Why does my Arrowhead have brown leaf tips?

Luckily for Arrowhead parents, fixing their brown leaf tips doesn’t have to be difficult. The most common cause is a lack of humidity in the air. Often our homes can have quite dry air, especially in the winter months where we often have the heating on for most of the day. A lack of humidity in the air can cause the leaves and stems to be a little limp, droop down, and turn dry, brown and crispy from the tips inwards.

Below are some really simple ways to increase the humidity in your home:

Misting the leaves can prevent brown leaf tips

One of the simplest ways to increase the humidity for your Arrowhead Plant is to mist them with a spray bottle a couple of times a week. Make sure to mist in the mornings so there is enough time for the water to evaporate before temperatures drop at night. If the leaves are damp and cold it can very quickly lead to leaf rot.

Using a pebble tray

Place your Arrowhead Plant over a tray of pebbles with fresh water over the top. Over the day water from the tray will evaporate giving your plant exactly what they’re looking for. Make sure you don’t fill the water right up to the top of the pebbles as you don’t want your Arrowhead sitting in a pool of water all day.

Showering your Arrowhead plant really helps stop more brown leaf tips developing

To quickly raise the humidity you can always give them a quick shower. It is also a great way to get rid of any dust on the leaves too! Simply pop your plant in the shower and wash them down with lukewarm water, this will clean off the leaves and give the soil a good soaking. You want to keep the water pressure quite low as Arrowheads can sometimes have quite delicate stems and you don’t want to damage your plant.

Plant placement to reduce brown leaf tips

If you’re lucky enough to have great lighting in your bathroom or kitchen you can move your Arrowhead Plant in there to increase the humidity. The running water from your showers and stem from your cooking means these rooms tend to have higher natural humidity.

Invest in a humidifier

They’re great at keeping a consistent humidity level so you’ll never need to worry about dry air again. Most humidifiers will allow you to place them on a timer so they run on a fixed schedule, and some will even have a built-in monitor so they automatically turn on and off to keep the humidity exactly where you want it.

Move away from radiators

If your Arrowhead is placed within 1 metre of a radiator then this may also be causing the brown leaf tips. The dry, warm air from the radiator won’t be good for your plant’s health and will mean they need a lot more misting and watering than you might think. We always recommend moving any plant away from radiators over winter to prevent problems such as dry leaf tips or brown/ burnt leaves.

By raising the humidity around your Arrowhead Plant, you should prevent any other brown leaf tips from developing on your plant. If you want to learn more about humidity requirements for your houseplants, there is a whole chapter on this in our houseplant care ebook.