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Houseplant Leaves Getting Brown Tips or Edges
Posted On 2009-09-07 , 11:37 AM
Are your houseplants getting brown tips or edges? There are three main causes.
1. Low Humidity- If the humidity in your room is low and the houseplant requires a higher humidity, the tips and edges of the leaves may dry and turn brown. To keep this from happening, we need to raise the humidity around the plant.
We can group plants together in an area. All plants give off moisture, some more than others. If we group plants together, we create a micro environment in that area which has a higher humidity than the rest of the room.
A second way to raise the humidity is to place the houseplants on pebble trays. A tray with pebbles or gravel is placed under a plant. Water is added to the tray until it is just below the top of the pebbles. The water will evaporate around the houseplant raising the humidity. Be sure the plant pot is clearly above the water. If the plant pot is allowed to sit in the water, we can encounter another problem called root rot.
Misting is another way to raise the humidity temporarily, but for long term effects several mistings a day would be required.
2. Floride or boron found in normal tap water may build up in the leaves causing the tips to turn brown. Many houseplants, including peace lilies, are susceptible to this. Allowing tap water to stand in an open container for a day will allow some of these gasses to evaporate, but this may not be enough. It is best to use rain water or distilled water to water your houseplants.
3. A build up of soluble salts from fertilizer will also cause leaf tips to turn brown. If you see a white substance on the top of the soil in your plant pot, a build up of fertilizer salts is the likely culprit. To clean out the excess salts, take the plant to a sink ot bathtub (or outside) and pour enough water with no fertilizer into the plant pot so that at least half of it runs through the plant and out the bottom of the pot. Wait about 5 minutes and pour that same amount through again. This time it will all run through. Repeat once more. This will wash the excess salts out of the soil. Don't fertilize the plant again for 2 to 4 weeks. When you resume fertilizing, reduce the strenght of the fertilizer solution being used. At nurseries, they always pour enough water throught the plant at each watering to leach out the excess salts. This is not always practical in our home setting.
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Water Houseplants Less in Winter
Posted On 2009-09-03 , 1:28 AM
We need to water houseplants less in winter
As the heat of the summer passes we find we need to water houseplants less. There are several reasons for this.
The houseplant needs more water when it is actively growing. In the fall the growth rate slows and the houseplant will need less water to increase the size of the plant. Water will still be needed to maintain the houseplant at its current size and health.
One of the reasons the growth rate slows is the shorter daylight hours. The houseplant needs the light for the process of photosynthesis, the process of plant growth, to take place. Also the intensity of the light decreases because the sun doesn't rise as high in the mid-day sky. Because the light intensity decreases, the plant will not grow as quickly and will require less water.
When the temperature is hotter in the summer, the rate of evaporation increases. We need to water houseplants to replace the water that is lost by evaporation.
Although houseplants will need less water during the winter months, proper houseplant watering during the winter months is still essential to ensure the health and beauty of your houseplant. At this time of year we need to be aware of how much water we are giving our houseplants. This is the time of year we are most likely to over water our houseplants.
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| September 2009 | Page 1 Of 1 | |
