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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>Patricia Orr</span> Sat, 07/26/2014 - 18:42
My Ponytail palm is about 5 yrs. old and has always been indoor in indirect light. It's healthy, but all of the leaves are getting very long and hang below the bottom of the pot by 6-8". It has a droopy look. There is no brown on the leaves, they are all green. Should I prune the long leaves?
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Mon, 07/28/2014 - 17:09

Usually, drooping leaves just means the ponytail palm needs watering. 

 <span>Joan Senerchia</span> Sat, 07/12/2014 - 02:12
I live in N.J. and bought my pony tail this summer. When I saw it at the garden center, I had to have it. It was sold as a bonsai. It's in a dish about 3" high and about 5 or 6" across. I have it on my porch where it gets sun for part of the day. It's doing well. When I took it in to water it today, I held it by the trunk, and it came out of the pot. I noticed that it already had roots starting to wind around the root ball. I want it to stay small, so I carefully pulled the roots away and cut them back, while not eliminating them entirely. I had once read that bonsai roots get trimmed. Did I do the right thing?
<span>Julie Watts</span> Fri, 07/11/2014 - 14:17
I read through all the posts and not sure if my question was answered. I'v had a palm for almost 2 years. Not sure how to care for it, I moved it around alot and it didn't get the sun that it needs to survive. The crown has a broken piece and the leaves all turned brown, so I cut it down to the very core. My question is will it survive? This summer I've put it out on the deck. It does have some green leaves sprouting from the top. I left the broken piece of crown on the top where it broke off.
<span>Shaheen Alikhan</span> Wed, 08/27/2014 - 00:35
Hey! This one I believe I can help you with. The crown being broken isn't a huge problem- in fact, many nurseries/shops sell them with the tops cut, to promote growth out the sides of the top, which gives the leaves a nicer 'drape'. I'd take the broken piece off- it won't reattach, and might make the healthy part of the plant rot. If it's getting new leaves, I'd say it's happy; my only concern with you having it on the deck is all the direct sunlight, and possibly tons of rain. A good soaking rain is fine, as long as it's not constantly damp. Hope this helps!
<span>Kathy Sabet</span> Thu, 07/10/2014 - 20:57
Hi! I recently bought a small Ponytail palm and when I bought it the base of the plant was just resting ontop of the soil. I did buy a very slightly bigger pot to repot it in and purchased some Miracle Grow Cactus, Palm, potting soil. The plant seems very healthy though. I wanted to know when I do repot...how far down into the soil does the base go...how mucho of the base should be exposed?? Any other suggestions would be helpful? This is my First Ponytail palm! Thank you! Kathy
<span>Sherry Whitney</span> Wed, 07/09/2014 - 16:10
My ponytail palm was just a little shrub when my dad got it probably 20 years ago it was given to me about 17 years ago I've repotted it probably three Times it's actually too heavy for me to do now. It's been inside, outside in Florida and now Tennessee. Since I'm now in Tennessee it is on a hefty plant dolly and I roll out just outside the door when we've had the last of cold weather and back in again when the cold nights reappear. My question is about growth, my Palm has two growths off the main trunk with lots of fresh green leaves, I don't want them to grow more I want my Palm to stay tall and skinny it works well being indoor/outdoor. If I remove these growths do I need a sealant to apply to the spots on the trunk where they came from?
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Thu, 07/10/2014 - 14:44

It sounds as if you are asking about cutting off branches and not the "offsets" which are the pups that grow from the base. If so, you can cut the branches and coat the wound with tree pruning sealer. 

 <span>Wendy Christie</span> Sat, 07/05/2014 - 11:39
What type of pot do I need for a Ponytail Plant? One with a drainage hole or one without?
<span>Shaheen Alikhan</span> Wed, 08/27/2014 - 00:37
WITH!!! Unless I'm rooting something, I won't use hole-less pots. They have to be able to drain.