Pothos Yellow Leaves: 6 Causes and How to Fix Each

My golden pothos had one yellow leaf. Then three. By the end of the week there were seven, and I was convinced I was losing the plant. I’d had pothos for years, and pothos is supposed to be the plant that survives no matter what you do to it. The one plant even beginners can’t kill. So when mine started yellowing, I felt like I’d failed at the easy level.

Here’s what I eventually figured out: yellow leaves on a pothos almost always mean you’re overwatering. That’s the single most common cause by a wide margin. But “almost always” isn’t “always,” and the fix changes depending on which of the six causes you’re actually dealing with. This guide walks through all of them, how to tell which one is yours, and exactly what to do.

If you want a quick gut check before reading: check the soil right now. If it feels damp or wet, skip to Cause #1. If it feels dry as dust, skip to Cause #2. For everything else, read through.

Why Pothos Leaves Turn Yellow (The Short Version)

A leaf turns yellow when the plant decides to pull nutrients out of it, break down the chlorophyll, and let the leaf die. This is a deliberate process, not a random symptom. The plant is choosing to sacrifice that leaf for some reason.

The question is always: why is it making that choice? Usually it’s because the roots aren’t delivering what they need to, so the plant cuts its losses and drops older leaves to conserve resources for new growth. Six things commonly cause this in pothos:

1. Overwatering (the #1 cause, by a lot)
2. Underwatering (less common but real)
3. Not enough light
4. Nutrient deficiency
5. Water quality issues
6. Natural old-leaf turnover (this one’s fine, don’t panic)

Let me walk through each.

1. Overwatering (The Most Common Cause)

Pothos is famous for tolerating neglect, and that’s true, but it’s way less tolerant of overwatering than it is of underwatering. When the soil stays wet too long, the roots suffocate and start to rot, and the plant responds by dropping leaves. Yellow leaves are usually the first visible sign.

Signs

• Soil is still damp or wet when you check it
• Multiple older leaves yellowing at once, starting from the bottom of the plant
• Leaves feel limp and soft, not crispy
• You’ve been watering on a schedule (like “every Sunday”)
• The plant is in a pot with poor drainage or no drainage hole
• The stems might also feel soft near the soil line

The Fix

Stop watering immediately. Let the soil dry out completely, not just the top inch. Stick your finger in as deep as you can. If it’s damp at any level, don’t water.

Check the drainage. Make sure the pot has drainage holes and they’re not blocked. If your pot has no drainage, that’s almost certainly the underlying issue, and no amount of waiting will fix it long-term.

Check the roots. Gently slide the plant out of its pot. Healthy pothos roots are white or cream-colored and feel firm. If they’re brown, mushy, or smell sour, you have root rot and need to trim damaged roots and repot in fresh, dry soil.

Change your watering habit. Going forward, water only when the top 1-2 inches of soil feel fully dry. Don’t use a calendar. Don’t water because you think the plant “looks thirsty.” Touch the soil. Every single time.

Most pothos with overwatering yellowing recover fully within 2-3 weeks of drying out, as long as the roots aren’t severely damaged.

2. Underwatering

Less common but absolutely possible. Pothos can handle dry spells, but if you forget about them for too long, they’ll protest by yellowing (and eventually drooping and crisping). Yellowing from underwatering usually comes with specific signs that overwatering doesn’t.

Signs

• Soil is bone dry, possibly pulled away from the edges of the pot
• Leaves feel papery and thin instead of limp
• The whole plant is drooping dramatically
• Yellowing is accompanied by crispy brown edges
• The plant bounces back quickly after a thorough watering

The Fix

Soak the pot thoroughly. Water until it drains freely from the bottom. If the soil is so dry that water just runs down the sides without absorbing, bottom water instead: set the pot in a tray of water for 15-20 minutes so the soil rehydrates from below.

Remove any fully yellow or crispy leaves. They’re gone. Let the plant focus on new growth.

Set up a better routine. Check the soil with your finger every 3-4 days during spring and summer. If the top 1-2 inches are dry, water. Pothos forgives a little bit of drought but not weeks of it.

Underwatered pothos usually bounce back within 24-48 hours of a good soak. If it doesn’t, overwatering damage from earlier is probably the real problem.

3. Not Enough Light

Pothos is famous for tolerating low light, and it does. But “tolerates” is not the same as “thrives.” In genuinely dim conditions, older leaves start to yellow and drop as the plant cuts losses on parts it can’t support.

Signs

• Plant is in a room with no direct window, or 10+ feet from the nearest window
• New leaves are coming in smaller, paler, or with less variegation than older leaves
• Yellowing is slow and gradual, not sudden
• The plant is leggy with long stems between leaves
• Variegated pothos (marble queen, N’joy) is losing its white or cream markings

The Fix

Move the plant to brighter light. Ideally within 3-6 feet of a north, east, or filtered south/west window. Avoid direct afternoon sun, which will scorch the leaves, but aim for somewhere genuinely bright.

Rotate the pot weekly so all sides of the plant get equal light.

If no bright spot is available, consider a grow light. A cheap clip-on LED grow light on a timer (6-8 hours a day) is enough to keep pothos happy in a dark apartment.

New leaves should come in bigger and more vividly variegated within 4-6 weeks. Old yellow leaves won’t recover, so remove them.

4. Nutrient Deficiency

This is the cause that catches long-term pothos owners. If the plant has been in the same pot for 2+ years and has never been fertilized, the soil is essentially spent. The plant uses up the original nutrients and eventually starts pulling them from older leaves to support new growth, which shows up as yellowing.

Signs

• The plant has been in the same soil for over a year
• You’ve never fertilized, or stopped fertilizing a while ago
• Older leaves yellow while new leaves come in normal (or also slightly pale)
• The yellowing pattern starts as pale green and deepens to yellow over weeks
• Leaves may have a mottled or interveinal yellowing (green veins on yellow background)

The Fix

Feed it. Use a balanced liquid houseplant fertilizer at half strength once a month during spring and summer. I use a standard 10-10-10 liquid and dilute it even more than the label says. Pothos doesn’t need much.

Consider repotting. If it’s been in the same pot for 2+ years, refresh the soil. New potting mix comes with enough nutrients to last several months on its own.

Don’t overfertilize. This is the opposite problem and also causes yellowing. If you’ve been fertilizing heavily and the yellowing is getting worse, back off and flush the soil instead.

5. Water Quality Issues

Pothos is less sensitive to tap water than calatheas, but it’s not immune. Over time, chlorine, fluoride, and dissolved minerals can build up in the soil and damage the root hairs that deliver nutrients to the leaves. The result looks a lot like nutrient deficiency but doesn’t respond to fertilizing.

Signs

• Yellowing on new growth as well as old
• White crusty deposits on the soil surface or pot rim
• You use unfiltered tap water from a hard-water area
• Fertilizer fixes haven’t worked
• Also seeing brown leaf tips along with yellowing

The Fix

Switch to filtered, distilled, or rainwater. This alone fixes the problem for many pothos owners. Let tap water sit out overnight if you can’t filter it (removes chlorine, not fluoride).

Flush the soil. Run water through the pot at the sink for several minutes to wash out accumulated salts. Do this every 2-3 months.

If it’s severe, repot in fresh soil to give the roots a clean environment.

6. Natural Old-Leaf Turnover

This is the cause you don’t need to worry about. Every pothos drops one or two leaves now and then as part of its normal growth cycle. The oldest leaves at the base of the plant die off as the plant grows new leaves at the tip. This is healthy.

Signs

• Only 1-2 leaves yellowing at a time, very occasionally
• The yellow leaves are the oldest ones, near the base of the plant
• New growth is abundant and healthy
• The rest of the plant looks great

The Fix

None needed. Snip off the yellow leaf when you see it and move on. A pothos that drops a single yellow leaf every month or two is just doing what pothos do.

Quick Diagnostic Table

Should You Remove Yellow Leaves?

Yes. They’re not going to turn green again. The plant is finished with them, and holding onto them is a small energy drain. Use clean scissors to snip the leaf off at the base of its stem (or as close to the main vine as you can get).

Removing yellow leaves also helps you track whether your fix is working. If you cut off all the yellow leaves today and new ones appear next week, the problem isn’t solved. If no new yellow leaves appear for 2-3 weeks, you’ve fixed it.

When It’s Time to Worry

Most pothos yellowing is fixable. But a few signs suggest a bigger problem:

• Multiple stems yellowing at once, not just leaves
• Mushy spots on the stems themselves, not just the leaves
• A sour smell from the soil
• The main vine looks pale and limp, not green

These point at severe root damage or stem rot, and you need to move fast. Unpot the plant, check the roots, and see our root rot rescue guide. If you have healthy stem segments, you can also propagate them in water as an emergency backup. Pothos roots in water within a couple of weeks and you can rebuild the plant from cuttings. Our guide on how to propagate pothos in water walks through the process.

The Bottom Line

When a pothos yellows, the first thing to check is the soil moisture, and the most likely answer is that you’ve been watering too often. Pothos is forgiving of almost everything except soggy roots. Let the soil dry out more between waterings, check the drainage, and the yellow leaves usually stop appearing within a couple of weeks.

If the soil is dry and yellowing continues, work through the other causes: light, nutrients, water quality, and finally old-leaf turnover. Use the diagnostic table above to narrow it down.

For the broader context on how watering mistakes show up across houseplants, our guides on overwatering vs underwatering and the main pothos care guide both cover the fundamentals. Most pothos problems trace back to one of those two resources.

One last thing I want to say: pothos is tough. If you’ve been growing yours for months or years, one bad patch of yellow leaves is not a failure. It’s feedback. Fix the cause, cut off the dead leaves, and the plant will come back. I’ve rescued pothos from much worse than this.