Those are the individual leaflets that were used to propagate new plants. It's perfectly natural for them to shed those over time. Another thing I've noticed is that your plant's soil looks dry. Even though these plants have a succulent nature, they don't like their soil being kept too dry. If they go without water for long enough, then they will shed even more individual leaflets and possibly even go dormant if it comes down to it. Give your ZZ plant a good watering and it will do just fine.

Not just the leaf. I had one stem and its leaves go yellow and I cut it off at the base. The plant was just watered today.

When you touch the soil is it hard to your touch?

What you're referring to as the stem is actually the whole leaf. The individual leaflets are just a part of that bigger compound leaf. Your ZZ plant is currently growing new leaves, so it doesn't appear to be struggling. My ZZ plant sheds older leaves all of the time. Yours is just a younger version of that. Overall, your plant looks healthy. Just keep giving it plenty of bright light and keep it well watered and it'll be fine. I don't see anything that is raising any red flags.

The soil was a bit hard even after watering, so I watered again this morning. Gave it a good soaking. I've only watered in twice since I brought it home in last three weeks. I heard it's better to neglect the watering than water frequently.

The plant gets diffused shaded light, and temperature is around 20 to 22 Celsius or 68 to 72 Fahrenheit daily. I don't mist the plant. Room is at 50 to 60% relative humidity with the aid of a humidifier. There are no cold drafts that I am aware of.

I noticed some mold recently in the soil, which could be seen in the first picture. I have pulled up the yellowing leaf from the soil and discarded it.

I'll see how the plant does after this recent watering. It sucks to cut off any more of the plant and remove yellowing branches and leaves.

When they're older and larger, they can better handle being neglected. But when they're this young, they need a little bit of care. My ZZ plant has gotten rather large in the past few years and seems to thrive on mg neglect, haha. I finally hauled it back indoors just before Halloween and I haven't watered it once. Though, I'll give it a good watering sometime this week. Don't worry about misting or humidity for these plants, they couldn't care less about that.

Thanks photo for sharing your experience with this plant. I hope it would do okay since it worried me when they turned yellow and I hardly touched it.

This leaf from this small stalk is starting to yellow. I'd hate to have it die on me. There's a few new shoots sprouting.

When I watered this morning the water that drained at the bottom was orange/yellow in color. Should I repott so at least it gives me a chance to investigate what's going on with the roots?

My mistake it was my rubber plant that was discharging that colored water.

Thanks so much for your reassurance!

Hi John,

I think you need to change your soil, it looks, sounds like it's a problem.

Soil being hard to the touch, tells us it's largely peat based & it's actually repelling the water. Could be the water's going down btwn the rootball & the side of the pot & not actually penetrating the rootball. That's my diagnosis; drainage (or lack thereof) can cause healthy young, leafy growth to discolor like that.

I'd suggest you stop watering it & examine the soil.

Photo S above is right abt them shedding their leaves periodically, it's them discarding the older growth, normal for them. After reading your post last night, I went I & looked at mine & plucked out 1st one browned older stem, then a 2nd one. My plant had some new growth in Sept. & it's fine.

He/she is also right that they're not interested in humidity, no misting at all.

I water mine abt 10 days to 2 wks, depending on season & how warm my apmt is.

Let me see if I can take a pic (it's night) of my porous mix to show you.

Here's my plant (much younger than Photo's). I grew mine from a leaf.

Let's see if I can show you my mix, see how big the particles are?

Makes for much better drainage.

A daylight pic would be best, but I think it still shows how different that looks from yours.

Thanks for your suggestions Karen and the pictures! I suspected some issues with the roots and below the soul surface. Repotting can five me a chance to investigate the root system further and take some pictures.

I noticed mold growing all over the top of the soil after I watered. The mold can be seen at the bottom of the container through the drainage holes. I smell a strong mold odour as well. I had to scoop the top soil out and replace with new soil.

One other thing is that I can feel the roots pushing out against the edge of the plastic container. This seems to give me another reason to put the plant into a slightly larger pot.

Those are the underground tuberous rhizomes. They look like small potatoes attached to the roots. Mine did the same thing before I repotted it into its current pot. I waited until spring to do it and my ZZ plant couldn't care less. Its roots were so congested that even the water had a difficult time trickling through. I thought it was because of the soil, but it was because of the roots. The whole plant was wedged in there. It took me quite a while to pry it loose. Yours is nowhere near that bad, so I would wait. Spring would be the best time for this; especially since you have newly emerging leaves that aren't fully grown and haven't had a chance to harden off just yet.

Here's how jam-packed my ZZ's roots were...

As for the mold issue, the soil is staying too wet. Just place the pot on a slightly dampened rag or paper towel and this will wick away any excess moisture from the soil.

Nice picture PS. That's a healthy looking plant.

I move it outdoors each spring and it stays out there until fall. This thing grows like a weed on plant steroids or something, HaHa. I've only had it for three years and I've had to repot it each and every year. It's already beginning to outgrow the large glazed ceramic pot that it's in now (the very first photo I shared). Which is twice the size of that plastic pot I have it in previously. By far the heaviest plant I have. I have a large Japanese maple potted up, out in my front yard, that doesn't even weigh this much.

Consider direct sunlight. At first I kept my ZZ in moderate diffuse light, and it basically did nothing. Then I moved it into a window with full morning (south Texas) sun and it's almost doubled in size in only 3 months. It also happens to be next to the humidifier, which is probably its primary source of water. Its tubers are large enough to distend the pot and push up the soil, so I only water it rarely. It's still sending up new leaves a couple of times a week. I suppose the only way to slow it down will be to move it out of the sun.

Sorry, I disagree w/ both above. I'd repot it now to correct the soil, because until you correct the soil, the watering won't work right & that's KEY w/ these plants.

Your plant may not need potting larger, One can't know until you repot it.

" I smell a strong mold odour as well. I had to scoop the top soil out and replace with new soil"

I would have changed the soil immediately, smelling anything off is a bad sign. In future pls. know that changing part of the soil is a bad idea as it leaves old problem soil there as well (maybe not be visibly bad). One has to change it all.

If it were mine, I'd buy some Cactus & Succulent Mix & some Perlite & mix them 50/50 (equal parts). Pls show us photos of the roots/tubers.

Pls know that if you pot up larger before you correct the watering, that makes the plant even more vulnerable to rot. You can pot larger in Spring, once you see how the plant has wintered, especially since you're growing indoors.

Thanks Karen. Those are sound advice. I'll work on it this weekend!

The plants were rooted and grown in this soil, which for these plants takes quite a while. If it were a soil issue, the plants would've suffered from it much sooner. The soil isn't what causes the bad smell. It's the amount of water that's not draining away. This cuts off the supply of fresh oxygen to the roots and that water stagnated. To alleviate this, all he has to flush the soil out thoroughly until it begins to run clear from the drain holes. This washes away any stagnant water and replaces it with fresh water. Once it has had sufficient time to drain most of the water away, just place the pot on top of a dampened rag or paper towel and this will wick away any additional excess water from the soil and open it back up to fresh air circulation.

It definitely needs to be repotted, but that can wait until springtime, when the conditions are more favorable. For now, the plant is still happy and healthy, despite shedding old growth, and it's currently sending out new growth that hasn't even had a chance to harden off yet. Waiting until spring will give it the time it needs to do this.

Though I will admit that only replacing part of the soil didn't help things any and may have contributed to this problem you're having.

For my ZZ plant, I used a 50/50 mix of Miracle Gro Cacti & Succulent soil, and Miracle Gro Orchid Bark. Although, perlite is also a good substitute, too. I don't use it because I hate how it floats to the top every time I'd water it. That's just more of a personal preference.

Planted into a bigger pot todat. Looked at the roots and they seem okay.

Looks OK, not great, I'd keep going to new mix, crumbling off all the old mix w/ my fingers. What's the white stuff, rooting hormone?

Did you add Perlite / Pumice?

I just added a mix of cactus mix and indoor potting soil. Those just are part of the soil mixture.

Excuse me, what do you mean the white stuff is part of the mixture? It isn't usually.

Sorry to tell you it's supposed to be only one part Soil to equal part Perlite. You adding both Soil & C&S Mix does nothing to improve the drainage, which is the issue here. Not using Perlite or Pumice sets the plant up to continue having drainage problems, since nothing has been added to improve that. Unfortunate!

The white stuff is perlite. I'll keep like this for now.