Leaf Problems

Yellow, brown, curling, spotted — what each leaf symptom points to.

29 articles

• Calathea Brown Edges: Dry Air, Tap Water, or Watering Stress, and the Order to Fix Them

  A calathea shows every mistake at the edge of its leaf. The edge is also where the fix shows first.

• Fiddle Leaf Fig Brown Spots: Where the Spot Starts Tells You Root Rot From Thirst From Sun

  A fiddle leaf fig writes its diagnosis on the leaf. Rot spreads from the centre outward, thirst from the edges inward, and the sun leaves its mark on the side that faces it.

• Philodendron Brown Edges: Dry Air, Thirst, Salts, or Sun, Read From the Edge Itself

  The edge of a philodendron leaf is the farthest point from the roots and the first to dry. The way it browns says what dried it.

• Calathea Brown Spots: Water Drops in Sun, Fungal Spots, Pests, or Rot, Told Apart by the Spot's Shape

  A calathea's edges brown from dry air. Its spots come from something else: sun on a wet leaf, an infection, a pest, or rot. The shape of the spot is the diagnosis.

• Peace Lily Leaves Turning Black: Soft Black Is Rot or Cold, Dry Black Is Burn, and the Flowers Are a Separate Story

  Black on a peace lily looks worse than yellow and often is. Whether the black is soft or dry tells you whether the plant is rotting or scorched, and the two need opposite responses.

• Monstera Leaves Turning Yellow: Which Leaf, How Fast, and What the Soil Feels Like

  One yellow leaf at the bottom of a monstera is the plant tidying up. Several yellow leaves at once with wet soil is the plant drowning. The two look the same at a glance and opposite up close.

• Spider Plant Turning Yellow: Wet Roots, Old Leaves, Salts, or a Pot It Has Outgrown

  A spider plant stores water in fat white roots and rots when the soil never dries. The same roots fill a pot fast and then starve the plant of water. Both yellow the leaves, and both are found by sliding the plant out of its pot.

• Orchid Leaves Turning Yellow: The Bottom Leaf Is Normal, the Rest Depends on the Roots

  An orchid yellowing its bottom leaf is tidying up. An orchid yellowing its top leaf is dying from the crown. The leaf's position on the plant is most of the diagnosis.

• Rubber Plant Leaves Curling: Inward From Thirst, Under From Dry Air, and Why New Leaves Curl Anyway

  A rubber plant leaf is thick and glossy and does not curl for nothing. When it does, the direction of the curl and the state of the soil say what the plant is short of.

• Snake Plant Brown Tips: Dry Damage, Salts, Sun, or a Bump, and Why the Tip Never Grows Back

  A snake plant leaf grows from its tip, and a browned tip is a leaf that has stopped. The plant is fine. The question is what stopped it, so the next leaf is not stopped too.

• Fiddle Leaf Fig Leaves Turning Yellow: Lower Leaves in Wet Soil, Pale Leaves in Dim Light, and the Root Check

  A fiddle leaf fig turns yellow slowly, which gives you time to read it. Lower leaves yellowing in a wet pot and pale leaves in a dark corner are two different plants asking for two different things.

• Peace Lily Flowers Turning Brown Is Usually the Flower Finishing

  The most common reason a peace lily flower goes brown is that it has finished. The signs of a real problem are on the leaves, not the bloom.