I have had a peace lilly for approx 5 years now and with in the last week it has started to develop Yellow leaves and is wilting rather severely. The plant is watered once a week and the soil is moist not wet. I have tried to water the plant since this has stated to happen and it does not seem to be taking up any water. I have taken the plant out of the pot to see if it has been over watered and could be suffering from rotting roots and this does not seem to be the case. Also the root are not bound as they still have some room. If any one can help me that would be terrific! I have also included some photos of the plant in its current condition. Dom
It may simply want to be divided (yes, you can do this - use a sharp, sterile knife) and repotted into larger vessels with a bit more fresh soil. I've seen Spathiphyllums sulk like that when they're feeling a bit tight in their pots or when they feel that there is too much plant for the amount of soil they have.
If it's wilted, then the plant's not getting water one way or another -- either there's no water in the pot (which you said was not the case), or the roots are damaged/absent (which you said was not the case), or there's something preventing the water from being taken up by the roots. Some possibilities for the last option: the soil may have broken down into particles which are fine and silty enough to obstruct and suffocate the roots. If the soil hasn't been flushed out with clean water, minerals may have built up to the point where osmotic pressure makes it impossible for the plant to take up water from the soil. (Overfertilization might do the same thing, though overfertilization would also likely give you burnt tips and margins.) If the plant has been getting excessively dry between waterings, the fine root hairs which actually take up the water might have died back, leaving intact-looking roots which are unable to extract water from the soil. Soil breakdown and mineral buildup could be fixed by repotting with fresh soil. Overfertilization is fixable by flushing the rootball heavily with large amounts of clean water. Root-hair die-back may not be fixable. Overall, I'd recommend at least trying to repot in new soil. As lorax suggests, you should probably also divide the plant as you repot. Division will help if soil breakdown caused the problem -- if the soil has broken down to particles fine enough to cause root damage, then you'll want to replace the soil in the center of the root ball too, but it will be difficult to change the soil in the center of the root ball without access to it. Cutting through the root ball will allow you to remove and replace soil in the center. You don't necessarily need to pot the divisions up in different pots when you're done, though. I'd recommend planting in different pots, mostly to hedge your bets (if one of the divisions fails to survive the process, the others are more likely to make it if they don't have to share a pot with a rotting, dead plant), but you don't have to.
Also I am not sure if this would change any thing but i have inspected the soil a little more closely and it seems to have white deposits around when the soil would have been in contact with the pot. Is this normal. Also the steams where by the leaves seem to be rather limp as well. Does this change the diagnosis at all? Thank you all for the advice so far it really is appreciated. Dom
OK, that sounds an awful lot like mineral accumulation. The best solution I know for that is to repot into completely new soil and new pots, dividing the plant as I suggested above, and then water with either rainwater or distilled until the plant recovers.
