Brown tips on mickey mouse plants are signs that your plants may be sick or growing in bad conditions. No matter the cause, these spots make your plants look ugly.
Thankfully, brown spots are not difficult to fix, as you simply have to know their cause. To know the cause of spots on your plants and how to fix them, read this article.
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Why Are There Brown Tips on Mickey Mouse Plants?
đź’Ą There are brown tips on mickey mouse because of some poor cultural practices such as your watering and feeding rate. Some environmental factors such as temperature and humidity can also cause brown tips. Your plants could also be attacked by pests, so try checking for pests.
– Not Watering the Plants Enough
Every plant needs water. When they don’t get enough water, your plants will start dying. However, they give you signs before they die. If you continue with a bad watering schedule for your mickeys, they will start developing brown spots on their leaves or brown tips.
The presence of these tips indicates that your plants are starting to dry out. If you see these spots and leave them, you might lose your plants soon. Other signs of your plants not receiving enough water include the plants becoming super weak, the leaves dropping, and the plants withering.
You have to check your watering schedule. If you wait until the substrate for your plants becomes completely dry before you water the plants again, it might be the cause of the brown tips.
– Overwatering the Plants
Too much of everything may be bad. Even though insufficient watering is very bad for monkeys, always giving them more water than they need can be super harmful to them. Overwatering your plants makes the soil too soggy for them. This leads to the loss of some roots. When the roots decompose, the microbes will attack some healthy roots. This means that your plants have root rot.
Overwatering is the number one cause of root rot. Root rot kills plants. To prevent this, you have to wait until the substrate of your mickeys is somewhat dry (around 50 percent) before you water them again. Also, check that the mickey substrate is loose enough to permit the flow of excess water.
– Temperature Problems
After watering, one factor that you must consider for your alocasia plants is the temperature of their environment. Remember that temperature is very important, as the growth and development of your plants only happen when the temperature is right. The plants growing in an unsuitable range of temperature will not just get stunted growth, they will tell you by developing brown tips.
Are you growing your mickeys in the right USDA hardiness zone? Is the temperature becoming too extreme for your plants recently? The brown tips could just be caused by the temperature, so check the temperature. Humidity and other atmospheric factors are also worth checking.
– Light Problems
You already know how useful light is to mickeys as well as other plants. When you are growing them with insufficient light, their leaves will turn pale and then become brown. If you see the brown spots appearing mostly in pale leaves, it just could mean that your plants are not getting enough light. If the brown tips or spots get larger and more parts of the leaf turn brown, you will lose the leaf.
Even though plants need light, they can also get brown spots or even die when you give them more light than they need. An overexposure to sunlight can kill your plants, as it means that the plants will be growing in significantly higher temperatures and the plants will simply get more light than they need. Moderation is key in this case.
– Lack of Nutrients
There are a few nutrients that can give your plants brown tips if they are not enough for your plants. For example, the lack of nitrogen will make the leaves pale and in a few days, they will turn brown. The lack of iron can also make the leaves start browning from the edge. Therefore, when you see brown tips, check if the plants have enough nutrition.
When last did you feed your plants? What brand of fertilizer did you use? Organic or inorganic fertilizer? The answer to these questions will help you decide better. For example, some nutrients in inorganic fertilizers may not be readily available for plants as they need to break down first. Therefore, feeding plants with inorganic fertilizer will not automatically give them nutrients.
– You Are Feeding the Plants Too Often
As in the case of other factors, too much nutrients can make your alocasia mickeys sick. When there are too many nutrients available for your plants, the plants will take in nutrients (or soil) when they need water. When the salts continue building up in the leaves and other parts of your plants, the plants will start drying out due to dehydration.
Yes, overfeeding your plants can burn their leaves. This is especially worse if you are using organic fertilizer, as the product will continue releasing more nutrients into the soil. Therefore, you don’t want to use all your fertilizer at once for your plants. Check if you are using too much.
– Your Plants Are Root-Bound
When was the last time you repotted your plants? Leaving your mickeys in the same pot for years is very bad, as it would lead to them growing in unsuitable soil, their roots becoming root-bound, and the plants getting more exposed to harmful diseases and pests. Your mickey roots becoming root-bound is all you need to notice to know that they just could be the cause of the brown tips.
If you see some roots poking out of the soil, it could mean that they no longer have enough space to grow in the substrate and are now growing too close to the surface. You only need to remember when you last repotted your plants so that you can think of the steps to take to free their roots once again.
How to Fix Brown Tips on Your Mickey Mouse Plants?
To fix brown tips on your mickey plants, ensure that you grow them in a place with suitable humidity and temperature. Also, create a watering and feeding schedule for your plants. So long as you stick to this care guide, your plants will stay green and beautiful.
– Grow Your Mickeys in the Right Environment
If you are growing the plants in pots, the first step you can take to correct their brown tips is to move their pots to a new location. The new location should be ideal for the plants, considering factors such as humidity and temperature.
First, ensure that you are in the right USDA hardiness zone. If not, consider moving the plants to a greenhouse or any controlled environment, as they will continue getting problems from temperature in the wrong zone.
Mickey mouse plants love a temperature range of 65-85 and a humidity percentage of 60 percent or more. Anything significantly outside of this range will be harmful to the plants. After moving your plants to a good environment, you can start looking for more ways to fix the brown spots, as you are sure that the spots will not return.
– Ensure the Mickeys Have Just Enough Light
Be very intentional about how much light your plants receive. Mickeys need at least six hours of daily sunlight. If the light is not enough or too much, you already know what will happen. If you are growing your plants in a shaded place, ensure that they need eight or more hours of light so that they can grow healthily.
Remember not to overexpose the plants. If you feel that the light exposure may be too much for your plants, consider installing a shade. This is important, especially in the summer months, so that your plant leaves don’t get burnt.
– Repot Your Mickeys
If you have not repotted your plants for over two years, repot them. This will give their roots more space to grow. It will also make the plants grow in a new substrate, as you will most likely change the substrate. To repot your plants, go to a store and buy a pot that is one or two steps larger than the current one.
When you get the new pot (and substrate), remove your mickey mouse from its current pot. Please remember to be gentle so that you can save a lot of roots. After planting the mickey in its new pot, water it and then continue monitoring it. In a few days, a new leaf will grow.
– Properly Water the Plants
About watering your plants, you have to create a schedule if you haven’t already. If you do not have time to regularly water the plants, try installing a sprinkler system so that you don’t have to water the plants by yourself anymore. Just ensure that your plants get enough water when they need water.
Mickeys need water every two to three days or whenever the soil is almost dry. If you dip your fingers into the soil, you will feel the moisture of the soil. Don’t water your mickeys if the soil still feels heavily moist.
– Properly Feed the Plants
Feeding your mickeys is another routine that you have to plan. First of all, go to a nearby store and buy a fertilizer that is suitable for your mickeys. If you can’t find any, go to the nursery or wherever you first bought the plants from and check there. They will have the best fertilizer for your plants.
If the product comes with instructions on how to dilute it or use it for your plants, stick to the instructions. However, a general rule is to feed your plants once to twice monthly. This depends on how diluted the product is. Remember that organic fertilizer needs more diluting than inorganic ones.
– Get Rid of Pests
Check for and remove every insect pest from your garden if you want your plants to grow without brown spots. You can use insecticides to kill off every insect so that they no longer harm your plants. The more insects you leave in the garden, the more holes and brown tips you’ll see in your plants. Therefore, be very intentional in removing all the pests from the garden.
– Prune Your Mickeys
Though you have fixed the problem and your plants will no longer get brown tips, the leaves with brown tips will still get brown tips, as those parts will no longer turn green. Therefore, if you want to completely remove the brown tips, you have to prune your plants.
Use very clean tools for your plants. Also, if you follow a mickey propagation guide, you can collect cuttings from the plants when pruning them.
Conclusion
Surely, your Alocasia mickey mouse will look very beautiful after you fix it. Before you start fixing your plants, remember the points from this article:
- Check the temperature, light, humidity, and other growing conditions of your plants.
- Don’t overwater your plants. However, water them regularly.
- Keep pests off your plants.
- If the plants are suffering from nutrient deficiency, spray foliar fertilizer on their leaves.
- Prune your mickey plants after fixing them so that they can start pretty.
So long as you stick to the care tips in this article, your plants will grow just fine. Congratulations, as you are ready to fix your plants.
References
- Factsheet – Ochna serrulata. (n.d.). International Environmental Weed Foundation. https://www.iewf.org/weedid/Ochna_serrulata.htm