I dont know what to do. my calathea velvet is fine but does get crisp edges from time to time. but not like this calathea here. is it even more sensitive to the water or did I under or overwater it? I a stillworin on drainage pots. I have a humidifer and they are in a half shade half sun spot
by BasilUnderworld
3 Comments
sorry for the bad photos im shaky today and my phone is 2019 samsung quality lol
Crisping edges can be a sign of hard water, but that happens overtime not with one watering. You can buy water conditioners to remove the impurities or collect rain water. I use API+ stress coat, and keep a 3gal
Container with treated water and diluted liquid fertilizer.
I would make sure the plant only gets morning, direct sunlight, and then the rest of the day it be indirect. Mine is in an east facing window.
Drainage is important. these plants are hardier and can almost dry out and be forgiving between waterings . I wait til mine has top 2in dry before watering.
Oh, and those crispy string stems those are just the flowers drying out. The flowers don’t last more than a day or two. Just trim em
1st pic looks like too much light. 2nd pic is possibly a fungal or bacterial issue – dark spots with yellow halo. 3rd pic dried up flower, 4th pic tougher to see but could be low humidity, or just older leaves, or hard water issue. Important first though as already posted, is Calathea needs drainage and can’t thrive in overly watered soil. They also don’t like direct sunlight. Bright light but not direct.
To address potential bacterial or fungal infection I’d cut off any leaves that have dark spots with halos. Search leaf spot in plants for reference – there are tons of pics (and advice). Then let it recover from that. They’re highly dramatic plants so I only do one stressor at a time lol. Make sure she’s not in direct sun and only water if the soil feels dry on top couple of inches. Make sure she’s got plenty of air circulation. Air flowing around the leaves helps keep the conditions for mold/fungus/bacteria growth undesirable. Don’t mist her. You want humidity to be good around her but not on her. If the spots show up on other leaves or new leaves it would then be time to treat with a fungicide or bactericidal treatment. I’ve no experience using them so no recommendation here. I’ve seen a lot of people use copper fungicide. Not sure of use on Calathea. Good Reddit question. Always test a little area too before dousing the entire plant to be sure it doesn’t react badly to the product. People love neem oil for so many things so I used it on Calathea orbifolia and it was not happy. The plant never looked the same and eventually stopped growing. Sad.