Ask The Expert: i have a lucky bamboo. and had always used bottled water ,which it seemed to love. then i had slacked and was using city water and noticed it started to turn yellow. so i went and bought spring water again. it started turning more yellow.i read other concerns on this page and went and got distilled. so i have now cleaned the marbles and plant in this water. an filled it with distilled. i even checked bugs nothing.should i got off the yellow leaves? and should i cut the long stem down as well that the yellow leaves were growing off of? i did notice as well that one of the stocks was not as green its not mushy. what else can i do and how long will it take for me to notice if its doing better? Sabrina

Reply:

Lucky Bamboo is very sensitive to many chemicals and tap water has two that lucky bamboo really hates: Chlorine and Fluoride. Both of these chemicals can cause yellowing and other problems in lucky bamboo.  That is why it likes bottled water or distilled water.  You can use tap water but not fresh from the tap.  Always let it set out in an open container for 24hrs before ou use it.  At this point I would remove the yellow leaves.  Usually, once they turn yellow they won't turn back to green.  However, I would only trim your stem if it starts to go soft.  It will take a week or two before you see improvement, so keep a close eye on it for a while.  Good luck and keep me posted.

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