what is happening to my ribbon plant? the leaves are starting to turn brown. the plant gets water about every 7-8 days and is in a position where it gets indirect light. does this plant have a disease or is it something that i'm doing. i hate when things go wrong and i want to save this plant. thanks for your help! this forum has been very generous and happy to assist people. i like this place.
Looks like too dry to me. Otherwise, your plant looks pretty good. Take a close look at the leaves in question to see if there is any hidden infestation of aphids, scale insects, etc. Can't see the pot in your pix, but it could be that your plant has outgrown its home. Are there roots protruding from the bottom of the pot? When you water, does the water just flow right through instantly? Can you grasp the main stem and easily pull the whole entire plant as a unit from the pot? If yes to any or all of these questions, consider repotting.
well the plant was recently re-potted into a larger pot (abut 2 weeks ago) i'll try giving it more water and look for bugs. thanks for your help and i'll update when results change
Looks like a dracena. Browning of the tips and edges is often caused by humidity being too low for these plants. The brown patch I can see looks a little large for this; perhaps it was in too strong sun? (a plant used to low light takes some time to acclimate to brighter light.) Dracaena is also very sensitive to fluoride, which causes dead, scorched areas on the leaves. When you re-poted it, did you use a lot of perlite in the compost? Leaf margins can burn if it's heavily fertilized, also. Hope some of these help. More knowledgeable folks will probably come along with specific help for you. Good luck with it.
You mentioned you recently re-potted your the dracaena, that could be the problem. If your plant looked good before you did re-potted,, the soil may be too heavy, staying too wet causing a build up of salts, or possibly, the plant was over-potted which can also cause the problem your seeing. Make sure the roots aren't swimming in the pot, give the root-ball an inch of wiggle room and some good draining soil.
should i cut the brown parts of the leaves off or leave them on? will they come back or will they continue to die?
Personally if you are worried about the "browness" just take the whol leaf off. If there is no aphids, scale etc in that area I wouldn't worry. Those particular leaves won't come back, going brown and dying is a natural occurance, as the new ones develop. BTW I think its new name is Dracaena fragrans "Warneckii" used to be Dracaena deremensis. Overall, as stated, the plant looks good Ed
thanks for the help. does this plant like direct sunlight? i have it in a window that gets about 4 hours of direct light a day and then indirect light the remander. i'm gonna let the leaves stay, assuming there the only ones that go brown on me. im not sure if my water is to blame, my other plants havn't had many problems. i may have fertilized it to much, the last two weeks i think i added some to the water. i'm gonna give it a break on the fert and see if things improve. thanks again
I have mine in full sun but I wouldn't just put them straight out there. If it is getting 4 hours sun through a window at the moment that should be fine Ed
