Dealing With Leaf Scorching and Tip Burn: Some types of houseplants often get leaf-tip browning, which is a bothersome problem. Spider plants, tropical plants, and plants with long, strappy leaves are more likely to get it.
Dealing With Leaf Scorching and Tip Burn
When dealing with leaf-tip burn, the hardest thing is to remember that it’s not a disease in and of itself, but a sign of a bigger problem, usually a cultural one. That means that if you burn the tips or edges of your plant’s leaves, you can’t fix the damage there. The only thing left to do is fix the problem at its source and hope the plant still grows well.
A leaf-tip burn is also hard to diagnose because there are many things that could be causing it. You might not know right away, but you’ll know for sure if the new growth isn’t hurt and the heat stops. You should be able to spot leaf-tip burn early enough that the plant’s appearance isn’t completely ruined.
Watering Issues
Leaf scorching can be a sign of uneven or not enough watering or low humidity.1. This is especially true for tropical plants that don’t like how dry most homes with central heating are in the winter. In their rainforest homes, these plants have evolved to thrive in humidity levels that range from 60% to 100%.
It’s easy for a home to reach 20% humidity in the winter, which can burn leaves. The solution is to raise the humidity. You can mist the plants, use a pebble tray, or move the plant to a room with higher humidity, like the bathroom or kitchen.
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Also, keep in mind that plants with strappy leaves have a harder time getting water from the roots to the ends of the leaves. This means that these plants are more likely to burn at the tips of their leaves than plants with shorter leaves. Lastly, if you think your water is very alkaline (has a pH above 7), you might want to find a source of water that is more neutral. Plants like it when the soil is a little acidic.
Fertilizer Issues
When large amounts of fertilizer are used, the salts in the fertilizer can burn the leaves.1. If your plants start to burn soon after giving them a lot of fertilizer, there may be a problem with the fertilizer. To get rid of the fertilizer salts that have built up, flush the soil with clean water several times. Next time, be more careful.
Cold Damage
A lot of houseplants aren’t used to cold, drafty places (like by a winter window), which is related to water stress. Damage from the cold usually shows up first at the edges and tips of the leaves. Most likely, you should raise the temperature and humidity around your tropical plants if their leaves get burned in the winter.
Sun Damage
When plants are hurt by the sun, the leaves often turn yellow or get burned spots on them.2However, if your plant has recently had a change in the amount of direct light it gets, this could be the cause. Because windows can reflect and magnify heat, putting plant leaves up against them can also burn the leaves.
Chemical Damage
Leaf scorching is less likely to happen because of chemical damage, but it can happen. Be careful about what you use on your plants, because some household cleaners and pesticides can burn them.
In the end, a leaf-tip burn is almost always a problem with the way the plant is grown. Fungus and bacteria that cause diseases tend to spread more across the leaf surface and sometimes to the stem as well. To fix leaf-tip burn and margin scorching, the best thing to do is to figure out what cultural issues might be causing them and then try to fix them.
