Calathea temper tantrum management?
My #calatheaillustris was throwing a temper tantrum consisting of multiple yellowing leaves that curled up and died off after quite a few months of happy rapid growth and expansion. The second picture is her back in August, the first pic is her today, about a week out from when I finally decided obviously something was going on that warranted investigation. I cut off all the dead and yellow leaves, then took her out of her pot and found a whole lot of dying roots that had obviously gotten/stayed too wet at some point, and I'm pretty sure that's the culprit of all my leaf death recently. Upon reflection, I am pretty sure my husband watered her once when I was out of town for work and she didn't need it, which then resulted in me accidentally watering her too soon when I got home, and even though I was back on the right routine after that, this girl apparently just is that sensitive 🫣
I gently washed off the roots and removed all the bad ones, which was honestly a depressing amount. Like, we went from a 7 inch pot to a 4 inch one due to the amount of root loss. Sterilized things with some hydrogen peroxide, put her into fresh soil with some myco, all my normal repot stuff, and she is throwing the biggest fit of curled leaves ever since. I expected a tantrum because I messed with her roots so much (even if it was necessary), and I am prepared to lose some more leaves as there were a couple that were looking a bit sickly but had not actually started yellowing yet. I guess I'm just hoping for some encouragement/cheerleading that she's gonna be okay eventually with good light and proper care? 😳 I saved this one from a slow death in a grocery store earlier this year and she was doing so ridiculously well, putting out loads of new leaves and even new growth points at the soil level, and now we're back to even worse-looking than she was when I got her 😭 #calatheacrew #unhappyplants #dramaticplants #rootrot #needyplants #texasgreggang #northtexasgreggang
I gently washed off the roots and removed all the bad ones, which was honestly a depressing amount. Like, we went from a 7 inch pot to a 4 inch one due to the amount of root loss. Sterilized things with some hydrogen peroxide, put her into fresh soil with some myco, all my normal repot stuff, and she is throwing the biggest fit of curled leaves ever since. I expected a tantrum because I messed with her roots so much (even if it was necessary), and I am prepared to lose some more leaves as there were a couple that were looking a bit sickly but had not actually started yellowing yet. I guess I'm just hoping for some encouragement/cheerleading that she's gonna be okay eventually with good light and proper care? 😳 I saved this one from a slow death in a grocery store earlier this year and she was doing so ridiculously well, putting out loads of new leaves and even new growth points at the soil level, and now we're back to even worse-looking than she was when I got her 😭 #calatheacrew #unhappyplants #dramaticplants #rootrot #needyplants #texasgreggang #northtexasgreggang
1ft to light, indirect
5” pot with drainage
Last watered 6 months ago
11
Oh geez, that’s too bad. They do throw a fit! I’ve found I get rapid growth from the calatheas during the late summer months. Then during winter, it kind of starts to look pretty sad. I try not to mess with them too much due to their potential temper tantrums 😝. My experience is the winter months are tough on them due to the drier air either because it’s winter or because the heater’s on. I put a humidifier close by or a bowl of water, lol it’s own personal pond. I don’t mist -it seems to make matters worse. I recently cut off some leggy yellowing growth from my Maranta that was doing beautifully for two years. She’s responded with more yellowing leaves lol! However I do see new growth coming in, with no brown tips, nice and green and healthy so, do hang in there. It looks pretty tough right now for you with the leaf curling and such. My rattlesnake Calathea curled up, lots of sad looking leaves. I trimmed him back and put him outside to see what happened (basically was tired of dealing with him) and after about a month 2 new shoots sprouted up👍. Stay the course and see what happens. Sometimes we have to stop trying so hard to help them thrive. Let Mother Nature take its course. Good luck to her! Keep us posted 👍🪴
@RealSimpleMama if she actually bites the bullet, I am 100% getting him to replace her, haha. She's one of my favorite plants actually, so I'm desperately hoping she bounces back 🤞🤞
They’re weird. They love humidity and don’t need watering but once every week and a half. They constantly throw fits.
@AnthuriumQueen mine hilariously have been completely tolerant of somewhat variable but definitely low by calathea standards humidity so long as I maintain pretty consistent moisture levels in their soil. If they get too dried out by their arbitrary standards, they drop leaves pretty quick, esp my rattlesnake calathea, but they've not fussed at me hardly ever for the ambient humidity being sub-40% pretty much always in both rooms where I keep mine. We're planning to add a whole-house humidifier in the name of my asthma and my plants in the new year so I'll be curious to see if it benefits any of the tropicals particularly 🤷♀️
Oh I feel your pain! 🙈 I have struggeled with some of mine too, that turned out to have rootrot when I bought them (private seller). One of them lost almost all of its roots😥 Still waiting for it to recover fully. But I made the leaves survive by giving it its own transparent bucket to live in 😆 As the roots didn't work, the leaves got their humidity from the air (which were around 80% in the bucket). And then it has managed to grow new roots after a while. But I did struggle a bit with mold due to the high humidity🙈
I needed to reduce the humidity slowly, as the leaves would curl up pretty fast if I took it out of the bucket 😅 Now it is standing with my other calatheas in my indoor mini-greenhouse with 60% humidity
I needed to reduce the humidity slowly, as the leaves would curl up pretty fast if I took it out of the bucket 😅 Now it is standing with my other calatheas in my indoor mini-greenhouse with 60% humidity
@MockingJay she has dropped the two leaves I knew she would based on how they looked immediately before and after repotting, but some of the others maybe looked a little less pissed off this morning? Lol. I'm going to get my office put back together from having been Christmas wrapping central tonight after work and then I may set up my humidifier in there after all and move her back up there