after one more painful week since my previous post, in which my plant seemed acclimated and started praying, but new leaves always died, I looked into the root situation and decided to repot it since it looked really root bound. While shock was expected, 2 small leaves gave up in the first 3 days, one of the majors is on deaths door drooping down to below the roots and being almost completely rolled up. The rest has been hanging and stopped praying with slight curling.
The one mistake I feel like I made is repotting from 12cm to 19cm (around 2-3 inch), which I thought would be fine but might be a problem. I bottom watered it directly after the repot and kept on misting her twice a day like before.
I'm almost certain that I'm just panicking, but I feel like I gave the plant too little time after acclimatisation to recover. Is there anything I can do to help her out?
by WeebsenInari
12 Comments
Repotting during the winter I was told is a no no. Maybe rinse the roots off with water to remove soil and stick the roots/plant in a jar/bowl/vase of water to heal until spring
*not a professional in these plants, has worked for two of my plants though.
You substantially damaged the root system when you tried to remove all of that potting mix. This is the result. I’d recommend keeping under medium to bright light, letting it dry if it is soaked, and it should eventually bounce back. But don’t be surprised if you have further leaf loss.
Misting is not necessary and can encourage fungal and bacterial infections if there is not adequate air circulation.
Mine did the same thing, good watering 3 days after repoting helped
Doesn’t help now but for the future, I would not try and remove all previous soil when repotting unless there was a good reason to. If it’s just root bound I loosen it a tiny bit and then stick the whole lot in the new pot to avoid disturbing the root system too much.
Don’t give up just yet though – the plant may be stressed, but they can be surprisingly resilient. Leave it alone to recover would be my advice, and make sure it doesn’t dry out too much and get further stressed (to be clear though don’t keep it wet, there’s a fine balance!).
Good luck
Edit: I think most of the evidence says not to mist – it increases the risk of problems like fungal growth.
I went through the same thing with my medallion plant. Almost the same size+amount of soil I removed from the roots after seeing it wasn’t growing/was browning from being rootbound. They seem super sensitive to any sort of disturbance/damage to their root system so that sent it into serious shock and led to some dying leaves. It’s just a calathea thing – I removed 50% of my monstera’s roots when I separated 4 plants and they dropped maybe 2 leaves and have taken over their respective new pots.
Mine was in transplant shock for around a month. Definitely try to keep it in the same spot/light/don’t overwater and be patient. I tossed mine outside because I was sick of seeing its sad leaves! But after a lot of chopping dying leaves and letting it come back inside it’s finally recovering and praying (don’t do what I did, I got mad at my plant 😂).
i killed multiple smaller calatheas trying to remove all soil to turn them into hydroponic plants. they just didnt survive the change. unsure why. yesterday i planted one in partial LECA and partial soil.
If you repot it in soil again, i dont think you have to remove the soil that thoroughly. i never did when i had in soil plants and never had an issue
I had the same situation with mini calatheas I bought and needed to repot immediately because roots were growing out the bottom. They were dying slowly and in 1-3 months they are okay and started to grow new leaves. They are drama queens.
Just be consistent with watering and light and she should be happy again 🫂
To solve the humidity issue, use a tray underneath filled with pebbles and water. Just make sure the pot isn’t sitting in the water as it will cause root rot. Alternatively you could get a small humidifier if this is your only plant.
…on second thought…may as well go with a larger humidifier because your collection will very likely grow 🙃
I have this exact calathea and it’s stunted right now…. Wondering if I should repot too. I’m scared tho 😆
When up-pot calatheas I leave the roots more or less untouched and just put them in a bigger pot and fill in, I don’t mess with the roots at all unless there’s a rot issue.
I might gently loosen them or trim lightly from the outside if they were circling but otherwise I take my original pot, stick it in my new pot, fill with dirt, take pot out, take plant out of pot, put plant in pot sized hole.
I’m not sure how often you repot, but mycorrhizal fungi is amazing for assisting with repotting stress. I’d recommend something like Bigfoot gold so you get a full microbiome with just a sprinkle of a pinch of the powder.
If any help, I did this something to mine and I thought it was over, Well almost 8 weeks later it has turned the corner and is now thriving in a new pot. I have it outside under a shade palm tree and it seems to love it there. Good things come to those who are calm under duress.