brown tips on Corn Plant
Quick answer
If your Corn Plant has brown tips, the most likely cause is: Dracaena fragrans leaves develop brown tips when indoor humidity drops too low or when watering becomes irregular; the long strappy corn plant leaves are sensitive to dry air, salts and fluoride from tap water, and erratic moisture, all of which scorch the tips and produce the characteristic brown edge damage.
Start here:
- 1. Mist the leaves regularly and stand the pot on a pebble-filled tray of water to raise humidity around the foliage
- 2. Switch to filtered, distilled, or rainwater so fluoride and chlorine salts do not accumulate in the leaf tissue
Why Corn Plant gets brown tips
Corn Plant
Dracaena fragrans leaves develop brown tips when indoor humidity drops too low or when watering becomes irregular; the long strappy corn plant leaves are sensitive to dry air, salts and fluoride from tap water, and erratic moisture, all of which scorch the tips and produce the characteristic brown edge damage.
How to reverse brown tips on Corn Plant
- 1
Mist the leaves regularly and stand the pot on a pebble-filled tray of water to raise humidity around the foliage
- 2
Switch to filtered, distilled, or rainwater so fluoride and chlorine salts do not accumulate in the leaf tissue
- 3
Water evenly across the whole potting medium so all roots receive moisture and the limited corn plant root mass is never left dry on one side
- 4
Trim damaged tips back to the natural leaf shape with clean scissors so the brown does not spread further down the blade
Keep brown tips off this Corn Plant
Maintain steady humidity around the foliage year-round, water only when the top layer of compost has dried, and use filtered water to prevent fluoride salt accumulation in the corn plant leaf tissue.