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Rank: Newbie
Joined: 1/10/2009
Posts: 1
Location: Massachusetts
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Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum, but I need a little bit of help with a couple house plants. One is a Dracaena massangeana and the other is some type of Calathea. I got them both about a year and a half ago and they had been doing fine up until a month or so ago. I recently went to Madagascar for 3 months and left the plants in the care of my parents. When I got back, they were both looking pretty bad and I haven't been able to revive them. The Dracaena has brown tips and some of the leaves are yellowing. The Calathea also has brown tips and has lost a bunch of leaves...it used to be much more full. I'll post a couple pictures of them...   Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions for me, I would be very grateful. I hope they're not too far gone. Thank you so much for you help! Erin
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 9/14/2008
Posts: 137
Location: Ankeny, Iowa
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Most Dracaenas are sensitive to boron and flouride. Flouride may be good to help stop cavities, but dracaenas aren’t to keen on it. Many cities now add flouride to the water. Too much flouride shows itself in many different ways, but, generally, what to look for is elongated, brownish leaf spots, orange blotches and tip burn. Flouride damage also shows up more when the plant is allowed to completely dryout. The Calathea brown tips is most likely caused because the plant dries out too much between waterings.
Operational Manager at Earl May Nursery and Garden Center in Ames, Iowa
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 1/20/2009
Posts: 53
Location: Cape York QUEENSLAND
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Maybe your parents overwatered, underwatered or its thier water supply .
These plants are a long way from dying, if you don't like the look of the browned leaves cut off the effected ones and go back to doing what you did before you gave them to your parents to care for.They will be fine in no time at all. Always let them get dry before you water them and when you water them really saturate them.Where I live they grow in the garden like weeds.Wompoo.
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