You want to ensure that your peperomia plant lasts a long time. Having a goal of being able to enjoy it for as long as possible makes sense.
This is why it’s so disheartening when things go wrong. Perhaps the leaves have started falling off of your peperomia plant.
Why is this occurring? Is this a sign that the plant is sick or is due to some type of human error?
Continue reading to learn about reasons why peperomia leaves fall off. This should allow you to turn things around if you’re able to make changes fast enough.
1 – Watering the Plant Too Much
Watering the plant too much can cause the leaves to fall off. You can easily harm the plant if you go overboard when watering it.
These plants need to be watered very carefully. You’re supposed to let them dry out between watering sessions. Doing so gives you the best chance of getting good results.
When you water the plant while it’s still somewhat wet, it’s going to cause various issues. You’ll essentially wind up drowning the plant and causing it to become unhealthy. If you continue to water the plant too much, it’ll cause problems with root rot.
When a plant has root rot it’ll develop soft and mushy roots. Other parts of the plant will start to rot away as the condition worsens.
It’s normal for leaves to turn yellow and fall off when watering mistakes are made. Do your best to turn things around and keep from watering the plant too much in the future.
2 – Not Watering the Plant Enough
It shouldn’t surprise you to hear that not watering the plant enough can lead to terrible results as well. You do need to water the plant to keep it healthy.
If you were to not water the plant for a long time, it’d start to look pretty unhealthy. Plants need water to survive and it won’t be good if they’re deprived of water for too long.
As the issue worsens, the leaves might start to wilt. Eventually, you’ll see the leaves start falling off of the peperomia plant.
This is something that can happen to many different types of houseplants. You need to water the houseplant often enough, but you do need to be careful not to water it too much.
The best thing to do is to use your fingers to check the soil. Check to see if the soil is dry before watering. It would be better to let the soil be dry for a day or two than it would to water the plant too much.
So over-watering is a bigger problem than under-watering. Regardless, watering the plant is important. Do your best to get things right.
3 – Using Poor Quality Water
The water that you use to water the plant makes a difference, too. Are you simply using tap water to water your plants?
Tap water isn’t a good type of water to use for your plants. You see, tap water often contains chlorine and other chemicals. Exposure to chemicals will often cause issues with leaf drooping in these plants.
It’s possible that the leaves might fall off if you keep using bad water to water the plants. Understand that tap water cannot be used safely when it’s untreated. It contains chemicals and salts that will have an impact on the plant’s health.
You can treat the water to remove the chlorine if you want to. There are tablets that you can purchase, but you can also leave water sitting out in the sunlight for a few days to make it safe to use.
A simpler option is to buy spring water or distilled water for the plants. Many people choose to go this route.
You might also choose to buy a powerful filter for your home. This ensures that the water coming out of your taps is pure and safe to use on your plants.
4 – Problems with the Soil
Issues with the soil can exacerbate the watering problems mentioned above. You need to use the right type of soil for these plants to find success.
Generally, coarse types of soil are going to be perfect for peperomia plants. You can make your own potting mix using soil, peat moss, and perlite if you’d like to.
It’s also easy enough to buy a potting mix that will work well for these plants. You simply want the roots of the plant to get plenty of oxygen.
The soil that you’re using should drain well. You don’t want to have problems with the soil not drying out.
Take the time to choose the right soil or make your own potting mix that will work properly. This will ensure that your plant will stay in good health.
If you continue to use soil that isn’t good for the plant, it’ll continue to have issues with the leaves falling off. It’ll contribute to watering problems and you’ll have a real mess on your hands.
5 – Using a Bad Pot
Using a bad pot for your plant isn’t going to help. Sometimes the pot will be to blame when the leaves fall off.
There are a few things that might be happening when you’re using a pot that isn’t quite right. You might have a pot that is too small for the plant or you could be using a pot that doesn’t have good drainage holes.
If the pot is too small, you might simply need to repot the plant. Get a pot that is one or two inches larger than the current pot in diameter and then repot it.
Drainage hole issues are also easy enough to solve. Buy a better pot that has proper drainage holes so your peperomia plant won’t suffer.
Having drainage holes is incredibly important when you’re trying to protect the plant. If the drainage holes aren’t working right or if there are no drainage holes, you’re going to drown the plant.
Always take the time to pick out an appropriate pot for your plant. Otherwise, you could have many different problems to deal with.
6 – Sunlight Issues
Peperomia plants will grow in strange ways when they don’t get enough light. Often, this will lead to leggy growth. The plants might grow tall, but they’ll have weak stems. These stems won’t have many leaves on them either.
Your plant could wind up simply having leaves fall off due to being placed in a low-light setting. This is not an ideal situation for the peperomia plant.
To turn things around, you should find a spot in your home that is better for the plant. Ideally, you want these plants to be placed near a sunny window.
These plants do great when they get plenty of indirect bright sunlight. They can also do just fine in medium sunlight, but you should avoid low-light settings.
Finding a better spot for the houseplant should make a difference. When you want the plant to look its best, it’s important to find a good window for it.
7 – Improper Humidity
Many types of houseplants aren’t going to do well in your home if it’s too dry. Peperomia plants are no exception.
You might live in a dry environment. It’s fine to own these houseplants when your home is dry, but you must take steps to raise the humidity.
Raising the humidity in the room where you keep your houseplants is important. This is not hard to do, but it will require a bit of effort.
You could mist the plants each day to raise the humidity. It’s also possible to leave bowls of water out to raise the humidity, but not everyone likes doing that.
Perhaps the easiest option is to use a small humidifier to raise the humidity near the plants. This should help the area where your plants are sitting to be humid enough without impacting the rest of your home.
Whatever you decide to do, it’s good to know that you can raise the humidity without it being too difficult. Get what you need and ensure that your plants remain healthy.
8 – Temperature Issues
The temperature in your home needs to be steady as well. Sometimes temperature fluctuations will stress the plant.
Your plant might lose leaves if it’s too close to a drafty window. For instance, your plant might be exposed to cold blasts of air in the winter if it’s too close to a drafty window. This can be a real problem that will cause significant leaf loss.
It’s easy enough to solve this issue, but you do need to take action. Ensure that your peperomia plant is placed somewhere that isn’t too close to vents, drafty windows, or air conditioning units. You want a safe spot for the plant where it can thrive.
Be mindful of all of the spots in your home where the temperature might fluctuate. If you think ahead, it’ll be easier to protect your plants from complications.
9 – Misusing Fertilizer
Peperomia plants don’t technically need fertilizer, but that doesn’t stop many people from using it. Some want to give their plants a little extra “oomph” when it comes to growing fast.
Using fertilizer is fine so long as you use it sparingly. You’re also supposed to dilute the fertilizer. It’s best to dilute the fertilizer to half-strength when using it on peperomia plants.
You’re also only supposed to use the fertilizer once per month during the spring and summer. Using fertilizer more often is likely going to be risky. You might cause the leaves to fall off of the plant.
It can also cause leggy growth to occur. This happens when the stems grow tall, but they wind up being rather weak. These tall stems have very few leaves on them and should be pruned away.
Use fertilizer properly or don’t use it at all since it can be detrimental to the health of the plant.
10 – Pest Infestation
Of course, pest infestations have the potential to harm peperomia plants. As you might expect, there are many pests such as spider mites that are known to bother these plants.
Pests can wind up harming your houseplants in various ways. Some pests suck out the juices from the plants and wind up causing significant damage.
You might notice that the leaves will look damaged or tattered. There might be discoloration as well.
Eventually, the leaves might drop off of the plant due to the damage that has been done by the pests. You’ll want to take action to eliminate pests as soon as you can.
Pests can be eliminated by using several different methods. You might want to wash the plant using insecticidal soap. This will allow you to get rid of the pests as safely as possible.
You may also want to treat the plant with something like neem oil so it can be protected in the future.
11 – Plant Diseases
Even plant diseases could be to blame for the leaves falling off. A stressed plant might get diseased or it could simply be exposed to something because the soil is contaminated.
The leaves might drop because the roots will start to rot. It’s the disease that causes the roots to rot.
Try to determine what’s wrong with the plant to see if you can fix things. You might not be able to, depending on what is wrong.
12 – Aging
Aging is another thing that can cause leaves to drop from the plant. Sometimes the plant will just have old leaves that will drop.
All plants are going to age and there isn’t anything you can do to stop it. Just care for the plant normally and enjoy it for as long as you can.
Final Thoughts
You should have a much better idea of what causes peperomia plants to have issues with losing leaves. It could be related to watering the plant improperly.
Sometimes leaves wind up dropping due to diseases or pest infestations. It could be something as simple as the plant not getting enough sunlight.
Either way, you need to determine what is wrong and make changes. Do your best to troubleshoot the situation and then respond accordingly to preserve your plant.
Growing up with a mom who filled her home (inside and out) with all sorts of plants, Lisa got her start in gardening at a young age. Living now on her own with a home and yard full of plants (including an indoor greenhouse), she shares all the gardening tips she’s gained over the years.