Schefflera arboricola, leaf tips turn brown

Question

I was given a plant and not told what it was. Here's the plant : After some research, I figured it was a schefflera arboricola. Now, I'm trying to propagate it. Here's the progress so far : As we can see on the last picture, the larger leaves fell off leaving behind the new ones. The tips of some new leaves are turning brown and I would like to know why this is happening.

Answer 1

Ideally, your cuttings should have had a longer stem - it's usual to cut off about 8 or 9 inches of stem from the top of the plant, strip off the lower leaves leaving only one or two at the top, then immerse the lower part of the main stem in water for it to form roots. When it does and it is transferred to soil in a pot, the foliage is well above soil level, but in this case, the stem is so short the tips of the leaves are actually touching the soil. That may account for the brown tips, but the soil in the pot looks a bit dry, though it's hard to be sure from a photo. If the soil is dry, give it enough water to get it all moist all through and make sure you tip away any excess collected in the tray beneath. The tips of the leaflets on the right leaf look as if they might actually be buried in the soil - if so, gently lift them out. Hopefully, the cutting will produce another leaf or two and these won't have the same problem with being too close to the soil.