- Don't panic with the first dragon tree: growth form similar to palm trees
- This is to do with brown leaf tips
- Be careful when watering
Basically, the dragon tree is a relatively easy-to-care-for houseplant. If a dragon tree starts to get brown leaves or even completely brown, this does not necessarily have to be a sign of a specific disease.
Spraying helps with brown leaf tips due to low humidity
Don't panic with the first dragon tree: growth form similar to palm trees
The "trunk" of a dragon tree is often unbranched and roughly the same thickness from top to bottom. As with many palm trees, this trunk is formed by slow elongation at the top, where old leaves regularly die off. So with your first dragon tree, don't panic if the bottom leaves are turning brown. This is quite normal as long as new, fresh green or, depending on the subspecies, reddish leaves are growing above these brown leaves.
This is to do with brown leaf tips
If the leaves turn primarily brown at the tips, this can be an indication that the air in the room is too dry. Dragon trees not only like it evenly warm, they also need a certain level of humidity. However, it is difficult to keep this constant high in many interior rooms, since high humidity also entails a certain risk of mold growing on the walls. However, you can do something good for your dragon trees if you put water with as little lime as possible (e.g. collected rainwater) in a spray bottle and wet the leaves with it at least once a week.
Be careful when watering
If all of the leaves on your dragon tree turn brown at the same time (or turn yellow first and then brown), this can be a sign of serious care mistakes. Dragon trees, for example, do not like it at all if they:
- placed too close to the radiator
- stay in direct sun all day (this can cause "sunburn" on the leaves)
- never be repotted
- not be fertilized
- kept too dry or too wet
As a rule, the root ball of the dragon tree should never dry out, but waterlogging can weigh even more heavily as a care mistake.
tips
If the brown leaves are accompanied by a root ball that is obviously affected by rot (this can usually also be smelled), it may already be too late to save the plant. If the tip of the dragon tree is not yet soft and rotten, you can sometimes try to cleanly cut through the "stem" and have it rerooted like a cutting.