The abundant, shiny, and beautiful green leaves are the perfect indication of your plant's happiness. If you have managed to reproduce to a large extent the habitat where the species comes from or if you have at least managed to create a space where it feels very comfortable.
Everything seems to be going great, but one day you discover a little brown spot on the leaf. It's okay, right, but what if those ghastly spots threaten to spread to all the leaves?
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Don't waste time, because the spots, discolorations and other details that appear on the leaves and stems, in addition to detracting from their beauty, are the signs that plants use to warn you that something is out of order.
Let's learn how to diagnose, recognize, and solve those problems that produce brown spots on plants.
Why does the plant get brown spots?
Plants are living things that take water and nutrients from the substrate. These travel from the roots and spread along the plant to the leaves. If the roots, for one reason or another, cannot meet the plant's demand for moisture, then it will begin to distribute it as far as it reaches, leaving the leaves (especially the tips) without adequate water supply, which will cause dryness and death of the tissue. But not all brown spots are due to this cause. Sometimes they occur due to the action of pests and fungi that lodge in the leaf of the plant, reproducing and spreading through the air by contact with tools and others.
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Although these brown spots often do not affect the life of the plant
directly, as they do not attack the roots, they do affect the process of photosynthesis because they destroy the green surface of the leaf, which is where this vital process that allows the plant to synthesize its own food begins. This results in a weak plant that in the long run can end up dying. This is why it is essential to diagnose and solve this problem.
The
first step in solving the problem of brown spots on plant leaves is to make a proper diagnosis of the causes. Not all brown spots are the same, so you should take your affected plant, sit with it in a place with good light and even look for a magnifying glass because you must carefully observe the spots that have appeared, looking for the following characteristics:
- Location
Where on the leaves are the spots? If they concentrate on the tips, they are most likely caused by a problem related to watering or moisture. These types of spots also appear when there is excess heat, especially if the leaf is wrinkled.
- Color
The color of the stain is important. Check the shade if it has edges or centers of another color such as red, black, or yellow. If it's just a more or less even brown color, it may be caused by the sun or watering and/or humidity problems. Stains with colored edges are usually caused by fungi and bacteria. For example, if the stain has a yellow border, it may be caused by a bacterial infection. If the stain has black edges, like mold, it may be a fungus called septoria.
- Shape and distributionIs
spot rather round or oval? Is it concentrated in a single section or does it extend along the length of the leaf? It's easy to confuse (especially for beginners) a leaf that is wilting because it has completed its life cycle with a leaf affected by a problem or disease.
Likewise, the situation of the stains will tell you a lot about what caused it. If it's on the highest leaves, right where a ray of sun hits it, it may be excess heat. If you see that the spots are even and are at the tips, it is a lack of watering; But if it's small dots that clump together and spread along the leaf, it may be a fungal or bacterial infection.
- Quantity
Is it a single stain that grows over time? Are they small dots that come together? The number of spots and the way they spread or reproduce will tell you what kind of problem is causing them, as fungi and bacteria reproduce quickly and can affect all adjacent plants in a short time. If the problem is one of care, then the stains will be more contained and their appearance will be slower.