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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>Rashelle Edwards</span> Mon, 07/08/2019 - 13:52
Can I save my ponytail plant if i gave it too much water?? its been 3 days since i gave it water, i looked over and BAM, all her leaves have fallen down, if not off!!! Can i save her??
<span>Eve</span> Thu, 06/13/2019 - 06:54
I have a small, 1.5m ponytail palm that was happy in the summer but come winter, the leaves became very brittle, almost a lime-green color, and the caudex is hard and shriveled. I don’t want to over-water, but could it be too dry? Google is of little help since the diagnosis for ponytail problems seems always to be too wet! It was getting full sun and 1x/week water in a very dry zone 9a, even drier than Tucson (Johannesburg, South Africa!)
<span>Eve</span> Thu, 06/13/2019 - 07:05
Update: just noticed it’s put out quite a few aerial roots, which your comment suggests it’s too dry, so I’m going to give it a deep watering. Nevertheless would be interested in the meaning of a shriveled caudex on these plants.
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Thu, 06/13/2019 - 10:04

A shriveled caudex is indeed an indication of a thirsty plant! Try watering it a bit more often or watering it deeper—in other words, make sure that the soil gets properly soaked at each watering (but still allow it to dry out between waterings).

Note that if your area experiences a noticeable winter season, the plant could also just be going into seasonal dormancy, which means that it won't need as much water as it does in spring/summer when it's actively growing. Still, the trunk should have a fuller appearance, so find a watering schedule that brings the plant back to a healthy-looking state.

 <span>Teresa Ross</span> Thu, 06/06/2019 - 19:02
How to separate the new ones that grow on the side
<span>Vivian Hager</span> Fri, 05/31/2019 - 09:37
Ok, many years ago I planted my Ponytail Palm in the ground and now it is 10 feet tall. Every now and then I pull the old /brown leaves/palms off the bottom on the plant. It survived many frost conditions we had in Florida. NOW I notice a little sprout coming out of the side of the trunk. What do I do with this new growth?
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Fri, 05/31/2019 - 15:19

If this new sprout is growing from the very base of the tree, at ground level, then it is a "pup"—in other words, a baby ponytail palm.

If the new sprout is growing from the point where the wide base of the tree narrows, it is likely a new stem starting to form. This usually only happens when the tree is damaged and dies back to the wide base, though.

In either case, you can leave it alone if you'd like to have a two-stemmed tree or a little stand of palms... However, if you do leave it attached, note that the tree will spend energy growing the new stem or pup rather than on its original stem. If your goal is to have the tallest ponytail palm, I would recommend cutting off the new sprout.

 <span>Carole</span> Mon, 05/27/2019 - 20:42
I have a ponytail palm that is 32 years old. I live in Rhode Island and keep it in the house during the winter and put it outside in the summer. This past winter I noticed that as the new grown is coming its turning brown and there more brown than normal for the leaves. It has never been repotted. I'm thinking of repotting but some advise would be great. Is my plant dying.
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Fri, 05/31/2019 - 15:02

It probably wouldn't hurt to repot and refresh the plant's soil a bit, just to give it some new nutrients and room to grow! The sickly-looking leaves could have also just been a result of winter conditions indoors—if it was too cold, too dry, or too wet, this can produce browning leaves. 

 <span>Dorene</span> Thu, 05/23/2019 - 07:55
Is it dying? It looks otherwise healthy. Will I get new growth?Please respond