Help! I have problems with my telegraph plant.

My telegraph plant isn't doing so well. It's leaves are yellowed (veins still green) and the leaf edges are browned. New growth starts out normal and then turns out the same as the rest of the leaves. I took it out of bright light and into filtered bright light. I also tried not fertilizing it for a month. I always keep the soil moist and nothing seems to work, can someone help me?

I'll start by saying that I don't grow this plant and don't really know anything about it specifically, so what I'm saying is general things that can happen to many different sorts of plants, but maybe there's something special that this one needs that I wouldn't know about. Often yellow leaves with green veins is a sign of chlorosis, which means the plant doesn't have enough iron (chlorosis won't cause browning leaf edges though). Sometimes fertilizing it will help, but you should also check your the pH of your soil because if the pH is too high then the plant can't absorb iron even if there's enough of it in the soil.

The browing edges could be a number of different things. It could be fertilizer burn if you had been fertilizing it too much before you stopped fert. for a month, or it could be salt buildup in the soil. I don't know anything about this plant, but that's something that can happen to some houseplants especially if you have hard water. Or it could be lack of humidity, many houseplants will get brown edges on the leaves if the humidity indoors is too low. Misting the leaves can help if that's the case. Could also have been too much light, if it's a plant that doesn't need a lot of light and you had it in a window where it was getting a bunch of direct sun that could cause it too.

If the yellowing is caused by chlorosis, if you can fix your pH or give it some iron-containing fertilizer you should notice the problem gradually clear up. The brown leaf edges won't recover though even if you fix the conditions that caused it, so what you need to do is pay attention to whether more leaves are starting to go brown, if you continue to get more leaves doing that then you haven't fixed the problem yet, but if new leaves stay green and don't go brown at the edges then you've fixed it.

Great advice from ecrane3....
I've never grown the plant either, though I have read about it and purchased some seeds that I misplaced! aargh!

I'd guess that it's the soil you're growing it in or the water you're using, as ecrane stated.

If a plant prefers acidic soil and the water you're using is hard/limey....your plant will respond with the symptoms you describe.

I don't doubt, either, that this plant, being herbaceous, is, indeed affected by low humidity levels/air circulation issues indoors.

I have a book at home that has a page devoted to this plant. I'll check it out when I get home tonight and see if it describes any of the symptoms you list.

Thanks so much I really appreciate it!. If you could look at your book and get back to me, that'd be great!

Sorry I didn't see this earlier....I don't get online at night or on weekends.

I'll check on that tonight.

I had no idea what a Telegraph plant was ... have never heard of it. I found it in plant files: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/72462/ Says it needs consistently moist soil. But, there's not a lot of info about it. Does it flower?

Just googled it ... this says it has tiny purple flowers ... sure would like to see one in bloom. Interesting plant!

http://www.banana-tree.com/Product_Detail~category~21~Product_ID~447.cfm

Got it...finally!
Ok, first off, to give credit where credit is due, this is from the binder series of books called "Success With House Plants".

They stress again and again that this plant needs plenty of sunlight and thrives when kept rather dry. It also states that "too much water is this plant's most common plague. If the roots are attacked by rot the plant can die. Water sparingly but remember to mist the plant often. Do this early in the day so the leaves have time to dry before nightfall."

It also states "Brown leaf tips are typically caused by low humidity or cold conditions. Remember that this is a tropical plant that needs warm temeperatures and HIGH HUMIDITY."

It states that if growth halts, you should repot and if growth stops in summer it needs more food, and to fertilize once ever 1-2 weeks.

So, IMHO, it seems that you may be overwatering, and it needs more humidity, as ecrane3 stated above.
From the multiple references to 'plenty of sunlight', I also think you should move it back into higher light.

Hope this helps! If you want any more info from this page send me a d-mail.