about humid the environment is for them anymore!
Use Other Tropical Plants
Another neat trick is to place your peace lily around other tropical plants as well! This way, they’re all going to create a mini climate around each other which will naturally create more humidity too! Just make sure none of the plants have diseases; otherwise, the disease may end up being passed!
Fungal/Bacterial Leaf Spot
On the subject of diseases, one thing you definitely don’t want your peace lily to get is a fungal/bacterial leaf spot. This pathogenic disease is actually fairly common, and if your peace lily does have it, you’ll need to move it away from any other plants to stop the infection from spreading.
Infection often happens when debris from one pot ends up in another plant’s pot, so it wouldn’t take much for it to spread at all!
If you’re not sure whether it’s a fungal/bacterial leaf spot, look for yellow rings around each spot. If the yellow rings are there, then you can be quite confident that it’s leaf spot your peace lily is suffering from.
Solutions
Treating The Leaf Spot
The first thing you’ll need to do is treat the leaf spot itself. To do this, you’ll have to pick off any leaves that have already been infected, as they could spread the infection more. Once you’ve removed all the infected parts, use copper soap to reduce the chance of infection happening on other parts of your plant as well.
Repot Your Peace Lily
Because fungal/bacterial leaf spots can stay in the soil, you should also repot your peace lily to further reduce the chance of reinfection. Once you’ve done this, you can decide whether you want to throw away the old soil or sterilize it and use it again.
If you’re going to sterilize it, you’ll need to bake or steam it for 30 minutes, making sure the temperature remains above 82°C the whole time.
Don’t Water At Night
You should also make sure you’re not watering your peace lily at night. When you do this, they’re going to stay moist for too long, which in turn creates the perfect environment for bacteria to thrive in. So, where possible, make sure you’re watering your peace lily in the morning or during the day.
Disinfect Your Tools
Lastly, make sure you’re disinfecting your tools after you’ve used them on you an infected plant. Otherwise, you may end up spreading the infection across many plants.
Pest Infestation
As well as bacterial and fungal infections, there are certain pest infestations that can cause brown spots on your peace lily as well. Scales and mealybugs are extremely common pests that can cause such problems, as well as aphids. And while there are a lot more likely causes, you definitely can’t rule out pests.
Solutions
Fortunately, if your peace lily has been affected by pests there are a few things you can do to rid of them!
Remove Them By Hand
The most common and easiest solution is to simply remove them by hand. However, this is best in cases where there aren’t too many pests. If there are a lot of pests, but they’re all in one area, you can also try cutting off certain parts such as a leaf or flower. This way, you’ll get rid of most of the infestation with minimum effort.
Introduce Predators
Depending on where you keep your peace lily, you can also introduce natural predators to help remove the pests as well. Lady beetles, ladybugs, lacewings are all great choices. Just make sure you have a way to get rid of them eventually as well.
Natural Pesticides
There are also a lot of natural pesticides you can use to get rid of any pests on your plants too! Neem oil is a great choice, but you can also add soap to water and spray that over your peace lily to kill pests. Or, you could sprinkle diatomaceous earth on your plant, which kills most pests too!
Too Much Fertilizer
If you notice that the brown spots are mainly happening around the edges of your peace lilies leaves, then it may be that you’ve been using too much fertilizer, and they’re suffering from a nutrient burn.
Solution
The solution here is simple, reduce the amount of fertilizer you’re using. Fortunately, peace lilies don’t really need fertilizers; it’s only during the spring months when they’re beginning to grow and bloom that you should start adding fertilizer. Apart from that, they’re not really necessary!
Problems With Watering
You should also make sure that you’re not watering your peace lily too much or too little. Either can cause the leaves to go brown and occasionally, the browning will occur in spots across the leaves. Fortunately, peace lilies are easy to water.
Solution
When watering your peace lily, some people say to stick to a schedule of once a week; however, scheduling isn’t the best choice. When you schedule watering, you don’t take into account changes in the environment that will affect your peace lilies watering needs.
What you should do instead is poke your finger into the soil and check to see if it’s moist. If it’s moist at your first knuckle, then you won’t need to water your peace lily just yet. However, if the soil is dry, then it means it’s time to water.
And lastly, the quality of the water can also cause brown spots to occur on your peace lily. Because of all the chemicals in water such as fluoride and chlorine etc. All of which is going to damage your peace lily over time.
Solutions
Fortunately, the solution to this is incredibly simple. The easiest thing to do is let any water you plan on watering your peace lily with sit for 24 hours first, so all the chemicals can dissipate. Once you’ve done that, it will then be fine to use.
On top of this, you can also consider using rainwater, which is always the best option for plants as it’s the most natural type of water you can get! Failing that, distilled water is also a great choice.
How Do You Treat Brown Spots On Peace Lilies?
If you notice that your peace lily has brown spots, there are a few things you can do to treat them, as well as what’s been listed above. This is what you should consider doing to get your peace lily as healthy as possible again!
Remove The Damaged Leaves
One of the first things you should do if the damage is severe over a few leaves is to remove them completely. These leaves won’t be working at full capacity; however, your lily will still be using a lot of nutrients trying to keep them alive. By removing them, you allow other parts of your peace lily to get more energy and nutrition!
This is more of a priority when you’re the leaves are old.
Make Sure The Growing Conditions Remain Consistent
One of the best things you can do is make sure that you keep the growing conditions good and consistent. While some of them will be uncontrollable, others are completely in your control. So making sure you’re giving them water regularly and keeping the temperature constant are a great place to start!
Why Are There Brown Spots On Your Peace Lily’s Leaf Tips?
If you notice brown spots on your peace lilies tips, it’s most likely going to be due to either an irrigation problem or a fertilizer problem. If you’re using too much fertilizer, then your peace lily is going to suffer from nutrient burn. And in both cases of watering too much or too little, your peace lily will also start to get brown spots at its tips.
And lastly, if hot air or too much heat is getting blasted directly into the leaves, then it could result in the tips turning brown as well.
Why Are There Brown Spots On Your Peace Lily Blooms?
If you notice brown spots on the blooms of your peace lily, then the chances are they’re suffering from bacterial or fungal brown spots. And you can know for certain this is the case if you notice yellow rings around each brown spot.
FAQs
Here are some commonly asked questions
Why Is The Flower On Your Peace Lily Turning Brown?
If the flower on your peace lily is turning brown, there are a whole range of causes, including old age, humidity, water issues, pests, and pathogens.
