Guides
Why are my leaf tips brown and crispy?
Brown tips usually mean the leaf edge is drying out. Dry air, irregular watering, damaged roots and mineral salts can all cause it. Start with the most common causes on a windowsill.
Look at where the brown stops
A narrow brown rim on many leaves points to dry air or watering. A brown patch in the middle of the leaf, especially on one side of the plant, points to light or heat. A yellow band between the brown edge and the green leaf often points to mineral salts.
Work down the list
Dry air
- What you would see
- Narrow brown tips on nearly every leaf, worst from November to March, on calatheas, marantas, ferns, dracaenas and spider plants.
- The check
- Find the nearest radiator. Central heating drops indoor humidity to around 30 per cent, and the plants that suffer are the ones from rainforest floors where it never falls below 60.
Uneven watering
- What you would see
- Brown crisp margins as well as tips, older leaves yellowing underneath, and the plant wilting between waterings.
- The check
- Lift the pot when you think it needs water. If it is already light and the compost has shrunk from the sides, the plant has been running dry between waterings.
Salts from hard water and fertiliser
- What you would see
- Brown tips with a yellow band between the brown and the green, plus a white chalky crust on the compost surface or the outside of the pot.
- The check
- Run a finger over the compost surface and the pot rim. Anything chalky is accumulated minerals. Flush the pot through with plenty of water three or four times.
Roots that have rotted
- What you would see
- Brown tips on a plant that is being watered generously, with the compost permanently wet and the lower leaves yellowing.
- The check
- Slide the plant out and smell the root ball. Damaged roots cannot supply the leaf tips, so overwatering can produce the same brown tips as drought.
Sun or wind scorch
- What you would see
- Bleached or brown patches on the side of the plant that faced the light, or brown margins on the windward side of an evergreen after a cold dry spell.
- The check
- Ask whether the plant was moved, or whether the weather changed. Scorch appears all at once and then stops. A disease keeps spreading.
Tap-water sensitivity
- What you would see
- Persistent brown tips on spider plants, dracaenas, cordylines and prayer plants that have had none of the causes above.
- The check
- Switch to rainwater or to tap water left standing overnight for a couple of months. These plants can react to fluoride even when nearby plants look fine.
Physical damage
- What you would see
- Brown tips on the leaves nearest a doorway, a walkway or a pet, with the rest of the plant unmarked.
- The check
- Watch where people brush past. A bruised leaf tip can brown days later. If the damage is only where people or pets touch the plant, it is not a watering or pest problem.
Red spider mite
- What you would see
- Dulled, faintly silvered leaves that go brown and crisp from the tip inwards, on a plant in a warm dry room.
- The check
- Hold white paper under a shoot and tap it. Specks that stay put are dust, and specks that start walking after five seconds are mites.
Still not sure which one it is? Photograph the leaf and compare it against the full library.