Beginner Gardening: Peace Lily - What Am I Doing Wrong?, 1 by inamorata

inamorata wrote:
Pamgarden: It was originally in either an 8" pot. I moved it to the 12" pot because it was so large, I thought that would be best. Going by what you said, it should be fine to remain in a 10" pot while it recovers, right?

I have to retract what I said about never fertilizing. I've used the Miracle-Gro Indoor Plant Food Spikes since I bought the plant. (I never thought of it as "fertilizer" since it didn't say that on the front of the packaging. *blushes* That was dumb, I know.) The potting soil I use is Miracle-Gro Potting Mix. The package said it fed plants for 3 months, so I waited until that amount of time had passed before I started using the spikes. When I downgraded it to the 10" pot, I used the same soil, and haven't used the spikes since then, though I think the three months has passed by now.

Should I be cutting off *everything* that starts to yellow/brown as soon as I notice it? I tend to wait until it spreads pretty far across the leaves, because I just can't bear to cut off that much all at once... and, I worry that too much pruning would hurt the plant.

cruz4him: Until the other night, I had the plant in an area near the front door, which faces south and stays open throughout the day. (No air conditioning in the living room.) There is also a south-facing window, and in the late afternoons the plant probably *was* getting far too much light. The whole area gets lit up pretty well during that time of day.

I have since moved it to sit on the bar that divides the kitchen/living area... a dimmer area about seven feet away from the nearest window. Is that a better place?

When I said the roots were visible, I didn't mean across the tops/sides of the pot. I meant in the soil still surrounding it after I took it out of the pot. I thought it was too much (since I was moving it to the smaller pot), and I kept thinking root-bound is bad, so I trimmed them down so there would be room for root growth in the smaller pot. (Gosh, I must sound really dumb... it sounds dumb to me as I try to describe what I was thinking back then... but at the time, I thought it made sense.)

And finally... a question about the pot I am using. (See pic.) Are the completely enclosed pots not good to use with peace lilys? This is the type of pot I use for all my indoor plants. (I have two devil's ivy, and a mother-in-law's tongue, in addition to the peace lily. All of those are thriving and growing very nicely!)

Thank you, both of you, for all the advice you have given me so far. And Smokey_SC, I will look for the Lilys forum, and see if I have access to it or not. :)