Question
I've had my corn plant for about 4 months. It sits in front of a window and I open the blinds often for more sunlight. The corn tree is roughly 5 ft. tall and I water once every two or three days. I set the plant outside one day because I thought a few hours of sun would be good for the plant. The temp. was in the mid 40's and I didnt make it home that night until late when the temp. dropped to about 35. I brought the plant inside and it looked fine. The following morning the leaves had all fallen like wet noodles, they're still wet not dry and briddle. The leaves have round black markes all over them and the plant smells funny. Is this plant able to be saved?.c2406

Answer
Chris,

This plant should never go outside in the sun, it sunburns easily, it should also not go out when the temperature is below 50 degrees. I am sure that the roots are fine but the top may be too damaged. I would cut the damaged leaves off. Then I would cut the trunk back by half. The plant may then send new growth out from the roots in the form of side shoots. The black circles that showed up after the cold day may have actually been caused earlier. A corn plant is a dracaena and they hate water with flouride in it. It causes black spots on the leaves like you describe. They were not showing up yet until the cold damage exacerbated the problem. You need to switch to distilled water for this plant. You also need to make sure that it is in a pot with good drainage holes and a drain tray under it. This plant is definitely not a swamp plant and it hates to be constantly wet, watering every 3 days is a big no no, it needs to dry out well between waterings. You hate it when it pours down rain every 3 days and so does this plant! Watering once a week in the summer is enough and every 2 weeks in the winter is good. Right now while it is sick do not water again until you see signs of new growh. It will grow better in dry soil than in wet soggy soil. Cut back on the amount of water you give it right now also. Good luck.

Darlene