Plant rescue library
One page per indoor-growing symptom, in the same shape every time: symptom, checklist to diagnose, rescue steps, and when to give up. Start with the symptom you can see.
Most plants on this site are outdoor crops (vegetables, herbs, fruits). This library is written for indoor growing: a plant link below a symptom means that plant's own guide already mentions that problem. Where a symptom page lists no plants, it gives general indoor advice only. The plant's own page remains the authority for that plant's outdoor growing.
General beginner information only — not a substitute for advice from your local agricultural extension service. For edible plants, use only a product that is labelled for that particular edible crop, for indoor use, and follow any harvest interval on its label; try non-chemical steps first, and never use a product that is not labelled for indoor use on that plant.
Yellow is a symptom, not a diagnosis. The same yellow leaf can come from wet soil, dry soil, weak light, pests, or simply an old leaf reaching the end of its life, so start by reading the pattern before changing anything.
Brown, crispy tips or edges are one of the easiest symptoms to misread, because dry air, uneven watering, fertilizer salt buildup, damaged roots, and too much direct sun can all end in dead brown tissue.
Spots on leaves have many causes, and the pattern narrows them down: a white powdery coating that rubs off points one way, flat dry patches facing the window point another, and dark spots with yellow halos point somewhere else again.
A plant dropping leaves all at once is usually reacting to a sudden change, not to a slow decline: a move, a cold draught, a sharp change in light, or roots that can no longer supply the leaves.
Wilting means the roots are not delivering enough water to the leaves — but that can mean the soil is dry, or that the roots are damaged and cannot take water up even though the soil is wet. Telling those two apart is the first step of the diagnosis, because watering a plant that wilts in wet soil makes it worse — but it is not the whole story: stem injury and stem-boring pests can also block water even when soil and roots check out.
Root rot is what happens when roots sit in wet, airless mix for too long: fine roots die, then organisms that thrive in wet mix finish the damage. Above the soil it often looks like drought — yellowing, wilting, leaf drop — because the damaged roots can no longer supply the leaves.
Leggy growth — long bare stems, wide gaps between leaves, small pale new leaves — is usually a light problem before it is anything else. A plant stretching toward a window is telling you it is not getting enough light where it stands.
Sunburn shows as bleached, white, or dry brown patches, usually on the side facing the window and often right after a move to brighter light. Leaves grown in shade are not built for sudden strong sun, including strong sun through glass.
Holes, notches, and skeletonised patches on leaves usually mean a chewing pest has been at work — caterpillars, beetles, and similar leaf eaters — rather than a watering or light problem.
A shiny, sticky coating on leaves or nearby surfaces, white cottony tufts in leaf joints, or small clustered insects on stems all point to sap-sucking pests: aphids, mealybugs, and scale insects. They feed on plant sap, weaken growth, and their sticky honeydew can grow sooty mould on top of the damage.
Small dark flies that rise from the potting mix when you water or disturb the pot are usually fungus gnats. The flying adults are mostly a nuisance, but their larvae live in the mix and feed on fungi and fine roots, so a large population can weaken seedlings and stressed plants.
Spider mites are tiny, barely visible pests that feed on leaf undersides in warm, dry indoor air. The signs are fine speckling or bronzing on leaves, a dusty feel under the leaf, and delicate webbing where leaves meet stems.
A white, grey, or green film on the surface of potting mix usually means the surface is staying damp with poor air circulation. On its own it is often harmless to an established plant, but it is a reliable warning that the mix is wetter than it should be — and that is the problem to fix.
A white crust on the soil surface, the pot rim, or the outside of a clay pot means soluble salts have been accumulating in the mix — from fertilizer, from hard water, or from both. As salts build up, roots take up water less easily, and leaf tips and edges are often the first parts to show damage.
Repotting is not a seasonal ritual; it is a response to what the roots and the pot are actually doing. Many plants are perfectly happy slightly pot-bound, and repotting a plant that is stressed, dormant, or struggling with water or light will not fix it — it adds stress.
Pruning answers two different questions that beginners often mix up: removing dead or damaged growth, which you can do any time, and shaping living growth to make a plant bushier, which belongs in active growth.