Houseplants often develops brown and brittle leaves because of low humidity levels in the air. Many people assume that brown leaves is caused by a lack of water in the soil, but a lack of moisture in an air frequentaly cause brown leaves. When the humidity in a room is low, a plant loses moisture through its leaves more faster than the plant roots can pull moisture from the soil.
This loss of moisture through the leaves cause the leaves to become brown and crunchy. Therefore, you must manage the humidity in the air to prevent the leaves from becoming brown and brittle. The humidity levels in a home change depending on the season and an appliances used in the home.
Why Dry Air Makes Houseplant Leaves Turn Brown
For example, a heater increase the dryness of the air during the winter, and an air conditioner increase the dryness of the air during the summer. Because heaters and air conditioners removes moisture from the air, these appliances create low humidity environment. Low humidity environments are stressful for tropical plant, and low humidity environments can cause tropical plants to suffer from leaf damage.
You can categorize plants by there natural habitat to determine how much humidity each plant require. Some plants, such as succulents, cacti, and snake plants, come from arid environment where the air is dry. Because succulents, cacti, and snake plants come from arid environments, these plants does not require high humidity levels to stay healthy.
Other plants, such as Calatheas and ferns, come from tropical environments where the air is very moist. Because Calatheas and ferns comes from tropical environments, Calatheas and ferns require high humidity levels to prevent wilting and spotting. The location of a plant in a home affect the humidity levels the plant receives.
You should avoid placing tropical plants near air vents or drafty windows because air vents and drafty windows move dry air across the plant. The bathroom is a good location for tropical plants because the steam from a shower add moisture to the air. The kitchen is also a good location for tropical plants because cooking add moisture to the air.
If you place a plant in a bedroom or a living room, you may need to use additional method to increase the humidity in that room. There are several ways to increase the humidity in a room. An electric humidifier is one way to increase humidity because an electric humidifier actively add moisture to the air.
You can also group many plants together in one area to increase the humidity. When you group many plants together, the plants release moisture through transpiration, and the released moisture create a microclimate of higher humidity around the plants. Additionally, you can use pebble trays to increase humidity.
A pebble tray consist of a tray filled with stones and water, and the water in the pebble tray evaporate to provide moisture to the air around the plant. You must be careful because too much humidity can also cause problem for a plant. If the humidity is too high and the air is stagnant, the moisture can cause mold to grow on the soil.
High humidity and stagnant air can also cause dark rot to develop on the leaves and the stems of a plant. You must watch for sign of mold or rot, because mold and rot are signs that the humidity is too high. You must balance the humidity levels so that the air is moist enough for the plant but not so moist that mold and rot occurs.
The required humidity levels for a plant will change as the season change. In the winter, you must increase the humidity because the heat from a furnace make the air very dry. In the summer, you may need to increase the humidity because air conditioning make the air dry.
By monitoring the humidity in the air throughout the seasons, you can proactively manage the health of your plants.