Got this plant in March and it had a rough start as my mom picked it up and didn’t water it for a while until I could come get it from her. Within the last month or so each leaf one by one has been curling up like this and immediately shriveling up within literally 1-2 days. Everything has been happening so quickly and it’s just rapidly dying 🙁 I initially was under watering it for sure but then I repotted it into tropical soil (the miracle gro brand one though🫣) so maybe it’s keeping in too much moisture now? That soil has been taking forever to feel even slightly drier but can that really cause all my leaves to curl and shrivel up like this? I also thought it might have spider mites as there were very tiny white specks underneath but I couldn’t see any webs or spiders so maybe just mildew or buildup? Wiped that off of my last remaining leaf like two days ago and now my leaf looks like this. Can she even be saved at this point? Please any suggestions or help would be so greatly appreciated!!! Thank you!!
by Riana211
5 Comments
With these specifically, it’s almost always a humidity issues. They need high consistent humidity.
I had mine in high 50s humidity and she kept crisping, watering was great. She’s in hospice lol
When is the last time she was repotted?
Is there a planting pot in your decorative pot? Any drainage?
Does the pot have drainage holes? Because it looks like it doesn’t, and that’s a major no-no for calatheas.
And I would agree that those were spider mites. Calatheas have very thin leaves, and once they’ve been sucked, they cannot be unsucked.
Not much you can so to save it at this point except a hail mary: leave it outside and alone. Be less careful about sunburn, you need all the photosynthesis you can get. If you’re lucky, it will sprout new leaves. This is exactly what happened to my Makoyana just recently: three weeks ago I caught some minor spider mites infestation early and cleaned it up, in the next 2-3 days the leaves became paper dry, like 70% of each leave. And today I’ve finally pruned the old damaged leaves because I now have 4 new leaves unfurled and 5 on the way after the hail mary I described.
I already said this in the comments of a similar post, buuuuuut: I put a plastic bag over my very dry, crispy ornata and wouldn’t you know it… the little sucker grew right back. As happy and healthy as it’s ever been. These plants need high air humidity that our Appartement cannot provide. Sooo plastic bag it is!