i've had this plant for three years and it was beautiful, but in June I had a major surgery out of state and gave the plant to a sitter for three weeks. I saw a picture of the location but the sitter was inexperienced with plants so idk what was REALLY happening, I did say water every ~10 days but idk if that happened. After that, i took it home for a week, then I moved houses. (Calathea was in 4 locations in the span of 5 weeks, plus a 12 hour car ride.) I had a lot of post-surgery brain fog so I don't really remember much from the first 10 weeks after surgery, but when I started to be healthy again in september, the plant looked like this.
There's so many variables here IDK what's been keeping it down i've tried watering it regularly, letting it dry out, giving it brighter indirect light, and even repotting up 1" when i saw the roots were pretty bound. (Only thing I didn't check for was root rot – should I?) Nothing has helped. I'd love to get it healthy again, any advice is welcome.
(Location in pic is NOT where it's being kept normally)
by Thyetomite
2 Comments
I can’t edit the post for some reason so I’ll add: The plant has improved slightly since September, every single leaf used to be rolled up and completely drooped down. I even have a new leaf. But the plant hasn’t recovered more than that and shows no signs of improving. before this, it never had any issues with humidity or needed a pebble tray. It may have been a little starved for light at my old house based on the leaves but i’d love confirmation. soil is 75% dirt 25% perlite
It looks very dehydrated. That could either be because of dry, hydrophobic soil or root rot. Does that pot have drainage holes? If I were you, I would remove the plant, inspect the roots, remove as much of that soil as possible and any withered/rotted roots and pot into new, well draining soil in a pot with drainage then chop most of the leaves off and start again.