Brown tips on an indoor palm? Fluoride and salts are the usual cause.
Parlor, areca, majesty and kentia palms all brown at the frond tips indoors. Dry air gets the blame. More often it is fluoride and dissolved salts, which palms are known to be sensitive to.
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Is it your water?
Only the tips brown, in a clean line, while the rest of the frond is green.
A white crust is forming on the soil or the pot.
You water from a city tap, and a spider plant or dracaena in the house shows the same thing.
Two of three and it is the water:
Why palm tips brown
Water moves through the frond and evaporates at the tip. Anything dissolved in it that the plant cannot use — fluoride, sodium, excess fertilizer salts — is left behind there. Over months it reaches a level that kills the tissue.
Palms are slow growers, so a damaged frond stays on the plant for a long time and the browning adds up.
Watering Can With Filter and Remineralizer for House Plants
Filters chlorine, chloramine, fluoride and lead as you pour, then adds back 20+ minerals
$69 · Free shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee
plus sales tax where applicable
Less than a season of distilled water jugs, and nothing to carry.
Three steps to clean new fronds
Switch to filtered water and flush the pot thoroughly once.
Feed lightly, at half strength, in the growing season only.
Trim brown tips at an angle to match the frond, leaving a sliver of brown so the cut does not advance.
Watering Can With Filter and Remineralizer for House Plants
Filters chlorine, chloramine, fluoride and lead as you pour, then adds back 20+ minerals
$69 · Free shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee
plus sales tax where applicable
Less than a season of distilled water jugs, and nothing to carry.
When it is not the water
Areca and majesty palms want steady moisture and brown quickly if the pot dries right out. Spider mites are also common on indoor palms; look for fine stippling and webbing under the fronds.
The Tap Water Plant Guide
Which 12 houseplants react to tap water, how to tell water damage from overwatering, and four ways to fix it — including the free ones.
Frequently asked questions.
Better water, tonight's watering.
- $69 · Free shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee
- Free shipping
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Replaceable filter packs