Anthuriums are a sight to behold when their colorful flower-like spathe blooms. However, that beautiful sight can soon change when the leaves abruptly start to discolor and brown. It can be concerning to see your pretty plant dying in front of your eyes.
You don’t need to worry though, as there are ways to help your plant regain its health and thrive once again. Let’s find out why your anthuriums are turning brown and exactly might be causing this…
Why are Anthurium Leaves Turning Brown?
Often, anthurium leaves turn brown due to improper watering, environmental stress, blights, and more. That is why it’s important to know the correct way to care for your anthuriums, so that you can prevent their leaves from turning brown and dying. Let’s dig deeper…
Excessive Exposure to Direct Sunlight
Anthuriums don’t require a dense and highly-nutritious soil medium to thrive. Instead, they can do well on their own with some bright light, moisture, and light nutrition in the form of fertilizers. This is why they are such a popular choice as indoor houseplants. They make great additions to your space, even in your bathrooms, as they love humid and moist environments.
Anthuriums don’t require constant and direct sunlight, which can cause their leaves to burn and ultimately wilt. Hence, it’s important that when you’re choosing the perfect spot for your indoor or planted anthuriums, to place the, away from direct sunlight.
Improper Watering
Too much or too little water can again cause your plant distress. Overwatering anthuriums can result in root rot and can damage your plant’s health to the point of no return. Often, brown leaves are a symptom of that.
Underwatering your anthurium is another big no-no. Yes, it’s good to be cautious, but not if your caution is leaving your plants desperate for water.
Anthuriums are water-loving plants and drink up a lot of water. However, it’s best to decide how much water is needed depending on your soil medium’s hydration.
Using a light potting mix to keep your anthurium damp is ideal. Soaking it in too much water can destroy your roots as it affects the soil’s aeration. A wet and drenched soil medium is counterproductive to the plant’s health.
Blights
Diseases and blights can be another reason why your anthurium leaves are turning brown. If your plant is planted in water, check for algae and remove it immediately if you spot it. You can remove it by cleaning your pot and the plant or by using chemical cleaning agents.
Various types of blights can be causing the wilting, yellowing, or browning of your anthurium leaves. Bacterial blights, bacterial wilt, root rot, water molds, black nose disease are common blights found in anthurium plants.
Natural Ageing
It could be that you have had the plant for years, and the plant is simply aging. The aging of the anthurium plant is also a common cause of the leaves turning brown and yellow. A good way to ensure the long-lasting nature of your plant would be to have several backups of your anthurium plant.
Improper Nutrition
If your anthurium plant lacks required nutrients, then that could be indicated by the browning of the anthurium leaves. It may be that your plant needs some light fertilizers. Even if you plant the anthuriums in water, it’ll still require light fertilization every so often. About thrice or four times a year.
Other Common Factors
Besides the mentioned causes, some other reasons for browning of anthurium leaves include:
- Poor quality of soil
- Temperature stress caused by inconsistent temperature and exposure to cool environments
- Improper levels of humidity. If your plant isn’t in a very humid environment, then it’ll need a little more water. You can also mist your plant occasionally to avoid stress due to low humidity
How to Stop Anthuriums Turning Brown?
Your anthuriums can regain their green foliage and attractive blossoms with proper care and considerations. Here is what you can do to help them grow robust and strong.
Proper Light
In case you see your anthuriums turning brown and dull due to excessive sunlight exposure, check your location and see if your plant has been exposed to direct sunlight. You can place it at a window facing north, west, or east, as south-facing windows will bring in direct sunlight, so it’s better to avoid them for your anthuriums.
Adequate Watering
Overwatering can be disastrous. That is why a free-draining soil medium potted in a pot with drainage holes will be your best bet.
Your plant will need watering once or twice a week, depending on the temperature and time of year. Before you water, check the dampness of the soil so that you can avoid overwatering your anthuriums.
In case you’re keeping your anthurium plants solely in water, you have to keep an eye that the water level doesn’t drop too much. It is a tad bit easier to care for anthuriums growing in water, as overwatering won’t be much of an issue if you’re careful to keep the water level at the roots.
Propagation
Aging can’t be prevented, but you can prolong your anthurium’s life by propagating it. You can propagate more anthurium plants than your main anthurium plant.
As time goes by, you can keep propagating from the cuttings that have grown into healthy plants. This way, you can have another anthurium plant even if your main plant starts to age and brown.
Fertilization
Lack of fertilization is another common issue. This can simply be remedied by lightly fertilizing your plant. Although the plant won’t need fertilizers at the time of planting, it’ll only be after a few months of growth that it may need additional nutrients from fertilizers.
Be careful not to use excess fertilizers as that can turn your plant toxic and damage its health.
Repotting
If nothing else works, then repotting your plant might be the last step to try. Replant it in a pot appropriate for the roots’ size and fill it with a light potting mix of free-draining soil, perlite, and moss.
Final Thoughts
Anthuriums make beautiful indoor plants that are not only easy to care for, but also bloom throughout the year.
If your anthurium leaves are turning brown, then it’s probably a sign of improper care. Often the cause can be remedied with easy solutions, but if nothing works, then propagating a healthy cutting to create a new plant may be your best bet.
