Question
Hi Darlene
A few months ago, I received my first plant, which is a Janet Compacta Plant. The leaves were a dark green and the plant was very beautiful.  I was told to ONLY water it 2x a month.  For the past 2 months, my plant seems like its dying. The tips of the leaves started turning brown and the leaves are light greenish-yellow color, which then in a few weeks the leaves will dry up.  My plant is no longer dark green, its more a light green.  I do use city water.  When I do water my plant (2x a month), I fill it up until the water runs out of the bottom. My plant is inside, which it doesn't have direct sun.  To be honest, it gets some lighting that comes in through my slider door.  Please help!

Thank you.

Worried One  

Answer
Arlene,

Does your tap water have chlorine or flouride in it? Dracanas which includes Janet Compacta Plant hate flouride. It causes burn spots on the leaves. You need to water your plant with distilled water that you can purchase in gallon jugs at the grocery or you can allow tap water to sit in an OPEN bucket for 48 hours before using it to water your plants and the chlorine and flouride will dissipate into the air leaving plain harmless water for your plant.

If you do not have water with flouride or chlorine then you are either under or over watering it. Brown leaf tips can be the result of either. Foorget the every 2 week thing, there is not schedule.  When you water it you need to give it enough water that all the soil in the pot gets moist. An hour after watering you should empty excess water out of the drain tray so your plant is not sitting with a tray full of water for several days. You can use a turkey baster for that or if the plant is easy to pick up just take it to the sink and dump it. If there is not excess water you should also make sure there are not large dry spots in the soil. That can also cause leaf yellowing.

You can insert a large bamboo skewer into the soil and just cut it off it sticking up enough to be able to pull it out, maybe a half inch above the soil surface. When you think the plant is dry and needs watered pull out the skewer and see if it is dry at least 2/3rds of the way down. If it is still moist half way up it is not time to water.

The plant must be in a pot with a drain hole and a drain tray under it. If it is in a pot with no drain hole it will never dry out in that lower portion of the pot and the roots will rot. That will also cause problems like you are having.

I have listed the problems in the order that I think they are most likely to be the cause of your problem. If it is not the first problem it is most likely the second and so on. If you have more questions feel free to write again. Good luck.

Darlene