Does Your Peace Lily Have Brown Tips? Here Are the 2 Most Common Causes & How to Fix Them

Are your peace lily leaves turning brown suddenly? Don't fret. This common issue is nothing to worry about as long as you understand the causes and fixes behind brown leaf tips.

Though these houseplants are generally tough and resilient, sometimes you will notice a peace lily with brown tips. This unsettling condition is usually caused by water or fertilizer issues, which are easy to solve.

Let's dig into the exact causes of this common peace lily problem and how to treat them so you can keep growing a peace lily houseplant that thrives year-round.

Why Does My Peace Lily Have Brown Tips?

It is important to differentiate between plant problems caused by diseases (termed “biotic”) and those caused by environmental factors including cultural care (termed “abiotic”). Both fungal diseases and cultural care can cause brown tips on leaves. Fungal diseases often occur on outdoor plants as a result of fungal spore transfer in high humidity, wind, or splashing water.

Sometimes houseplants that have spent long months looking completely healthy suddenly take a turn for the worse, developing brown tips and margins. While you may assume this is a fungal problem, the truth is often much simpler.

Growing indoors, your peace lily is not likely experiencing high humidity, wind, or splashing rainwater. That means something about the cultural care of your plant is resulting in a peace lily with brown tips. This might be an issue with watering, humidity, or light exposure, but can also involve improper fpeace lily fertilizing.

When you see peace lily tips turning brown, look first to cultural care. In most cases, the normally healthy plant leaves look sickly because of a cultural care issue.

Common Causes of Brown Tips on Peace Lilies

Very few outdoor peace lilies develop brown-tipped leaves. This problem mainly arises when you grow peace lilies indoors. That means that improper cultural care is generally the cause. But determining the exact reason is key to solving the problem. Here are the two most common causes.

1. Too Much Water (or Fluoride)

Peace lilies do not like excess water, so overwatering can result in browning of leaf tips. In addition, if you water with tap water, the plants may react badly.

Peace lilies are very sensitive to fluoride in water or any type of water softener. You can either use distilled, filtered, or collected rain water to water peace lily plants.

Another option is to let tap water sit out overnight to let any unwanted chemicals, like chlorine or fluoride, evaporate. Though there is some debate about whether this practice actually works.

A better way to keep unwanted mineral deposits from impacting plants is to leach your houseplants two or three times per year or whenever you notice a white mineral buildup on the soil. Do this by flushing your plant with three times the volume of water as the volume of soil in the pot. Let your plant drain completely.

2. Too Much Fertilizer

Among those factors that lead to abiotic disorders in houseplants, excess fertilizer ranks high on the list. The idea, "If a little is good, more is better," certainly does not apply to fertilizing plants, especially if they are growing indoors.

During the winter months when days are short and light is poor, most houseplants produce little, if any, new growth. Attempting to encourage new growth by applying fertilizer then is counterproductive.

Excess fertilizer can cause browning leaves in peace lilies. When you fertilize plants, the fertilizer salts are taken up by the plant and are stored along leaf margins and tips. This can cause fertilizer burn, leading to marginal or tip necrosis.

Only fertilize peace lilies during the growing season in spring and summer. Use a fertilizer designed specifically for indoor plants, like this liquid plant food from Miracle-Gro.

How to Treat a Peace Lily With Brown Tips

When you notice that your peace lily leaves have brown tips, consider cultural care first. If you are watering with tap water, consider gathering rain water in a bucket outdoors and using this to water sensitive plants.

If you have been fertilizing your plant, take action to get the salts from the leaves and container. Flush the soil by watering several times with bottled drinking water and letting it run out the drain holes. Then reduce the fertilizer amounts you provide. Repotting your peace lily is another way to clear these salts from the soil.

If these steps do not seem to solve the issue, consider other possible causes of brown leaf tips on peace lilies. These can include too little humidity (place the plant on a pebble saucer with water), too much sunlight, or temperature fluctuations.

Should I Cut the Brown Tips Off My Peace Lily?

Cutting damaged leaves off of your peace lily is a good idea. This will also allow you to check whether the problem is solved as new leaves grow in. A pair of sharp, clean pruners, like the Felco F6 Hand Shears from Amazon, would prevent any further damage to delicate plants.

Peace Lily Care Essentials