Crispy and brown means the leaf lost water faster than the roots could replace it. Dry air, erratic watering and salt build-up all do that, and the fix differs for each.
Brown tissue is dead, and stays dead
Nothing you do will turn a brown tip green again. That matters for diagnosis: if the tips browned a month ago and nothing has spread since, you already fixed the cause without noticing. Judge whether the problem is active by looking at the newest leaves, not the worst ones.
If you want to tidy the plant up, trim into the brown with clean scissors and leave a thin brown margin rather than cutting into green tissue, which just opens a fresh wound.
The three usual causes
Dry air
- What it looks like
- Tips brown first, then the edges, on thin-leaved plants especially: calatheas, ferns, peace lilies, palms. Worse in winter, and worst on the plant nearest a radiator or a draught.
- How to confirm
- Watering is consistent and the soil is neither soaked nor bone dry, but the room is heated and the plant is a species from humid forest floor. Several plants in the same room showing it at once points here.
- What to do
- Move it away from heat sources and draughts first, which usually matters more than adding humidity. Grouping plants together raises local humidity a little. Misting helps for minutes, not hours, so do not rely on it. A pebble tray or a small humidifier is what actually shifts it.
Inconsistent watering
- What it looks like
- Brown tips plus older leaves yellowing, and often a plant that has drooped and recovered more than once. The browning arrives in waves rather than steadily.
- How to confirm
- You water when you remember rather than when the soil is dry, or you water little and often so only the top inch ever gets wet while the root ball stays dry.
- What to do
- Water thoroughly, until it runs out of the bottom, then not again until the top two inches are dry. Deep and infrequent beats shallow and frequent for almost every houseplant. Set a reminder based on the species rather than on a fixed weekly slot.
Salt build-up from tap water or fertiliser
- What it looks like
- A hard brown edge running right around the leaf, sometimes with a white or pale crust on the soil surface or around the drainage hole. Common in plants fed often or watered with softened or heavily treated water.
- How to confirm
- Look for the crust. If the plant has been in the same soil for a long time and you feed at full strength every watering, this is a likely contributor.
- What to do
- Flush the pot: water slowly with several times the pot's volume and let it all drain away, which carries the salts out. Then feed at half strength and less often. Sensitive species do better on filtered or stood-out water.
Less common, but worth ruling out
- Too much direct sun. Scorch appears as pale then brown patches on the parts facing the window, not just at the tips.
- Root damage. A plant whose roots rotted earlier cannot move water, so the leaves brown even though the soil is wet. Check the roots if the soil stays soggy.
- Being pot-bound. Roots filling the pot leave almost no soil to hold water, so it dries out within a day of watering.
Related symptoms
- Yellow leaves, which frequently shows up with brown tips and points at watering.
- Drooping or wilting, if the plant is also collapsing between waterings.
- All plant symptoms.
General guidance, not a diagnosis of your plant. Whether yours is humidity, watering or salts depends on details a photo shows and a description does not.
Not sure which one it is?
This page narrows it down. A photo settles it: Bloom names the species, scores its health out of 100, and pairs each problem it finds with the treatment for it.
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