I am new to Calatheas myself so I hope others will chime in as well. It looks like possibly a lack of humidity from what I have seen. Following to see what others say as well.
london_magnolia
We need more info to be able to help 🙂 How are you watering it and how often? How much light does it get? What type of soil? When did it start showing these signs of distress?
Reyori
How long do you have this plant already?
It’s hard to see what’s on the leaves exactly. Maybe give it a wash with distilled water or wipe all the leaves and stems to clean them up. Some of the pictures have some dots (especially on the purple underside of the leaves) that seem suspicious. Some general things you can do:
Check the leaves (top, underside and middle of the underside) and stems for pests, tiny white, orange-brown or black dots. If you’re unsure, you can clean the plant first and if there are pests they will return quite fast and without all the dust on the leaves they will be easier to see and identify – so you can start treatment.
You don’t use tapwater or mineral water? Use rainwater, distilled water or aquarium-anti-stress-conditioner treated tapwater.
You should clean the leaves of all your plants every few weeks/once a month to help them photosynthesize and breathe efficiently. Dust them off with a dry dustcloth, shower-spray with distilled water or wipe them with a wet cloth. Just remove the dust/grime layer that covers them and ckogs their pores. If you use tapwater or hard water you have to dry the leaves well or they can develop mineral stains. Distilled water is fine to soak and then air-dry, it will fully evaporate and leaves no stains.
Just don’t wet the leaves and let them air-dry too often (like several times a week). Doing it too often would be like hand misting: Don’t do it! Calatheas are fine with lower humidity but they like it stable. Air-drying after spraying or hand misting creates moisture spikes from maybe ~60% air humidity to 100% humidity and back to 60% air humidity in about 30min. They don’t like those extreme spikes and it can make your leave tips dry out faster. In nature the soil and other forst plants stay wet for a long time and give shade, so the humidity is much more stable and the water after rain (what you recreate with misting) dries out much, much slower than in our dry homes where walls, furniture and floors suck in moisture. Calatheas just want stability, the same with temperature and watering, no extreme spikes or drops.
4 Comments
edit: i’m rlly worried abt my plant ):
I am new to Calatheas myself so I hope others will chime in as well. It looks like possibly a lack of humidity from what I have seen. Following to see what others say as well.
We need more info to be able to help 🙂 How are you watering it and how often? How much light does it get? What type of soil? When did it start showing these signs of distress?
How long do you have this plant already?
It’s hard to see what’s on the leaves exactly. Maybe give it a wash with distilled water or wipe all the leaves and stems to clean them up. Some of the pictures have some dots (especially on the purple underside of the leaves) that seem suspicious. Some general things you can do:
Check the leaves (top, underside and middle of the underside) and stems for pests, tiny white, orange-brown or black dots. If you’re unsure, you can clean the plant first and if there are pests they will return quite fast and without all the dust on the leaves they will be easier to see and identify – so you can start treatment.
You don’t use tapwater or mineral water? Use rainwater, distilled water or aquarium-anti-stress-conditioner treated tapwater.
You should clean the leaves of all your plants every few weeks/once a month to help them photosynthesize and breathe efficiently. Dust them off with a dry dustcloth, shower-spray with distilled water or wipe them with a wet cloth. Just remove the dust/grime layer that covers them and ckogs their pores. If you use tapwater or hard water you have to dry the leaves well or they can develop mineral stains. Distilled water is fine to soak and then air-dry, it will fully evaporate and leaves no stains.
Just don’t wet the leaves and let them air-dry too often (like several times a week). Doing it too often would be like hand misting: Don’t do it! Calatheas are fine with lower humidity but they like it stable. Air-drying after spraying or hand misting creates moisture spikes from maybe ~60% air humidity to 100% humidity and back to 60% air humidity in about 30min. They don’t like those extreme spikes and it can make your leave tips dry out faster. In nature the soil and other forst plants stay wet for a long time and give shade, so the humidity is much more stable and the water after rain (what you recreate with misting) dries out much, much slower than in our dry homes where walls, furniture and floors suck in moisture. Calatheas just want stability, the same with temperature and watering, no extreme spikes or drops.