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Published on 02/26/04

Solving a plant problem in a 'jungle'

By Mike Isbell
University of Georgia

"Come in here and look at my room," my oldest daughter yelled down the hallway.

I wasn't really sure what I was going to see when I got to Lindsay's room. It already looked like the night sky with all the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling.

Had my 18-year-old put up more stars? Or had she just put more stars on the ceiling fan? Were the crickets she feeds her pet tarantula loose and jumping all around her room?

Thank goodness. The crickets and tarantula were where they were supposed to be.

Hey, wow!

I was pleasantly surprised to see she had organized her room. And not only that, but she had tossed out a lot of junk she had collected over the years. It really looked good.

That's when I noticed the foliage plant in a tiny pot sitting on the night stand by her bed. I hadn't seen it before. "Are you watering this?" I asked.

"No, I haven't yet," Lindsay answered.

"Well, do you see these dried out and brown tips on these leaves?" I asked her. "That's telling you there's something wrong with the plant. Now the trick is finding out what the problem is."

What is it?

Brown and dried-out leaf tips can be caused by several things: humidity too low, temperatures too high, not enough water. Any of those three can make the leaves give off too much water, causing the leaf tips to dry out and become brown and crinkly.

And it could be a combination of all three.

The plant in Lindsay's room is a Dracaena. This plant can develop brown leaf tips rather easily if it's not given proper care. Lindsay said she hasn't watered the plant, and that might be all that's wrong with it.

But Lindsay's bad about turning up the temperature in the house, too. I keep turning it back down -- I'm considering putting a locking box on the thermostat control.

I just don't think temperature is the problem with the plant.

A possibility

Now, low humidity could be a possible problem. Plants require a humidity of 50 percent to 60 percent. In most centrally heated and cooled homes the humidity runs about 10 percent to 30 percent. So increasing the humidity around the plant would certainly help.

How can she do that?

There are several ways. But the easiest might be just to put the plant in the terrarium with the tarantula. She has to make sure the spider has water and has to mist water inside the terrarium. That should make the humidity in the terrarium higher, which would be great for the plant.

Let's see -- she's got a tarantula, crickets, a little pool of water, a plant and stars overhead. Man, it's like a jungle in her room.

(Mike Isbell is the Heard County Extension coordinator with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)

Mike Isbell is the Heard County extension coordinator with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Experts/Sources:
Mike Isbell
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