You don't have to chop it all off by any means. That was just my personal opinion 'cause I'm lazy, which is why I don't buy almost dead plants either. But if you do decide to cut, leave about 4 or so inches of stem from the soil surface. It'll backbud making each stem branch 2-4 branches. It wouldn't take that long to grow back (and it would) and it would be fuller and brighter. And those leaves that you cut really short, if they are adult leaves, chances are good that they'll be short for ever more. Now, if the plant seems pretty happy right now, you can just leave it as is, and keep a close eye on it. For all I know it could bounce right back. Some plants can have a crazy will to live. Whichever you choose, I wish you the best of luck with this plant. Perhaps your thumb is greener than anyone knows.

Hi & welcome to GardenWeb! Does that pot have a drain hole? I'm a huge fan of repurposing whatever is suitable for a container, but it does need to have at least one hole in the bottom so excess water can escape. Is that moss growing at the bottom, on the soil surface? Also wanted to say it looks like being in too-little light for a long time may have contributed to its' decline in health, along with root/drainage issues. Tap water chemicals, especially if they can buildup in the soil, can make Dracaena unhealthy as well. This post was edited by purpleinopp on Fri, Jul 5, 13 at 9:38

Don't bother misting it. You can't most enough to compensate for 16% humidity, and you might actually be increasing water loss in the same way our hands dry out badly in the winter if we do anything with water - evaporating water molecules On the surface adhere to water molecules in the tissues and draw them out. Im pretty sure it also happens in plants. I have only my tiny phone screen to view this, but am I seeing some leaves that are brown at the base, or brown in the middle rather than just at the ends? Are the leaves turning yellow before they turn brown? It doesn't look like it to me. I also don't see any wilting, and the dying leaves aren't mostly at the bottom. If I'm seeing it correctly, there are areas of dead/dry/brown tissue all over the plant, but there are no yellow leaves and the plant isn't wilting. To me, that makes a watering issue unlikely, too much water will turn leaves yellow and/or cause wilting. Too little water will cause wilting before leaves turn brown. I know of only two or three things that cause tissue to die right in the center of long leaves while leaving the bases and ends of the leaves green (temporarily, anyway): freezing or sunburn, sometimes heat can do it. Are you certain there isn't any direct sun on it? The sun is low this time of year so the sun's rays reach farther into windows than when it's higher. Direct southern sun is currently coming over 20 feet into my apartment. In the summer it's only about 2 feet. Are you home often enough to know for sure it hasn't gotten scorched? Are you sure it's out of the way of any heat source? Going completely dry twice in two weeks seems strange to me, but if you're humidity is only 16%, maybe that's not so odd (70% in my cool apartment in the gloomy Pacific NW). Don't let it go completely dry. I hear people refer to completely dry often, and I'm not sure they really mean completely dry. If it is completely dry, then root hairs and whole root systems will die and the plant won't be able take up water when it is watered, and then it will rot, if you poke a pencil all the way to the bottom of the pot, there should be some evidence of moisture when you bring it back up - even just a cool sensation when you touch the pencil to your upper lip, but preferably a wee bit more than that. If you really have been letting it go bone dry, as another poster stated, hydrophobic growing media will be a problem, and those spots might be killing sections of root. Soak the whole pot in a bucket of 70-90 degree water for about 15 minutes or until the pot sinks and it no longer bubbles, then resume watering Normally but don't let it dry out so much between waterings. You haven't fertilized it or anything, have you? Fertilizer burn will quickly cause brown tips in plants with no wilt or yellowing. Don't fertilize until it's actively growing in spring. Last question: it wasn't near heat in the nursery or store, was it? A couple months ago my local Walmart had the overhead heating system on full blast in the semi-outdoor garden center...and they had dozens of plants just a couple of feet from red-hot heating elements. I couldn't hold my hand above the plants for over a few seconds without becoming uncomfortable. Of course, all those plants formed large dead areas within a few days, but I'm certain many unwary people brought them home first and couldn't figure out why their plants were drying suddenly just days after purchase.

A couple of things that might help you to understand what might have happened. Plants often don't show signs right away when something goes wrong; often, especially in plants like the marginata, you don't see a sign (except MAYBE a few yellow leaves) that the roots are rotting until the whole plant is basically dead. And feeling the soil on the surface doesn't really help - you have to check the soil moisture down near the bottom of the pot. That's where all the roots are. Even if the soil is all dry now, if it was wet for a month or so at an earlier time, the rot could get started. Once it gets started, it's almost impossible to stop. However, I'm like about 99.99% sure the heat had nothing to do with it. Heat and humidity just aren't the factors that many people think. After all, the things are native to the tropics, and their adaptability is what has made them so significant as indoor plants. The only thing that can really kill them is wet roots.