Snake plants are usually marketed as one of the easiest houseplants to grow indoors. Famously, they tolerate being neglected for a week or 4 if you forget to water them. They even cope reasonably well with lower light (though it reduces growth rate).
So if your leaves are turning brown, it can be quite perplexing.
If snake plants are allegedly indestructible, why are the leaves turning brown?
When I first started rescuing snake plants, leaves turning brown were one of the symptoms I misinterpreted most frequently.
At first, I assumed brown meant it was too dry, like it does with other houseplants, so I watered it more. (which in certain cases can help, but not all) More often, it actually made the problem worse.
However, I learned through some trial and error that the leaves can turn brown for a variety of reasons and understanding the reasons helps us to diagnose the problem.
Snake plant leaves can turn brown due to the following…
- root rot (due to boggy soil and overwatering or poor drainage)
- underwatering (soil can become hydrophobic and repel water from the surface)
- too much direct sunlight (they like diffused light or shade)
- cold damage (they are tropical plants and hate cold window sills)
- mineral buildup (brown tips or spots can develop if you live in a hard tap water area)
- natural ageing of the leaves.
So, from experience, the best way to save a browning snake plant is to ask yourself, What kind of browning is this?
In this article, I’ll explain the following…
- The most common reasons for snake plant leaves turning brown (in ascending order)
- How to distinguish between the differing types of brown
- What to check first
- How to fix each problem (without making the plant any worse!)
- The best ways to prevent it.
Does Browning Mean Your Snake Plant Is Dying?
The good news is, no, not necessarily.
In my experience, a snake plant with brown leaves is often salvageable, especially if it’s the tips that are turning brown. Snake plants are notoriously slow growers, but actually, impressively resilient.
I usually deem a snake plant salvageable if:
- The centre of the plant is still firm and plump to the touch
- Some leaves are still green, healthy and standing upright in defiance!
- The base of the plant is not soft and squishy or collapsing
- The rhizomes in the soil are still strong.
The problem is more serious when…
- The browning tissue actually starts at the base
- The leaf tissue feels soft or mushy, with a bad smell
- Most of the leaves are turning brown and drooping.
Brown tips are easier to deal with, whereas brown mushy bases need attention.
Here’s What I Check First…Is the Leaf Tissue brown and Crispy or Soft?
This is always the most important distinction to make.
Be tactile with your ailing snake plant.
Are the leaves brown and crispy? Well, this usually indicates…
- Not watered often enough, or not enough water is reaching the roots due to hydrophobic soil.
- If there is dry air due to heating or air conditioning.
- mineral buildup from excess fertiliser or hard water.
- sun burn
- The age of the plant has resulted in some corking of the tissue.
Whereas Softer brown leaf tissue usually indicates:
- overwatering
- rotting due to soil or a pot that retains too much water
- cold damage (remember these are tropical plants)
This distinction is very important as two different snake plants can both turn brown, but one needs the soil to dry out and the other needs rehydration.
The texture of the leaf is definitely the most conclusive way to tell the two apart.
1. Browning of the leaf base (probably root Rot)
If your snake plant is turning brown at its base, near the soil line, then it is probably root rot due to a moisture problem. Snake plants are native to hot and dry areas of Africa, growing in quite gravelly and sandy soil, and actually thrive in arid areas, and do not tolerate being in damp soil.
Brown leaves at the base are usually a result of…
- Over watering
- A dense, fine potting soil that retains moisture for a long time
- Poor drainage due to pots without drainage holes in the base or water collecting in saucers underneath the pot.
- Water that is stagnant in the crown of the plant (from overhad watering)
- Cooler, damp conditions such as unheated rooms.
What this type of browning looks like…
- Brown, soft tissue at the base of the soil that can feel squishy.
- An almost translucent brown appearance
- The leaf may droop over or detach easily
- Often a bad smell as if something has gone off in your fridge.
What I’ve learned about this type of browning and how to deal with it…
So it’s often a combination of too much water around the sensitive roots, but also a lack of oxygen. Our snake plants’ roots actually respire, which means they need oxygen in the soil.
I find supermarket snake plants are often potted in soil that is too fine and tends to retain lots of moisture without allowing the roots to breathe.
How long the soil stays damp is often a bigger factor than how often you water your snake plant.
How do I fix browning leaves?
- Take the snake plant gently out of the pot.
- Snip away mushy roots and damaged leaves with a sterilised pair of pruners or scissors (I use hand gel to disinfect the pruners between each snip. You need to do it between each snip to prevent the spread of fungal pathogens.)
- Let the plant dry out in the sun (but still indoors) for a day or two
- Repot your snake plant to a more aerated potting soil mix
My preferred succulent potting soil mix (developed through some considerable research and trial and error) is:
- 1 part normal houseplant potting soil
- 1 part coarse grit, perlite or even sand works
- 1 part pine bark chippings, as you get in orchid potting mixes.
The pine bark really is the key here. Pine bark has a really large particle size that creates a nice, open porous soil texture that allows excess water to drain and oxygen to reach the roots.
Since I started using a bark and gritty soil mix, I haven’t had any problems with overwatering succulents, nor have my friends and family.
This is the number one most important way to mitigate against root rot and overwatering succulents. It really is incredible.
If a lot of your snake plant leaves are turning brown and you want to save the plant you can propagate healthy green sections of the plant even if the rest of the leaf is browninging. As propagation is a very visual process, here is a YouTube video showing how to do it…
2. Brown leaf Tips? (This is often Dryness, hard water, or Inconsistent Watering)
As I said at the start, this list of causes of browning on snake plants is in ascending order of which is the most common ailment.
Brown tips on snake plants is very common but fortunately it is the least serious form of browning. The plant isn’t in any serious trouble.
Brown tips on your snake plant
- Typically, the tips dry out first
- And the rest of the leaf actually stays mostly green
- The leaf tissue feels crispy and somewhat brittle
- Damage often develops more slowly
Here’s what’s causing it…
- Have you gone for very long periods without watering your snake plants in a haphazard style?
- Hard ta water that contains minerals and chemicals
- fertilizer salts that accumulate in the soil
- Actual mechanical damage to the tip…did you cat try to eat it?!
Whenever I have seen brown tips on my snake plants, it’s often caused by some subtle discomfort over a long time.
Hard tap water (you can Google whether your area is a hard or soft tap water area) is often the cause. Peace lilies are far more sensitive, but I have seen damage occur in snake plants, too.
How to fix this…
- Check whether your snake plant is severely dry by picking up the pot and assessing the weight…very light? The soil is too dry. Are the leaves curling inwards? It’s definitely not enough water.
- Place your snake plant in a basin of lukewarm water for 20 minutes to properly rehydrate the root ball…It should feel much heavier. Water your snake plant whenever the soil is dry (by picking up the pot and assessing the weight to determine whether it’s dry or not. Typically, I water my snake plant every 2 weeks…
- If you suspect hard tap water, then switch to rainwater or filtered water, and the problem should stop getting worse.
- And go easy on the fertiliser…use a special succulent and cacti fertilizer as normal hoseplant fertilizer is too strong even at dilute concentrations. Succulents and cacti are adapted to low-fertility soils, so added fertiliser can be harmful.
- Trim the tip if you want (for aesthetic purposes, as it’s not strictly necessary)
If I do trim a brown tip, I trim just the brown, crispy portion nd avoid cutting into healthy green leaf tissue.
3. Brown Patches in the Middle of the Leaf? (This is more often Sunburn or perhaps Cold Damage)
These ones can be tricky as the browning can be a bit more random. If the browning is not at the tip or base, it’s often sunburn or cold damage.
Sunburned leaf
Snake plants can tolerate brighter light than most people typically think, but they can scorch when moved to direct sunlight in the midday or afternoon. (Morning sunlight is usually okay) This is especially a problem if you live in a southern latitude, such as southern California, and less of an issue in say Oregon, where the sun is less intense.
Snake plants can often scorch when…
- A low-light plant is suddenly rescued from a darker room and place in a south-facing window
- A snake plant is moved outdoors in summer without any period of acclimation to the increased light intensity.
- The harsh, more unforgiving afternoon sun lands on the same side of the leaves every day.
What does it look like?
- dry-looking, bleached, or even somewhat papery brown patches
- Usually, on the side that faces the sun the most
- The leaf tissue is dry rather than boggy (in contrast to cold damage, which can make the leaf mushy)
Cold-damaged leaves
Cold-damaged leaves can appear somewhat similar at first, but the brown spot feels squishy rather than dry.
This most often happens when…
- Your plant sits on a cold windowsill in winter…perhaps even the leaves are in contact with the pane of glass (which is usually much colder than the ambient temperature of the room)
- Is your plant in a colder conservatory?
- Do cold drafts repeatedly hit the plant from the opening exterior doors, allowing a blast of cold air?
How to fix both of these scenarios…
- First of all move the plant to bright, indirect light. You can also use a sheer curtain or perhaps frosted bathroom glass, which creates the right sort of light intensity for snake plants to thrive.
- Of course, avoid direct afternoon sun as it’s too much.
- Keep the temperature above about 60°F / 15°C, so move your plant from any cold areas.
Neither sun-damaged nor cold stress is necessarily serious, but the leaves do not turn green again. Any remaining green on the leaf, however, can photosynthesise and contribute energy to the plant. However, for aesthetic purposes, you can prune the leaves back to the base.
I would caution against trimming too many at once as this can shock the plant. Typically, I trim them one at a time and leave it a week in between to be on the safe side.
4. Brown and Wrinkling Leaves? (Most of the time, Severe Dryness)
Snake plants are very drought-tolerant, but once they have been without water for too long, they start to draw up the water reserves in their leaves, which causes them to curl inwards. Really severe drought often results in browning leaves
Symptoms…
- leaves lose their characteristic firmness
- brown tips can develop
- The leaf surface starts to wrinkle up
- The soil may form a gap from the edge of the pot
In my experience…
It is actually very difficult to underwater a snake plant as they are adapted to drought, but it can, of course, happen, usually (as discussed earlier) when the soil has become so dry that it repels water (hydrophobic).
When this happens, water runs off the surface and down the side of the pot without infiltrating and reaching the rootball where it is required.
How to fix overly dry soil
As before you need to…
- Place the pot in a basin with a few inches of lukewarm water (cold water can shock it)
- Leave it in the basin for 20 minutes
- The soil should be evenly moist now, and the pot feels much heavier
- Then allow it to drain fully through the drainage holes in the base.
The leaves should look better as the plant hydrates. You should see full leaves that feel firm. However, the brown areas remain, and you may have to trim them back to the base.
5. Are the Leaves turning brown, no obvious reason (Sometimes Just Ageing)
Sometimes, if some of the outer leaves are turning brown, it can just be part of its life cycle.
Snake plant leaves that are the oldest sometimes turn brown as the snake plant redirects its energy to growing new leaves that emerge from the soil. This is normal.
How I tell it’s whether normal
- If only one or two outer leaves are affected
- Is the center of the plant firm and green?
- Is there no softness at the base of the leaves?
- Is new growth appearing from the soil?
If that is the pattern, then you can simply remove the ageing leaf at the base, but I like to let them go brown as the snake plant can actually use the remaining resources of the leaf and direct it to healthy growth.
Should I Prune Off Brown Snake Plant Leaves?
If the leaf is mostly brown, damaged, or soft at the base, then absolutely, yes.
Unfortunately, a fully brown section will not turn green again.
My method
- Use a sterilized pair of scissors or secateurs
- Snip the leaf at the soil line if the damage is mushy,
- Is the top portion is still healthy and green? You may be able to propagate it
One of the few upsides of a damaged snake plant is that healthy leaf sections can often be saved and propagated.