蜜桃恋人

How to Care for Ponytail Palms

Poneytail palm indoors by a window. The Beaucarnea Recurvata, also known as Ponytail Palm, or Nolina is a houseplant with a swollen thick brown stem and the long narrow curly, green leaves flow up from this base.
Photo Credit
Renata.Ka/Shutterstock
Botanical Name
Beaucarnea recurvata
Plant Type
Houseplant
Sun Exposure
Full Sun
Part Sun
Soil pH
Neutral
Flower Color
White
Yellow
Hardiness Zone
9
10
11

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Growing Ponytail Palm Houseplants: Watering, Lighting, Repotting, and Pests

Catherine Boeckmann

Ponytail palms, or elephant foot palms, are unique-looking, long-lived indoor plants that thrive on benign neglect. They are straightforward to grow鈥攑rovided that you don’t overwater them! Here’s how to grow and care for a ponytail palm in your home.

About Ponytail Palms

Despite its name and palm-like appearance, the ponytail palm is not a true 鈥減alm.鈥 In fact, it is more closely related to desert plants in the Agave and Yucca genera (such as Joshua trees).

The typical ponytail palm consists of a large, domed 鈥渟tump,鈥 which tapers off into a thinner stem. As the plant ages, one or more rosettes of long, green, leathery leaves develop from the top of the stem. Indoors, the leaves can reach up to 3 feet long, but outdoors, they may be double that length.

In its native environment (eastern Mexico), the entire plant has been known to reach up to 30 feet in height! However, ponytail palms grown in gardens as landscape plants don’t usually reach more than 10 feet tall. 

Kept indoors, they are rarely taller than 4 feet. However, as explains, 鈥淚n containers, ponytail palms will grow slower than if in the ground, and the plants will remain small if kept in a small pot. They can go for many years before needing to be repotted. Moving it to a larger pot will give it room to grow in both height and girth. They can be very long-lived and can easily outlive their owners. However, older plants may be difficult to manage because of sheer size and weight if not kept on the smaller size.鈥

Care of this plant is generally simple; the most common difficulty is adapting your watering habits to its needs!

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Planting

Choosing Soil and a Pot

  • Use a fast-draining soil, such as a cacti and succulent potting mix. If you already have potting soil, sand, and perlite on hand, you can create your own desert soil mixture: Mix 1 part potting soil, 1 part perlite, and 1 part sand. 
  • Select a pot with a hole in the bottom so that excess water can be drained off. Ponytail palms do not like to sit in moist soil for very long.
  • Use a clay pot if possible; the porous material will absorb some of the water, drying out the soil more quickly (a good thing for cacti and succulents).

Growing

How to Care for Ponytail Palms

  • Ponytail palms prefer to have as much light as possible, so place the plant in a bright location. Bright, indirect sunlight is best.
  • Keep soil fairly dry. Water from spring through fall, allowing the top inch or two of soil to dry completely before re-watering. During the winter, only water occasionally.
  • To water, soak the soil and allow the excess water to drain through the bottom of the pot into a dish. Let the pot sit in the dish for several minutes, then dump out any remaining water in the dish. 
  • Fertilize in the spring with a cacti/succulent fertilizer and bring into a brighter room for the summer months. 
  • Average room temperature is acceptable for most of the year, but to replicate the natural dormancy cycle, keep the plant slightly cooler in the winter (50-55掳F / 10-13掳C).
  • Don’t let the plant sit too close to cold windows at night during winter, as freezing temperatures can severely damage it.

Repotting a Ponytail Palm

  • Ponytail palms will remain small if kept in a small pot. They can go for many years before needing to be repotted. Repotting every other year at the most is all a ponytail palm needs.
  • Moving the plant to a larger pot will allow it to grow in height and girth. However, older plants may become challenging to manage due to their sheer size and weight if they are not kept at a smaller size.
  • When selecting a new pot, pick one large enough to leave about an inch or so of space between the ponytail palm’s trunk and the pot’s rim. 
  • Note: Use caution when handling a ponytail palm, as its leaves have tiny serrated edges.

Harvesting

Propagation

  • Rarely, a ponytail palm may produce an offset鈥攁 tiny baby plant that stems from the base of the adult plant. These can be cut off at the base when they reach at least 4 inches in height and planted in a succulent potting mix. Before planting, allow the cut wound to heal, then apply some rooting hormone (available online and in nurseries) to encourage the offset to root. 
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Wit and Wisdom

  • The plant’s unusual shape and coloration have granted it another strange nickname: the Elephant’s Foot Palm.
  • Are ponytail palms poisonous to cats? While the leaves of a ponytail palm are not toxic to feline (or canine) companions, their foliage does have abrasive edges that could irritate a pet’s mouth, so we suggest keeping the plant out of reach. 

Pests/Diseases

  • Overwatering can result in stem rot. If you withhold watering, the plant may be able to internally remedy the problem. Signs of stem rot include yellowing leaves and a caudex (the plant’s base and stem) that is soft or squishy. 
  • Spider mites and scale insects may find their way to the leaves, but can be dealt with by rubbing a cloth of dish soap and water on the stems. Spider mites are evidenced by the presence of spider-like webbing on the plant.
  • Brown tips on leaves can be a sign of overfertilizing or underwatering, so adjust your husbandry practices appropriately. They can also indicate that the plant is getting too much direct sunlight and too little water.
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About The Author

Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann loves nature, stargazing, and gardening so it鈥檚 not surprising that she and The Old Farmer鈥檚 蜜桃恋人 found each other. She leads digital content for the 蜜桃恋人 website, and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana. Read More from Catherine Boeckmann
 

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Comments

Larry Wilke (not verified)

6 years 8 months ago

I have a ponytail palm i got from my mother when she passed and i promissed i would take care of it. This plant is 42 years old, everything was going good until i noticed the leaves are turning dark brown at the top where new groth is starting. It is not in direct light cuz there are heater vents by the windows and the plant will dry out so i try to getit as close to light as i ca n until i can turn off the heat.what can i do to save this beutiful plant? Pleas help.

Brown leaf tips are fairly normal for an indoor ponytail palm. They can be caused by over- or underwatering, so make sure that you are following the watering tips outlined above. Ponytail palms don’t need much water, especially in the winter, and the soil should dry out almost completely between waterings. Once you’ve ensured that your watering habits are correct, consider the lighting. Dying leaves could also be caused by the lack of light鈥攑onytail palms do need full sun. Setting up a supplementary indoor light using a full spectrum fluorescent or LED bulb may help keep it happy during the winter months. 

In any case, ponytail palms are hardy plants, so yours should bounce back when spring comes around and it can get more light.

kaye deacon (not verified)

6 years 8 months ago

can you cut off and plant the side shoots of the parent plant that present on older palms.
what care is needed. section found did little to provide much info on anything other than planting. Found the answer tks a lot
kaye

Allan Eustace. (not verified)

6 years 9 months ago

Is it possible to grow this plant by a cutting.

It would be a bad idea to remove the main stem of a ponytail palm, but occasionally, adult plants will produce 鈥渂abies鈥 or 鈥減ups,鈥 which are small offshoots stemming from the base of the plant. These can be removed and grown into new plants with the right care. When they’re at least 4 inches tall, the pups can be cut from the mother plant and replanted. When you make the cut, make sure you use a sterile knife, and dust the pup’s cut wound with rooting hormone if possible. Then, place it in slightly moistened soil (a succulent mix, ideally) and wait. Do not overwater.

Jenny (not verified)

6 years 9 months ago

I have a ponytail palm that I鈥檝e had for almost 30 years. Got it from my mother. It is in a pot and lives outside. Very unusual but this winter we had several continuous days of below freezing weather. The palm was covered but apparently not good enough. The palm oozed a white foamy sap. The fronds are all brown. It could be my imagination but the stem feels a little soft. The bulb still feels hard and firm. All these years, the ponytail has been so hardy that it is distressing to see its current condition. Is there anything I should do to help it (beyond making sure to bring it inside if it is going to freeze in the future)?

It does sound like your ponytail palm has suffered from a freeze, unfortunately. It’s really a toss up as to whether it will be able to recover or not, but what you can do it to try to keep it in a warmer place for the remainder of the season and be careful not to overwater it. The brown leaves are dead and can be cut off. It’s possible that new leaves will grow in the spring. 

Ron Stewart (not verified)

6 years 10 months ago

Ponytail Palms are quite common and do well outdoors here in southwest Florida. Another common name for Beaucarnea recurvata that I have heard often is Whoville palm because it looks like it came right out of a Dr. Seuss illustration.

Patty (not verified)

7 years ago

I know how often to water, but how MUCH water do you use?

While we can’t give an exact amount because it depends on the size of your pot and the amount of soil in it, the rule of thumb for watering is to 鈥渨ater deeply, but infrequently.鈥 This means that you should water until the water starts to come out of the pot’s drainage holes. If the soil is particularly dry or porous, let the pot sit in any water that comes out of the bottom for a little while so that the soil can soak up the water that went straight through. Once you’ve allowed the pot to sit in the excess water for 10 or so minutes, dump out the dish of excess water.