Your result
Fixable at homeMost likely: not enough light
What is going on
A plant that is short on light spends what energy it has on getting taller rather than on making full-sized leaves. The result is long bare stem between leaves, leaves smaller than the ones below them, and a general lean toward the brightest thing in the room. Indoor light drops off much faster than it looks like it does: a spot eight feet from a window can get a small fraction of the light of a spot two feet from it.
Do this first
Move it within three feet of your brightest window.
- 1 East and south windows are the useful ones for most houseplants here. North windows rarely carry a plant on their own.
- 2 Give it a week or two to adjust before you judge it, and rotate the pot a quarter turn whenever you water so it grows evenly.
- 3 If the only bright window is a hot, unshaded west one, set the plant a few feet back or filter it with a sheer curtain.
- 4 Leave the stretched growth in place for now. Prune it after you see healthy new leaves coming in.
How you will know it worked: The next leaves should come in noticeably larger and closer together. If they do not, light is not the limiting factor and something else is going on.
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.
Send this to whoever keeps a plant in the darkest corner of the house.
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