Plant Doctor

Something wrong with your plant? This page is organised by symptom. Find your symptom and read the causes listed under it from top to bottom — the one at the top is the most common, so check that first.

Before you do anything, do this one thing: push a finger 2 inches into the soil and see whether it's wet or dry. More than half the answers on this page come out of that single check. And one more thing — when a plant looks unwell, people immediately add fertiliser. That does the opposite of helping. A stressed plant doesn't need fertiliser, it needs time to recover.

Leaves turning yellow

Possible causes (commonest first):

1. Overwatering. The commonest cause, especially in monsoon. In permanently wet soil the roots get no oxygen, they start to rot, and the plant yellows.
2. Poor drainage. No hole in the pot, or water sitting in the tray. That is technically overwatering, even if you're watering sparingly.
3. Too little light. The plant drops its older leaves because there isn't enough light to run them.
4. Nutrient deficiency. It's been in the same soil a long time and never fed — often the new leaves come through pale green or yellow.
5. Underwatering. Less common, but it happens — then the yellow leaves also feel dry and crisp rather than soft.
6. Normal ageing. If one or two of the oldest leaves at the very bottom yellow and drop, that isn't a disease.
7. Transit stress — a newly delivered plant yellows a few leaves. That's expected.

How to confirm: check the soil. Wet + soft yellow leaves = overwatering. Dry + crisp yellow leaves = lack of water. Only the lower leaves yellow with healthy new growth above = normal. The whole plant pale with weak new growth = light or nutrients.

What to do: if the soil is wet, stop watering completely until the top 2 inches dry out; tip out any water in the tray; check the drainage hole. If light is the issue, move the plant gradually to a brighter spot (not suddenly into harsh sun). Only assume nutrients when both water and light are fine — and even then, start with a light dose. Yellow leaves won't turn green again; remove them and watch the new growth.

Brown leaf tips and edges

Possible causes:

1. Dry air / low humidity. The commonest in Indian summer, and also on plants kept in front of an AC or cooler.
2. Lack of water, or too long a dry gap. If the plant dries out and recovers each time, the edges scorch.
3. Harsh direct sun that is too much for that plant — especially the April-June midday.
4. Too much fertiliser / salt build-up. Excess fertiliser or hard water leaves salts in the soil, which burn the leaf edges first. A white crust on the soil can be a sign of this.
5. A root problem. If the roots are damaged (rot, or roots bound in the pot), the plant can't get water all the way up, and the edges die first.

How to confirm: only the edges brown with a green middle = humidity or water. A large scorched patch across the leaf = sun. White crust on the soil + brown edges = salt/fertiliser. Brown edges + drooping + wet soil = a root problem.

What to do: make watering regular (not on a schedule — do the finger test daily). Move the plant out of the midday sun in summer. Move it away from the direct blast of an AC or cooler. If you suspect fertiliser, stop feeding and flush the pot thoroughly with clean water — keep pouring until it runs out of the bottom, which washes the salts away. Brown edges won't turn green again — the real question is whether the new growth is coming through clean.

The plant is drooping

Possible causes:

1. The soil has dried out. The commonest and the easiest. The plant stands back up within hours of watering.
2. Root rot (overwatering). This is the dangerous one. Rotted roots can't absorb water, so the plant looks thirsty while the soil is wet.
3. Sudden harsh sun. Many plants droop at midday and recover by evening on their own — that's a normal heat response.
4. Transplant / transit shock. Just repotted, or just delivered.
5. Pot size or bound roots — the plant has outgrown its pot.
6. Cold shock — a plant left outside on a winter night.

How to confirm: touch the soil. Dry — water it; you should see a difference in 2-4 hours. Wet — this is a strong suspicion of root rot, and adding water would do the most harm. Gently lift the plant out of the pot and look at the roots: healthy roots are white or pale and firm; rotted roots are brown-black, soft and smelly.

What to do: dry soil — water slowly until it runs out of the drainage hole. Wet soil — stop watering at once, move the plant to airy shade, and if needed take it out of the pot, cut away the rotted roots and replant in a fresh, well-draining mix. Sun case — move it out of the midday sun. Repot/transit case — do nothing; just shade, correct watering, and time.

Leaves are dropping

Possible causes:

1. A sudden change of place. The commonest. The plant takes time to adjust to a new light level and sheds its older leaves. A newly delivered plant drops leaves for the same reason.
2. A watering extreme — far too much or far too little. Both end in leaf drop.
3. Temperature shock — cold draughts, a sudden cold snap, or the direct blast of an AC or heater.
4. Lack of light — a plant in a dark corner keeps shedding leaves gradually.
5. Pest infestation — before the leaves drop you'll see stickiness, webbing or tiny dots.
6. Season. Some plants naturally drop leaves in winter. That isn't a disease.

How to confirm: has anything changed recently — the spot, the weather, the pot, the watering pattern? Are the falling leaves green (shock/overwatering) or yellow and dry (light, ageing, underwatering)? Turn the leaves over and check for pests too.

What to do: pick one suitable spot and leave the plant there — moving it around daily is the biggest mistake. Fix the watering with the finger test. Move it away from draughts and direct AC air. Then be patient for 2-3 weeks — the real proof of recovery is new growth, not the old leaves coming back.

Pests

Common pests and how to recognise them:

• Mealybug — white cotton-wool-like clusters at the leaf joints and on the stem.
• Aphid — a crowd of small green or black insects on new soft growth and buds, along with a sticky residue.
• Spider mite — fine webbing under the leaves, leaves looking dull and speckled; worst in heat and dry air.
• Scale — small brown, hard, stuck-on bumps on stems and leaves that don't move.
• Whitefly — tiny white flies that take off when you shake the plant.
• Fungus gnat — small black flies over the soil; these are almost always a sign that the soil is being kept permanently wet.

How to confirm: turn the leaves over and check the stem joints — pests hide there and aren't visible from above. If the leaves are sticky, take it that something is sucking sap.

What to do:

1. First job: isolate the affected plant from the others. Otherwise the whole collection gets infected.
2. Light infestation — wipe it off with a damp cloth or wash it off with a jet of water. Often that alone is enough.
3. After that, a neem oil spray or mild soap-water solution — spray in the evening, never in the sun, or the leaves burn. Spraying the undersides of the leaves matters most.
4. Repeat 2-3 times at weekly intervals. One spray doesn't kill the eggs — which is exactly why pests seem to "come back".
5. Cut off and throw away badly damaged leaves and stems (not into the compost).
6. For fungus gnats, don't spray — water less. Let the top of the soil dry and the cycle breaks on its own.

No flowers

Possible causes:

1. Not enough light. By far the commonest cause. Making flowers takes a great deal of energy, and that energy comes only from good sun. A flowering plant kept in shade will give you leaves, not flowers.
2. It isn't its season. Every flowering plant has its own bloom season. Out of season, nothing you do will produce flowers.
3. Too much nitrogen. A nitrogen-heavy fertiliser makes the plant lush and green but gives no flowers — all the effort goes into foliage.
4. The plant is still small / new. Blooming depends on age and size too; a new plant builds its roots and structure first.
5. Pruned at the wrong time. Some plants flower on old wood — cut at the wrong moment and you've cut off that year's flowers.
6. Stress — irregular watering, a pest problem, or a recent repot. A stressed plant stops flowering first, because it's in survival mode.
7. The pot is too small or the roots are bound.

How to confirm: actually count how many hours of direct sun that spot gets — people usually overestimate it. Plant lush and green but no flowers = nitrogen or light. Plant looking weak = fix the basic health first; flowers come later.

What to do: shift the plant to your sunniest spot (gradually, over a few days). Let the bloom season arrive. Stop nitrogen-heavy feeding. Keep removing spent flowers — that brings new ones sooner. And most importantly: don't believe any promise of a timeline. No nursery can honestly say which day a flower will appear.

Growth has stopped

Possible causes:

1. Season. Most plants are dormant in winter — growth stops, and that is entirely normal. Fertilising at this time does harm.
2. Too little light. Light is the whole fuel for growth.
3. Roots bound in the pot (root bound). Roots coming out of the drainage hole, water sitting on top and draining slowly — the plant has no room left to move into.
4. Nutrients exhausted. Months in the same soil, never fed.
5. A watering extreme — permanently wet or permanently dry soil both stop growth.
6. A hidden pest problem — all the plant's energy is going into that.
7. A recent repot or delivery — the plant builds roots first; top growth shows later.

How to confirm: look at the month (is it winter?), peer at the roots through the drainage hole, check under the leaves for pests, and think back over the last 3-4 weeks of watering.

What to do: if it's winter, do nothing — be patient and keep the watering low. If it's root bound, repot in the growing season into a pot only 1-2 inches bigger (a much larger pot means more soil, more moisture, root rot). If it's nutrients, feed lightly during the growing season. And change only one thing at a time — change the light, the pot and the feeding all at once and you'll never know which one worked.

Roots are rotting (root rot)

This is the most serious problem on the list, because by the time it shows above the soil, a good deal of damage is already done.

Possible causes:

1. Too much water — the biggest cause.
2. No drainage hole, or planting directly into a decorative pot.
3. Water standing in the tray with the pot sitting in it.
4. Heavy, sticky soil — filling a pot with garden soil alone. It compacts into stone and the roots get no air.
5. Too large a pot — more soil than needed, staying wet for longer.
6. Monsoon — high humidity, soil drying slowly, and people carrying on with the same old watering routine.

Signs: the plant wilting while the soil is wet; yellow, soft leaves (not crisp); a smell from the soil; the stem soft or mushy where it meets the soil; fungus or white crust on the soil; fungus gnats flying above it.

How to confirm: tilt the pot, support the plant, lift it out and look at the roots. Healthy roots: white or pale, firm. Rotted roots: brown-black, soft, peeling away like a sheath when pulled, and smelly.

What to do:

1. Stop watering immediately.
2. Take the plant out of the pot and remove the old wet soil from the roots.
3. With clean, sharp scissors cut away all the black and soft roots. Keep only firm, healthy ones. Cleaning the scissors between cuts is better.
4. Prune back a similar amount from the top too — fewer roots can't support that many leaves.
5. Replant into a fresh, fast-draining mix in a pot with a drainage hole. Not a bigger pot — go slightly smaller.
6. After repotting water only lightly, keep the plant in shade, and give no fertiliser at all — for several weeks at least.
7. Now be patient. The proof of recovery is new growth, and that takes weeks.

Prevention is easier than cure: always a drainage hole, tip the tray out within 15-20 minutes, and always water after the finger test — not by the calendar. The full method: Watering Guide.

An important disclaimer

This page is general guidance, not a guaranteed diagnosis. A plant problem is almost always a combination of more than one cause — such as low light plus too much water plus heavy soil, all three together. One symptom can point to several different things, and the same plant behaves differently in two different homes: light, airflow, water quality, pot material and your local weather all make a difference.

So: change one thing at a time, and watch the result for 1-2 weeks. Changing everything at once puts more stress on the plant and leaves you with no idea what worked. And yes — some plants don't make it, even when everything is done right. That's part of this too.

If it looks like a serious pest or disease that's spreading, or if you're unsure about any treatment on an edible plant (vegetables, herbs, fruit), the instruction on the product label is what counts — and asking a local nursery or horticulture expert is the safest route.

Need more help?

The full care guide: Plant Care Guide. To ask a question, write in through the Contact page — if you send a photo of the plant (the whole plant plus a close-up of the affected part) we can answer far better.

If a newly delivered plant arrives clearly broken, rotting or dead — that isn't a case for this page. For that, report it within 10 days.