Calathea Care - All For Gardening

Looking for some clarification on care please. Most sites I'm reading say Calathea's all go dormant even indoors. However, I'm in the Midwest and it has been cold/cloudy for the last month and mine are still pushing out new leaves.

Can I repot them now or will I ruin all the new growth? I know they can be finicky, and I don't want to do anything that will affect them negatively. Problem is they both have roots growing out the bottom. Which is worse? Repotting now or waiting it out until they hopefully go dormant? Assuming they will at some point?

I thought I had more time based on the inside of the planter. Do these plants grow dense and will never fill a pot before roots outgrow it?

Both currently have at least 3 or 4 new leaves waiting to unfurl. My other hesitation, is I've only had them seven months and this would be my 2nd repot. I've always read they only need to be repotted every year or two. Do I have them in the wrong style pots?

The Dottie is in a 6in nursery pot and has some spidermites I believe. Ideally I'd like to hose her down and wipe all the leaves so she can be repotted in fresh soil. Would this be more stressful with a repot and mites? Currently she still prays at night and is growing which makes me believe the infestation is not that bad. I was planning to use the Rattlesnake planter.

The Rattlesnake is in a 7in planter. Can I buy a 10in planter and use nursery pots to save money? For example go up to an 8in nursery and keep repotting in one size up until he gets big enough to go directly into a 10in? I'm assuming 7 to 10 would be too stressful/spacious and do more harm in the long run.

Tips would be greatly appreciated! Pictures to show inside of pot and how much they over hang.

by JrPlantApprentice

Reyori 1 week ago

If your indoor temperature is stable (still mostly 20°C+) during winter I personally don’t think it makes much of a difference when you repot. They might struggle a bit more after a repot if your humidity is a lot lower in winter tho. Yes, they receive lower light and might grow slower, but mine that grew in the same warm conditions and mostly same humidity due to room humidifiers (initially bought for us humans) in winter in lower natural light never really entered a dormancy and kept pushing out new leaves all year. If you use growlights and your temperature stays warm they don’t change any growth habits at all.

IMO the density depends on the amount of light they receive. It might be hard to grow them as dense as they are now without any growlights.

You need to treat the pests immediately or they will spread, multiply and kill your calathea and possibly even future new growth! I use and recommend predatory mites. Wipe or hose down your plant first to kill off most of the pests, then deploy the correct predatory mites for your mites on all plants that might be infected too – I normally do 3 generations, which means they get active predatory mites from slow release bags foe 3-4 weeks 3 times. (Each bag lasts 3-4 weeks). At that point there should be not a single pest generation remaining. If you have multiple plants or really big plants, multiple bags might be necessary.

You can repot into bigger pots, but you need to give the soil more time to dry out “deeper down”, especially initially, until the foliage grows enough so the plant can excrete excess water by itself good enough so it doesn’t get root suffocation and the soil also dries out at a good pace again. In a pot with more “unused space” and smaller foliage, the bottom part of the soil takes a long time to dry out enough for the roots to take the breather they need. So if you water it when the top few inches/cm are dry like before, the bottom roots will be constantly too wet and suffocate/drown. The plant might look like drying up then, leaves might curl and whole leaves and stems might dry up – due to overwatering/suffocation stress. Because it might be a bit less direct than “true overwatering”, the normal yellowing and dried brown spots might not appear visibly. So using a pot much bigger than the plant is possible, but it means you truly have to check your watering habits (not too much).

Never let them sit in water (wet feets). I usually bottom water for 20-30min. I’d not let my plant sit in bottom water for more than 2h ever, if I can.
I’d repot not, give them more space.

1 Comment

Reyori 1 week ago

If your indoor temperature is stable (still mostly 20°C+) during winter I personally don’t think it makes much of a difference when you repot. They might struggle a bit more after a repot if your humidity is a lot lower in winter tho. Yes, they receive lower light and might grow slower, but mine that grew in the same warm conditions and mostly same humidity due to room humidifiers (initially bought for us humans) in winter in lower natural light never really entered a dormancy and kept pushing out new leaves all year. If you use growlights and your temperature stays warm they don’t change any growth habits at all.

IMO the density depends on the amount of light they receive. It might be hard to grow them as dense as they are now without any growlights.

You need to treat the pests immediately or they will spread, multiply and kill your calathea and possibly even future new growth! I use and recommend predatory mites. Wipe or hose down your plant first to kill off most of the pests, then deploy the correct predatory mites for your mites on all plants that might be infected too – I normally do 3 generations, which means they get active predatory mites from slow release bags foe 3-4 weeks 3 times. (Each bag lasts 3-4 weeks). At that point there should be not a single pest generation remaining. If you have multiple plants or really big plants, multiple bags might be necessary.

You can repot into bigger pots, but you need to give the soil more time to dry out “deeper down”, especially initially, until the foliage grows enough so the plant can excrete excess water by itself good enough so it doesn’t get root suffocation and the soil also dries out at a good pace again. In a pot with more “unused space” and smaller foliage, the bottom part of the soil takes a long time to dry out enough for the roots to take the breather they need. So if you water it when the top few inches/cm are dry like before, the bottom roots will be constantly too wet and suffocate/drown. The plant might look like drying up then, leaves might curl and whole leaves and stems might dry up – due to overwatering/suffocation stress. Because it might be a bit less direct than “true overwatering”, the normal yellowing and dried brown spots might not appear visibly. So using a pot much bigger than the plant is possible, but it means you truly have to check your watering habits (not too much).

Never let them sit in water (wet feets). I usually bottom water for 20-30min. I’d not let my plant sit in bottom water for more than 2h ever, if I can.
I’d repot not, give them more space.