Free tool
What's wrong with my plant?
Answer up to four questions and get the most likely cause, one clear fix to try first, and what to watch for so you know whether it is working. It takes about two minutes, and there is nothing to sign up for.
Have the plant in front of you if you can. Two of the questions ask you to touch the soil or look under a leaf, and those are the answers that do the most work.
Step 1
What is the plant doing that worries you?
Pick the thing you noticed first. If two apply, start with the one that spread fastest.
Step 2
Push a finger two knuckles deep into the soil. What does it feel like?
Do this at the edge of the pot, not right against the stem.
- Wet or soggy Soil clings to your finger and stays compressed.
- Evenly damp, not wet Cool to the touch, crumbles when you rub it.
- Bone dry Dusty, and the soil has shrunk away from the sides of the pot.
Start over · or use your browser's back button to change the last answer.
Step 3
Now check the base of the plant and the smell of the soil.
Squeeze the stem just above the soil line and lean in close.
- Sour, swampy smell, and the stem is soft or mushy at the base
- Smells like plain soil, and the stem is firm
Start over · or use your browser's back button to change the last answer.
Step 3
Which leaves are affected?
Start over · or use your browser's back button to change the last answer.
Step 2
Where exactly is the brown?
Hold a leaf up to the light and follow the edge of the brown with your eye.
- Only the tips and outer edges, the rest of the leaf is green
- Spreading in from the leaf base, soft or dark at the edge
- The whole leaf is crisping, and the pot dries out within a day or two
Start over · or use your browser's back button to change the last answer.
Step 2
Look under the leaves and where each leaf meets the stem. What do you see?
A phone camera zoomed all the way in works better than your eyes here.
- Fine webbing, and the leaf surface looks speckled or dusty
- White cottony fuzz tucked into the joints
- Small brown bumps you can scrape off, and a sticky film below them
- Tiny black flies hovering over the soil Nothing on the leaves themselves.
Start over · or use your browser's back button to change the last answer.
Step 2
How much light does the plant actually get?
Stand where the plant stands at midday. If you cannot read fine print there, it is a dark spot.
- More than eight feet from a window, or a north-facing window
- Within a few feet of a bright window
- Right in a hot, unshaded south or west window Leaves may feel warm to the touch by afternoon.
Start over · or use your browser's back button to change the last answer.
Step 2
When did the dropping start?
- Right after a move, a repot, or a cold snap Includes being placed under an AC vent.
- After the soil stayed wet for a while, and leaves yellowed first
- After the pot dried out completely at least once
- No obvious trigger, just the older leaves, slowly
Start over · or use your browser's back button to change the last answer.
Skip the questions and read a diagnosis directly
- Overwatering : yellow leaves, wet soil
- Root rot : sour soil, soft stem
- Underwatering : bone-dry soil
- Not enough light : stretched, reaching growth
- A pest infestation : webbing, fuzz, or bumps
- Dry air, salts, or water quality : crispy tips, green leaf
- Normal seasonal change : old leaves, one at a time
Common questions
How accurate is an online plant diagnosis?
It narrows the field. Most houseplant trouble comes down to a handful of causes, and the questions here separate them the same way a horticulturist would start an in-person visit. What a quiz cannot do is look at the roots, feel the soil, or see the room, so treat the result as the most likely explanation rather than a certainty.
My plant has more than one symptom. Which do I pick?
Start with the symptom you noticed first, or the one spreading fastest. Multiple symptoms usually trace back to one cause, and the earliest symptom is normally the one closest to it.
Do I need to give an email address to see the result?
No. Every result is a public page you can read, bookmark, and share. There is no form and no sign-up.
For garden clubs & nurseries
Put this quiz on your own site, free
One line of HTML, no sign-up, no tracking scripts. Useful for garden club pages, nursery sites, HOA newsletters, and neighborhood groups anywhere on the Gulf Coast.
Rather have someone just look at it?
A full 2-hour house call is a flat $185, with diagnosis, treatment plan, and written care guide included. Or start with a $65 virtual consult.
Prefer to talk? (941) 451-7413