Are your houseplants (and you) bothered by leaf tip burn? Though it may look like a disease, browning tips of otherwise healthy houseplant leaves indicates one or more of the following:
Causes of Houseplant Leaf Tip Burn
1) Uneven watering or the plant’s sensitivity to certain substances in the water, such as chlorine, fluoride or sodium. You can let water sit overnight before using it, which will cause the chlorine to dissipate, but fluoride won’t leave the water this way. It needs to be filtered out.
2) Overfeeding (Fertilizers have salts in them, and those salts can burn.)
(Healthy Houseplants)
3) Overly dry air (Such as when the plant is located close to a heating or air-conditioning duct.)
4) Incorrect pH.
Solutions for Houseplant Leaf Tip Burn
To solve the brown leaf tip dilemma, do the following:
1) Water properly and use reverse osmosis or distilled water. (Avoid using softened water, as it's high in salts.)
2) Fertilize correctly. By this I mean using an organic fertilizer, not a chemical fertilizer, which are notorious for creating brown leaf tips. They are high in salt, and salt builds up on the plant roots and then the plant attempts to push out the salts, which ends up creating the burn in plant tips.
If you've been using chemical fertilizers, leach the plant pot. This refers to letting water run through the pot. This rinses fertilizer salt build up out of the soil.
3) Provide adequate humidity. Mist your plant, as well as setting it on a humidity tray. Here’s our video on how to create a humidity tray. Also get more plants! The more plants you have, the more moisture there will be in the air. Whereas we humans perspire, plants transpire. They are constantly releasing moisture into the air for us. They also moisturize each other when grouped together.
4) Adjust pH as needed. Many houseplants like a pH on the acidic side, around 6.9-6.7. If you live in an area with alkaline water (such as many areas of the west), watering will create alkaline soil over time. You can rectify this by transplanting in fresh soil, as well as fertilizing with an acid-based organic fertilizer.
While you're rectifying matters that lead to leaf tip burn, you can make yourself feel better and the plant look better by cutting off the brown leaf tips. This is also a good idea, since pests like to breed in decaying plant matter. Use sharp scissors and simply cut the brown parts off, creating a shape that looks natural.