Hello Linda!

First, the basics-How much light, how often you water, when it was last repotted, fertilizing regimen, etc.

I assume the pot has a drainage hole?

Thanks! It gets partial light in a west-facing bright room. I water once a week, was last repotted about a month ago, no fertilizing routine, and yes to drainage hole!

Yes, it's definitely not getting enough sunlight. It takes energy to support having a lot of leaves, and when a plant isn't getting enough energy (sunlight), it will sacrifice/shed whatever leaves it deems necessary in order to conserve what little energy that it is getting.

That was my ZZ plant that GoldStar was referring to. I placed it outside last spring, right up against my house, so that the overhang from my roof shaded it from the midday sun. It received some direct early morning and late afternoon sunlight, but it only received bright indirect sunlight throughout the rest of the day. My ZZ plant eventually sent out over twenty new leaves in July. When I eventually brought it back indoors in the fall, it sent out another dozen new leaves as well. All I did was make sure that it stayed well watered and didn't dry out. I gave it the occasional diluted fertilizer every now and then, whenever I remembered to, but other than that, it took care of the rest.

I don't give it any special treatment, just a good soak from the water hose whenever needed. I do, however, make sure that it gets as much sunlight as it can tolerate without getting sunburned; which is very bright indirect sunlight. Just because plants are great at tolerating low light levels, it doesn't mean that they prefer lower light levels. You'll be amazed at how many problems go away when you give a plant what it needs most of all: sufficient sunlight; not minimal sunlight. Giving our plants fertilizers does no good if our plants can't properly photosynthesize. Because fertilizers are not food. Plants don't get their energy from these nutrients. They get their energy from sunlight. All plants produce their own food, and they can only do that via photosynthesis. When we don't give our plants the sunlight they need, then we're essentially starving them of their ability to feed themselves. Regardless of whether or not we fertilize them.

Here is my ZZ plant after I brought it back indoors last autumn. All winter long, it "tolerated" this location; which received very little, if any, natural sunlight. It hasn't phased it one bit. But now that spring has arrived, I have already moved it back outdoors. If I left it here indefinitely, its health would eventually start to decline and it would shed many of its leaves in order to compensate. The actual leaves are what you were calling the stalks. The sections that look like individual leaves are just the leaflets. The entire stalks are what's called a compound leaf. Not that any of this really matters, I just find it pretty interesting.

I repotted this plant last year, but I already know that I will have to repot it again this year as well. It's already pushing against the inside of this pot. It's kind of hard to notice, but the pot is slightly distorted. I can only imagine how much this plant will grow again this year. It's one of my heaviest plants already, and this growing season has only just begun.

On watering ZZ's: Less is more. They have huge tubers that hold enough moisture for months. You don't need to water it once a week. You're likely to rot the tubers if you do. Mine have went months before (not advisable) without any repercussions at all.

Thank you, this is all really great advice and helpful knowledge! I've moved my ZZ Plant much closer to the light and will cut down on watering. We'll see how this guy enjoys the change. Thanks again!

I forgot to mention that in my lengthy rambling, HaHa...

When my ZZ plant was outdoors, I made sure to keep it well watered; having to water it almost daily during the hottest parts of the year. But whenever I bring it back indoors for the winter, I cut back on how much water it gets. At most, I would say that it got watered roughly once a month. Right now, it isn't that hot outside, so I'd say that it gets watered about once a week, maybe less. Truthfully, it rains here where I live quite regularly. So I've been letting Mother Nature do all of the watering for me.

You won't notice any discernable difference right away. Last year, when spring rolled around and I moved it outdoors, it pretty much just sat there doing nothing. It wasn't until July when it finally exploded with so many new leaves. I'd lose count after twenty, but I knew that there were at least that many. There were only so many times that I could spin the pot around trying to keep tabs on which ones I counted and which ones I hadn't gotten to yet. No matter how many of them there were, it was definitely a nice surprise. One I hope gets repeated again this summer. Actually, I would love to see it bloom for me. The blooms aren't anything spectacular, but still, all of this new growth and it still hasn't bloomed.

Our ZZ plant sits next to a northern-facing window and is doing just great. As the soil I use fine-ish orchid mix with added perlite, as with most of my plants. Its in a big 20liter ceramic pot, and I water it once or twice a month.

If I would use normal soil, I would use a 1/4 of its current pot size and probably water even less..

Every second watering I fertilize it with all purpose fertilizer(not in wintertime), and its growing just amazing.

So, dont overwater! And give it a bit of fertilizer now and then.

Thanks! So you would recommend scaling down the size of the pot and transferring into a much smaller pot? Are you suggesting ZZ plants like to be a bit root bound/have tighter environments?

Are you suggesting ZZ plants like to be a bit root bound/have tighter environments?

The concept that houseplants like to be root bound is false IMO. I've read an article on it on Houzz and the points stated made sense to me. Brief summary-

If growing root bound benefited plants in nature, then wouldn't the shape of their rootball be a square like it is in a pot? However, clearly it isn't-in nature roots grow and stretch into its surrounding areas without its root mass taking a clear shape. Trees are a good example of this.

I think one of the reasons why a small pot is recommended is not because a particular plant likes to be root bound, but to prevent root rot from occuring. If your plant were placed in a huge pot with water-retentive soil, there would be way too much water being held by soil. This is a why smaller pots are recommended-the smaller the pot, the less amount of soil holding water. This problem is eliminated if you have an airy and fast draining soil.

If you plan on using 5-1-1 mix, you can repot the plant in the same pot. If you plan on using a less airy mix-depending on the size of its root mass-I would either stay in the same pot size or go down a size.

Even though half of the leaves died back, the underground tuberous rhizomes have not. They lie dormant, waiting for the right time to send up new leaves again. So there's no need to downsize its pot. In fact, it looks as if it's sending up new leaves already. I would still repot it back into the same pot with fresh soil. However, if it is rootbound, then I would probably even go up another pot size.

I've just repotted the plant into the same pot with fresh, new soil. Hopefully that, combined with its new location closer to the window with more light, will do the trick!