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Ponytail Palm Care Guide: How to Grow This Easy, Long-Lived Houseplant

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.
Image Credit:
Renata.Ka/Shutterstock
Botanical Name
Beaucarnea recurvata
Sun Exposure
Full Sun
Partial Sun
Soil pH
Neutral
Flower Color
White
Yellow
Plant Type
Houseplants
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 of eastern Mexico, the plant can reach up to 30 feet in height. However, ponytail palms grown in gardens as landscape plants typically don’t 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 your ponytail palm 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 simple; the most common difficulty is adapting your watering habits to its needs.

Planting

Choosing a Growing Medium and a Pot

  • Use a fast-draining potting mix, such as one for cactuses and succulents. If you already have potting mix, sand, and perlite on hand, you can create your own desert mixture using equal amounts of each
  • 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 moisture for long.
  • Use a clay pot if possible; the porous material will absorb some of the water, drying out the growing medium more quickly (a good thing for cactuses and succulents).

Growing

How to Care for Ponytail Palms

  • Ponytail palms prefer bright indirect light.
  • Keep growing medium fairly dry. Water from spring through fall, allowing the top inch or two to dry out completely before rewatering. During the winter, water only occasionally.
  • To water, soak the potting mix 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 cactus/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. 

Pests and Problems

  • 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 practices appropriately. They can also indicate that the plant is getting too much direct light and not enough water.

Wit and Wisdom

  • The plant’s unusual shape and coloration have granted it another strange nickname—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 loves nature, stargazing, and gardening so it’s not surprising that she and The Old Farmer’s Almanac found each other. She leads digital content for the Almanac website, and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana.

Read more from Catherine Boeckmann

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Comments

<span>Heather Andersen</span> Fri, 05/26/2017 - 15:36
I have a pony tail palm that my mother in law gave to her mom over forty years ago. It out grew her home and because I have vaulted ceilings we transported it here. On the way the top broke. Now there are two tops and it just doesn't seem to get as full. I don't have a great place for it to get a lot of direct sunlight and probably could do batter about watering it. What are your suggestions to get it to perk back up?
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Fri, 06/02/2017 - 15:58

Ponytail palms are slow growers. Place it by a window (but be careful of cold drafts)--these plants love lots of sun, at least part of the year. Also, make sure that the soil is a well-draining type (a cactus mix works well), and that it has a drainage hole that isn't blocked. Water about every 1 to 2 weeks; give it a good watering, and let it drain out. Do not water unless the soil is dry at least 1 inch below the surface--or even more. Good luck!

 <span>Mia</span> Thu, 04/27/2017 - 18:55
I have a ponytail palm and there is a crack in the barking when we peeled back the bark small white aphid like bugs were lined on the inside and where the bugs are under the bark , its dry. What do i need to do to make the bugs go away?
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Fri, 04/28/2017 - 10:37

Hi Mia,

What you describe sounds like cottony mealybugs. Depending on how many there are, a good treatment is to use alcohol dipped q-tips to dab individual bugs. This will have to be done several times over a few weeks, keeping up with their egg cycle. If there are too many to do individually, try spraying the bugs with child-safe insecticidal soap, once again administering the treatment several times over a few weeks.

Good luck!  

 <span>Sam</span> Thu, 03/30/2017 - 18:13
I bought two pony tail palms in one pot. I repotted together. But I would like to separate the two. Will this kill them? The roots are grow together so I left them the first time, not knowing.
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Wed, 04/05/2017 - 14:16

You can separate the two plants, but carefully.

 <span>Rachel</span> Fri, 03/17/2017 - 19:06
I read in these posts that to stimulate new growth the top of the pony tail can be cut off. I have 4 beautiful ponytail palms each in separate pots. One has awkward palm/frond growth and I'd like to try cutting this off to stimulate new growth. Can you specify exactly where to make the cut? Would this b at the top of the base, just below where the green shoots grow out? I don't want to harm the plant. Many thanks!! Rachel
<span>Emily</span> Sat, 03/04/2017 - 12:26
I bought a ponytail palm last spring! I love it to death, but my cats keep eating the leaves and now it just has stubby little leaves and has had only stubby leaves for nearly 9 months. What can I do to get them to grow? It's in its own pot, and has good soil, I only water when needed!
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Wed, 03/08/2017 - 11:20

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>Elaine</span> Sun, 02/05/2017 - 16:18
I have three pony tails, 2 of which are great with nice curved dropping leaves. The other one has got straight or bent leaves, have tried to gently pull them into a curved position but it doesnt help.