Question
Hi Darlene,
I have a small peace lily I inherited from a friend.  I received it in its original plastic container and repotted it into a 10 inch ceramic pot with a drain hole and saucer.  It had been doing fine but recently it has brown tips on every leaf.  It is quite moist at the moment but I usually only water it every 2 weeks when it is dry.  We recently switched to Potassium Chloride pellets to soften our water and I have noticed a change in the health of all of my plants.  I am noticing a lightening of the leaves and a yellowing of the bottom foliage for another plant.

The only change has been the water softener so I would guess that is it.  My question is what do I do?  I usually have healthy plants and currently all of mine are fading away.

I will send you pictures of both plants.
thanks,
Heather

Answer
Heather,

I have never reccommended that anyone water house plants with soft water.  Whatever chemical you use to soften water is hard on plants after it builds up for awhile. It is also not real healthy for you to drink softened water. I have always had one hard water fawcett in my home for my plants and for drinking water. If you have no place to ge hard water then you will need to use distilled water or get water from a friend who does not use a softener. However, the brown tips are also a symptom of severe overwatring and you mentioned the soil was pretty moist. Make sure you let it drout well before waterig it so the roots hav a chance to  breath and the brown leaf tips should go away. Good luck.

Darlene