Stop Snake Plant Canker Disease in its Tracks (Identify and Treatment)

Discovering your snake plant has canker disease can be devastating. Seeing those strong, beautiful long leaves stained with canker brown spots is unsightly and, to be honest, slightly unsettling. But the good news is there is a solution. And we will guide you through your exact next steps in this article.

What is Snake Plant Cankers?

As tough as we believe Sansevieria plants (recently reclassified as Dracaena) are, they are still susceptible to disease and pests if not cared for properly. One common symptom of disease infection is snake plant cankers.

Snake plant cankers are areas of dead tissue on the snake plant leaves that are usually brown or discolored and sunken. They appear as open wounds or sores on the plant.

How to Identify if Your Snake Plant Has Cankers

Besides the obvious legions described in the previous section on your snake plant’s leaves, cankers can cause some typical snake plant symptoms.

These are:

• Soft and Mushy Feel – a healthy snake plant leaf will usually feel firm to the touch. However, snake plants with cankers will also display soft and squishy leaves. Soft leaves can also begin to droop or fall over.
• Leaf Discoloration – along with a soft texture, the leaves may lose their vibrancy and appear discolored or faded. Badly affected leaves can eventually turn yellow.
• Lesions or Blisters – Lesions or blisters appear on leaves before the snake plants cankers. These are different from cankers that are sunken into the leaf. They are raised areas of the leaf that can eventually turn into cankers.

If you don’t think the brown spots on your snake plant are cankers, check out our other article on Brown Spots on Snake Plants to help you identify your problem.

What Causes a Snake Plant Canker?

Many factors can cause cankers.

For example, stress from being underwatered and a lack of light can cause your snake plant to become we