Troubleshooting · Brown leaf tips
Crisp brown edges creeping in from the tip — usually the plant's way of telling you the tap water, humidity, or fertilizer is off.
Crisp brown edges are almost always an environmental problem, not a disease: the plant is telling you something about water quality, humidity, or fertilizer salt buildup.
Care profile
Likely causes
Each cause below has a quick check you can do in about thirty seconds. Stop as soon as one matches. You’ve found your answer.
Many sensitive plants (spider plants, calatheas, dracaenas, prayer plants) will develop brown tips from chlorine and fluoride in municipal tap water.
Quick check
Are you using tap water straight from the faucet on a sensitive species?
What to do
Fill a watering can and let it sit uncovered for 24 hours so the chlorine evaporates. Fluoride doesn't evaporate; for fluoride-sensitive plants, use rainwater, distilled water, or filtered water.
Tropical plants accustomed to 60–80% humidity will crisp at the tips in a 30% indoor winter environment. The damage is permanent on the affected leaves.
Quick check
Is the air dry (below 40% relative humidity) and the plant a known humidity-lover?
What to do
Group plants together, place the pot on a tray of pebbles and water, or run a small humidifier. Misting helps very little beyond the first 10 minutes.
Salts from fertilizer and hard water accumulate in potting soil over time and burn the edges of leaves when concentrations get high.
Quick check
Is there a white crust on the soil surface or around the drainage holes?
What to do
Flush the pot with plain water at three or four times its volume until water runs clear out the bottom. Hold off fertilizer for a month.
Letting a plant get bone-dry and then soaking it can damage leaf tips without the rest of the leaf showing symptoms.
Quick check
Have you had long gaps between waterings followed by heavy watering?
What to do
Water on a steadier schedule. Most plants prefer a little water a little more often over a long drought followed by a flood.
This page is beginner-friendly general guidance, not professional horticultural, medical, or veterinary advice. For pet-exposure questions, contact the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435. For persistent plant-health issues, your local university cooperative extension office is the best free expert in the country. See our full disclaimer for details.