I have a large 17 year old Peace Lily. I believe there are 3 or 4 plant in the pot, and the largest (and probably oldest) has had so many leaves die and get pruned off over the years, that the "trunk" won't support the leaves coming out of the top of it.

Any suggestions on how to help the poor plant out....bury it deeper, so the "trunk" area is in the soil?

Help!

I wonder if your peace lily can be divided, editing out the old bits that don't grow well anymore. While I don't grow this, that was my first thought.

It looks and sound like it's time for dividing as was suggested. Pulling it out will give you a chance to check the roots and prune anything that looks dead or struggling. Fresh soil and a good rooting hormone will help it recover after.

When was this acquired and when was it fed last?

Hi Evanskl to All Things Plants!

It's difficult to tell from the photo of your Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum wallisii) It may very well be root bound and just needs a larger container or it could be a soil issue; possibly the soil has become so compacted that the water is running off too quickly and not enough moisture is getting to the roots. I'd remove the plant from it's container and rinse off all of the old soil, cut back any rotted or dead roots and replant in a fresh well-draining potting medium.

It was repotted in the same pot with fresh soil about 2 weeks ago. Dividing may be the answer, but I'm still not sure what to do about the brown "trunk" like area were 17 years of old leaves have been cut back.

With the color of that stalk/stem being all brown, I wonder if it's still alive and viable. If you squeeze that stem area is it still firm? You could try cutting that particular stem off and if it's still alive pot it up to see if it produces roots for an additional plant.

I have a couple of small Peace Lily plants and one large variegated plant. I just went out and took a photo of the base of my large plant and you can see one stalk that has a few roots visible just at the soil line. I've never noticed brown stems/stalks before.

Beautiful plants!

The brown stalk is very hard.

Can you point me to how to divide the plant and how to possible root the large "brown" one? I don't have much of a green thumb, so this is out of my comfort zone.

K

PS - I notice you're from the Daytona Beach area, I'm a Seabreeze Sandcrab from a million plus years ago!

Yes, I'm in Daytona Beach ... we've been here since my husband got out of the military in 1973, he's been teaching at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University for 40 years and has finally decided to phase out his teaching career so next summer we are moving farther south to be closer to my sister and brother in law. We've seen many changes in the Daytona Beach area in the 42 years we've been here.

Regarding your Peace Lily. I'm not sure if the brown stalk will take root as I've never seen anything like that on my Peace Lily plants, but it won't hurt to try if it still has any life in it. To divide the plant ... remove it from it's container, wash off all soil and pry the roots apart and then separate the stems.

I just went outside and took one of my small Peace Lilies out of it's container and washed off all the soil and divided it and took these photos so you can get an idea of what I mean ... and this is just the way I've always divided them, others may have different suggestion and advice.

Photo #1 Clump with soil .......................... Photo #2 Clump with soil washed away


Photo #3 Another view of the clump with soil washed away


Photo #4 Clump divided in two ...... Photo #5 Divided into four which I can transplant separately


I actually could have divided a couple of the clumps even more. In the photo below I annotated with arrows (you'll have to look close cause they aren't very visible) on the two clumps on the left showing where I can either cut or pull them apart to separate them even more. The third plant in the middle I don't want to try to divide anymore and the fourth, very tiny plant on the far right is just a stem with a tiny piece of bulb/rhizome and one root but it would do okay in a tiny pot but I think I'll put it in my terrarium until it gets bigger.


In this photo of the two smallest plants, I've annotated where new bulbs are forming.

Thank you, thank you!!

Tomorrow, I'll pick up fresh potting soil, and a slightly smaller pot. All but the large plant will get repotted there.
The large guy, I'm going to research rooting.

I'll post photos and let you know how it goes.

As for Daytona, graduated from Seabreeze in '69, then moved to Atlanta in '71. Really, really miss the ocean.

more later...

K

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you and please do keep us updated; we all learn so much from each other here.