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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
Houseplants
Sun Exposure
Full Sun
Part Sun
Soil pH
Neutral
Flower Color
White
Yellow
Hardiness Zone
9
10
11

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

Written By: Catherine Boeckmann Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Ponytail palms, or elephant foot palms, are unique-looking, long-lived indoor plants that thrive on benign neglect. They are straightforward to grow—provided 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 “palm.” 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 “stump,” 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 Susan Mahr of the University of Wisconsin-Madison explains, “In 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.”

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°F / 10°–13°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—a 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. 

Gardening Products

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.

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. 

Houseplant Guides
About The Author
Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann

Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Catherine Boeckmann is the Executive Digital Editor of Almanac.com, the website companion of The Old Farmer's Almanac. She covers gardening, plants, pest control, soil composition, seasonal and moon c...
Read More from Catherine Boeckmann

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Comments

<span>Jana D</span> Sun, 05/25/2014 - 16:43
A hanging plant fell on top of my 2+ year old ponytail palm. I am devasted because the main branch, the entire ponytail that was so beautiful and getting very large, is broken completely off at the stem. Another smaller sprout broke off too. All that is left is one small/newer sprout with some leaves and the bolbous stem. It looks so sad now. What should I do? After I cried for awhile, I haven't lost hope because I am wondering if I can replant the main branch and hope it grows? Also, will the main branch grow back and someday have a beautiful large ponytail again? Or I am in a bad situation? Thank you.
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Tue, 05/27/2014 - 11:31

You will have better luck if you plant the broken stem in a new pot. The main stem will most likley grow a new stem where the old one was broken off. Good luck!

 <span>Barbara Craft</span> Fri, 05/23/2014 - 22:29
My ponytail palm is starting to have leaves turning almost redat the top. What does this mean? Thank You Barbara
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Tue, 05/27/2014 - 11:34

You can cut the brownish-red tips off. It's normal for the lower leaves to turn brown and eventually dry up. If you have brown tips on the upper leaves try moving the plant closer to a window so it gets more light.

 <span>Nadine Wood</span> Thu, 05/22/2014 - 07:49
I have 2 ponytail that I've had for about 3 yrs. Now all the leaves have fell off both of them. Is there anyway to save them? I'm heart broken.
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Tue, 05/27/2014 - 11:37

To promote leaf growth on the palm you can cut off the top and the palm will grow new shoots. You can also plant the top in a pot with soil to root it.

 <span>Anete</span> Thu, 05/15/2014 - 16:27
I bought a Ponytail Palm for my desk at work 2 years ago. The lights are on 24/7 and I give it a cup of water every other week. It has some brown tips (about a half an inch on every leaf) is this ok? Other than that it looks very healthy for never seeing a window. Also the bottom part/bulb of the plant is quite big now. At what point do I repot?
<span>Anete</span> Thu, 05/15/2014 - 16:57
The plant is a little over a foot and a half tall and almost 5 inches wide in a 6 inch pot
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Fri, 05/16/2014 - 16:41

Brown leaf tips of the lower leaves is normal--the entire leaf will eventually brown and fall off. Browning leaf tips of the top leaves usually may mean insufficient light, or too little or too much water (sometimes it can also be fertilizer burn or too many salts accumulating in the soil). If you do not see any mushy areas on the plant or bulb, the pot has a proper drainage hole, and the soil is a well-draining mix and has not been too moist, then most likely it is not overwatering. For underwatering, be sure that you water deeply when the soil is dry down about an inch deep--usually about every 1 to 2 weeks.

 

For lighting--the plants like direct sun, but for indirect light, it needs to be bright (it can tolerate lower levels, but does better in brighter). Grow lights specifically for plants, and set at a proper distance, might make your plant happier. As you have been doing, give it several hours of light per day; however, you might ask a garden nursery if it would do better with a period of darkness each day to rest, just as it would have in its natural environment. Some plants are sensitive to the number of hours of light that they receive, and do not do well under continuous light--we're not sure if it matters to a pony tail palm, though. (Anyone else know?)

 

As for potting, if the roots aren't coming out of the base, and the plant seems happy (other than browning tips), then you might want to wait to repot. These plants do well when a little crowded. When you do repot, choose a pot just slightly larger than the current one, and use a good well-draining mix (such as a cactus mix). A larger pot will encourage taller, thinner growth.

 <span>Michael Mcgraw</span> Wed, 05/14/2014 - 15:26
i live in san Francisco. about 10 years ago I moved my ponytail out into the garden into the ground. it has been happy every since. last year it flowered for the first time. while it was not particularly attractive it was different. now this year it is doing something along the same lines ie not putting out new shoots but smaller white things. also it has begun to sprout babies for the first time, probably 4 or 5 on the stem. is there anything I need to do or worry about?