Hello,

Recently my Sansevieria plant (I believe it is a Sansevieria cylindrica) is showing some brown spots, especially the tips. One new plant sprouted, the light green one that is thinner than the rest, but the top has gone very yellow. The plant seems to be growing and dying at the same time as it has just produce two new little plants (also shown).

I got this plant about a year ago and it is on my window sill where it gets a lot of sun for hours everyday. I don't have a set watering schedule but usually water it when I water my succulents, so not that often. Originally I was going quite a while without watering as I was worried of overwatering it but when I watered it more frequently, it began to grow like crazy.

Before it started to show spots, the middle stalk actually came out but I left it in there and it rooted again, which was surprising (if that's any help). I haven't repotted it since I got it.

Does anyone know what's wrong and how I can fix it? Thanks.

Lovely! This pot looks like it started life when someone stuck a bunch of cut leaves into a pot. Each leaf is emerging from the soil independently, not in a rosette formation. It is likely that a LOT more pups will be emerging soon. In any case, each mother leaf will eventually shrivel away. No individual leaf lasts forever.

It could be getting too much sun and that has scorched the leaves. Try giving it bright light but not direct sun

Do you take the pot out of its cache pot when you water it?

ignova said:Do you take the pot out of its cache pot when you water it?

No, I usually water just until water comes out of the drain holes in the main pot.

Galanthophile said:It could be getting too much sun and that has scorched the leaves. Try giving it bright light but not direct sun

Ah thank you! I will try this

purpleinopp said:Lovely! This pot looks like it started life when someone stuck a bunch of cut leaves into a pot. Each leaf is emerging from the soil independently, not in a rosette formation. It is likely that a LOT more pups will be emerging soon. In any case, each mother leaf will eventually shrivel away. No individual leaf lasts forever.

Ohh thank you! Good to know

HowellAboutNo24 said:

No, I usually water just until water comes out of the drain holes in the main pot.

Oh, good. If the main pot has drainage holes, then that shouldn't be a problem. I think you said you were allowing it to dry out well between waterings, which is good. Might be worth checking the cache pot anyway, to make sure water isn't building up inside it, and that the bottom of the nursery pot is getting enough air flow.

Others here have more expertise with sansevierias than I do, but I do have a few of these plants at home. They are almost absurdly drought-tolerant...even more so than most of my succulents. I can forget to water some of them for months and they hardly seem to care. But they really do not like excess moisture - it was easier than I thought to overwater the larger ones, and when I did, the new growth quickly became mushy. They are tough plants, however; they will recover handily once you correct whatever was causing the problem.

Also! I just remembered, I read somewhere that you can take out the pups and plant them in a separate pot? Is that possible and if so, how would I do that when they grow big enough?

ignova said:

Oh, good. If the main pot has drainage holes, then that shouldn't be a problem. I think you said you were allowing it to dry out well between waterings, which is good. Might be worth checking the cache pot anyway, to make sure water isn't building up inside it, and that the bottom of the nursery pot is getting enough air flow.

Others here have more expertise with sansevierias than I do, but I do have a few of these plants at home. They are almost absurdly drought-tolerant...even more so than most of my succulents. I can forget to water some of them for months and they hardly seem to care. But they really do not like excess moisture - it was easier than I thought to overwater the larger ones, and when I did, the new growth quickly became mushy. They are tough plants, however; they will recover handily once you correct whatever was causing the problem.

Thank you!! I will also try watering less frequently, maybe that will help.

When you decide you want more than 1 pot, you can remove and separate the contents of this pot and decide how many new pots you want based on how many individual entities you find.

I don't think there is any way this plant is getting too much sun inside.

https://garden.org/pics/2013-0...
That is a different species than yours but rhizomes are rhizomes.
More roots pics here:
Snake Plant (Dracaena trifasciata)

purpleinopp said:When you decide you want more than 1 pot, you can remove and separate the contents of this pot and decide how many new pots you want based on how many individual entities you find.

I don't think there is any way this plant is getting too much sun inside.

https://garden.org/pics/2013-0...
That is a different species than yours but rhizomes are rhizomes.
More roots pics here:
Snake Plant (Dracaena trifasciata)

Yeah after thinking about it, I think it might be too much water! I'll leave it be for a while. Ahh thank you! I might do that

Happy to suggest. Best luck!