Your result
Fixable at homeMost likely: dry air, salts, or your water
What is going on
The tip of a leaf is the end of the plumbing. Whatever the plant cannot use collects there, and whatever it cannot reach dries out there first. Two local causes account for most cases: air conditioning, which holds indoor humidity far below what tropical foliage plants evolved in, and mineral salts from hard tap water or leftover fertilizer building up in the soil.
Do this first
Flush the pot, then deal with the air around it.
- 1 Take the plant to a sink and run room-temperature water through the soil for a full minute or two to wash accumulated salts out the bottom. Do this every couple of months.
- 2 Let tap water sit out overnight before using it, or use filtered or rainwater for sensitive plants like calathea, palms, and spider plants.
- 3 Move the plant out of the direct path of an AC vent. That draft alone can crisp a leaf edge.
- 4 Group plants together, or set the pot on a tray of pebbles and water, to raise the humidity right around the leaves.
- 5 Trim the brown edge off with clean scissors if it bothers you, following the leaf’s natural shape. It will not spread back.
How you will know it worked: Judge this by the next leaves to open. Existing brown tips never turn green again, so the test is whether new growth comes in clean.
Still stuck, or not sure this is it?
A quiz cannot see the roots or the room. A virtual consult is $65 and starts with your photos, or a full house call is a flat $185 anywhere from Sarasota to Port Charlotte.
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