Peace lily brown tips? It's probably your tap water.
Brown tips on a peace lily aren't a humidity problem most of the time. They're where the plant dumps what it can't use from the water — fluoride, chlorine by-products and salts.
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Is it your water?
The tips brown while the leaf behind them stays green and the soil stays moist.
A white crust is forming on the soil surface or the rim of the pot.
You're on city or softened water and haven't flushed the pot in months.
Two of three and it's the water:
Why the tips brown first
Water moves through a peace lily leaf and evaporates at the tip and edges. Everything dissolved in it stays behind. Fluoride from city water, chlorine by-products, sodium from a softener and fertilizer salts all pile up at the tip until the cells die and dry.
The pot makes it worse: without an occasional flush, each watering adds a little more salt than the last one removed. That's the white crust.
Humidity does play a part, but a peace lily in an average living room with clean water rarely browns; the same plant with tap water browns in a humid bathroom.
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Three steps to clean new growth
Switch to filtered, remineralized water tonight.
This removes fluoride, chlorine and chloramine from every watering so new growth isn't exposed to them.
Flush the pot once: water slowly until it runs from the drainage holes, then let it drain fully.
Flushing dissolves the accumulated salts and carries them out so the soil starts clean.
Trim brown tips along the leaf's natural curve, leaving a hairline of brown.
Cutting into green tissue invites more browning; a thin brown margin protects the leaf.
What else it could be
Under-watering browns and curls whole leaves and the plant stays droopy after watering. Fertilizer burn browns tips fast after a feeding — halve the dose. Cold drafts blacken leaves rather than browning tips.
Frequently asked questions.
Better water, tonight's watering.
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