Brown Tips on Houseplant Leaves

With just a bit of effort you can eliminate brown leaf tips and keep your indoor plants looking their best.

Dry soil may be the problem. Make sure you water the soil thoroughly whenever it is barely moist. Use your finger as a moisture meter. Push your finger through the top few inches of soil to monitor soil moisture.

Soil-less mixes are hard to rewet when allowed to dry out completely. If this happens, set the plant in a container of water until the soil is completely moist. Then adjust your watering schedule accordingly.

Spider plants, prayer plants, ti plants and dracaenas commonly suffer from brown tips. The fluoride and chlorine in the water contribute to this problem. Keeping the soil slightly moist is often enough to resolve this. Or eliminate the problem by using rainwater, distilled water, or water collected in your dehumidifier for these plants.

You can clip off the brown tips with a pair of sharp garden scissors. Trim the ends to a point to maintain the plants natural appearance.

A bit more information: Busy gardeners may want to try using self-watering containers. Simply fill the reservoir with water once every week or two. The water moves by capillary action from the reservoir to the dry soil. Or try growing cacti and succulents that survive on much less water.