What is wrong with your plant?

Start from what you can see. Most houseplant problems produce the same handful of symptoms, and a couple of checks narrow each one down to a single cause.

• 🍂Yellow leavesThe most common houseplant symptom and the least specific. Which leaves are yellowing, and whether the soil is wet or dry, narrows it down to one cause in most cases.
• 🥀DroopingThirst and root rot look identical from above, and treating one as the other kills the plant. Check the soil before you do anything else.
• 🍁Brown crispy tipsWhere the brown appears tells you the cause. Tips point at water quality, edges point at humidity, and patches in the middle mean something else entirely.
• ⏸️Not growingSometimes a stalled plant is a problem and sometimes it is the season, the species, or a pot that is simply full. How to tell which.
• 💧Mushy stemA soft stem at soil level means rot, and it is the one houseplant problem that gets worse while you decide. Here is how to check and what can still be saved.
• 🍃Sudden leaf dropLosing several leaves at once is nearly always a reaction to change rather than a disease. For some plants it is not even a problem.