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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>Bridget Quinn</span> Fri, 01/03/2014 - 18:04
I have a PonyTail Palm in my office at work. It is about 14" tall and is in a 8"pot. It has been growing nice new leaves but I just noticed that the base is quite wobbly in the soil. I was watering it every 2 weeks but I have a suspicion that the maintenance person has also been watering. Do you think the looseness is water related or does it need a bigger pot? Thank you so much for any advice!
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Mon, 01/13/2014 - 12:54

It's a good idea to repot your palm. Use good soil (a cactus mix works well) and set the base a little deeper so that it doesn't wooble.

 

 <span>Pony Tail Palm</span> Wed, 01/01/2014 - 13:53
I got my ponytail palm tree in 2002 and have moved it to 7 different states already:) I love it and it is the only plant I keep when I move. However, I lived in a house that had falling windows so that you can wash the outside without actually going outside and it collapsed on my plant! I had just moved in and did not have any money so I left some in water and some in soil until I could afford the 13 posts for each of the separate branches that came out. To my surprise everyone of the plants lived!!! I moved later that year and kept the sickest and healthiest. Five years ago on another move I gave away one of the two that remained and could not even tell which one was the sick one. Such a marvelous plant. My question is... the plant I have looks nothing like my original one. It does not sprout out in random places. It is just one big plant with lots of leaves in a row. Is there anyway to space out the leaves and get little growths to sprout out again?
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Thu, 01/02/2014 - 13:51

You can prune the top off and the plant will sprout new growth in a month or two. You can replant the top if you like.

 <span>Rolf A Mischker</span> Fri, 12/27/2013 - 15:23
I have a Ponytail plant that is over 40 years old and about 12 feet tall. It is outside in the summertime under tall shade and very healthy. When it gets below 40 degrees outside I bring it inside. This plant is approaching the point of being to tall to be inside. I am thinking about cutting it at about 4 feet and letting it regrow. Can this be done or will the plant die ? There are several knobby bumps on the trunk and I am hoping it will sprout new growth from there. What are your thought on this and at what time of the year should I do this. Thank you in advance for your reply.
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Thu, 01/02/2014 - 13:48

Spring is the best time to prune the plant. Cut the top off at the desired height and put a commercial sealant on the top of the cut. Within a month or two you should see new growth. If you like you can replant the top with the leaves using rooting powder.

 <span>Briarrose</span> Wed, 01/22/2014 - 16:25
Forgive me but what kind of commercial sealant do you mean? I don't want to use the wrong thing...
<span>Bcollins</span> Tue, 01/28/2014 - 19:43
I've melted candle wax onto the open wound, but a urethane sealant like shoe-goo, Goop, etc, would probably work great.
<span>Jonathan Hall</span> Mon, 12/16/2013 - 15:31
A week ago I placed a small lamp on the back of the pot of my ponytail while experimenting with some lighting in the room. I accidentally left the light on overnight and it overexposed one of the branches to too much direct light. 2-3 inches of the base of that branches leaves are white/tan, soft and are all sagging down while all other leaves on the palm are healthy and normal. The strange thing is, where I thought those leaves might be dead, they're all still green and stiff like the other healthy leaves so the nutrients and water are still getting to the rest of the leaves. Is there a way to fix this so it looks normal again? Any recommendations?
<span>Dan Lux</span> Tue, 12/10/2013 - 16:03
Hello I have my pony tail for years now, but I noticed lately the tips of the leaves are getting brown. Can I cut thsi browned part?