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jake_mccann13

Calathea leaves dying with brown spots

9 years ago

I have a Calathea Warscewiczii that does not seem happy.
It does not see any direct light and it seems to be growing quite well. It has grown at least 5 new leaves in ~ 6 weeks.
Some of the older leaves seems to be developing brown spots on the inside of the leaf. They get worse until the leaf dies completely.




Any ideas what this could be?

Comments (8)

  • 9 years ago

    You haven't gotten any responses here, and I am not familiar with your plant. That said.....the main issues are usually light, soil and water.

    Is it getting enough light? Looks to be in a bathroom which would be good for humidity, but if it's on the interior of the room, it might be wanting more light, but indirect of course.

    Could you be overwatering? Is the soil soggy? How about drainage? The pot looks to have a hole on the side, is that right? Maybe it needs better drainage in a standard pot with holes in the bottom.

    Also the soil. Is it standard potting soil for houseplants? How long since a repot?

    jake mccann thanked socks
  • 9 years ago

    Thanks for taking the time to respond.

    Soil is a 50/50 mix of peat moss and standard potting soil, re-potted about 6 weeks ago.

    The pot is a "self-watering" pot with a cavity in the bottom, but it seemed to keep the soil too wet so I now make sure to tip excess water out when watering. All the leaves looked quite saggy before doing this, so I don't think it's being overwatered any more.

    I've been getting a few brown edges which I think are due to low-humidity, but they don't seem to effect the plant too much.
    The main issue is the older leaves underneath seems to develop a lot of small brown spots and eventually die. All of the younger growth seems healthy. I wonder if it could be disease?

    There isn't a huge amount of light where it is, so I will try a location with more light and see if that helps.

    Cheers!

  • 9 years ago

    Do you have another pot you could use? Maybe between the extra peat and self-watering pot, it's just too wet in the roots. As I said, I'm not an expert, but if you repot, I'd skip the peat and use a regular pot with holes in the bottom. Don't use a pot too big. Maybe someone who grows these can chime in; I may be wrong, but it's what I would do.

  • 9 years ago

    Your mix is much too heavy. 50/50 potting mix and peat means the soil will hold much too much moisture, and compact too, over time. Use instead half peat and half perlite, or another option is 1/3 small orchid bark, 1/3 peat and 1/3 perlite. A big majority of house plants do very well with this mix for me. Low humidity is certainly a problem. I can see that by looking at the plant. I have the same problem. I can't even grow Calathea because of that. Did you check the roots when you repotted it? Were they healthy?

    jake mccann thanked Randi Holbrook
  • 9 years ago

    The roots looked quite healthy when I checked a few weeks ago.

    Since I've had so much new growth, I think it must be getting enough light and the soil is more likely the problem. I'll add some perlite and cross my fingers!

    I bought the Calathea on a whim without knowing how sensitive to humidity they were. I'm in Adelaide, Australia - so hot dry summers and cool wet winters like LA. I'm hoping it looks a bit healthier as it gets more humid in winter. :)

  • 5 years ago

    Late comment: look like pests is my first thought but the soil not being right will bering its own issues later

  • 5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    Usually with so many replies someone will be well wide of the mark with advice, but all here have offered good direction.

    There's little question about the grow medium holding too much water, and perlite isn't going to fix it unless there is so much perlite in the mix there is not enough fine material to fill all the spaces between perlite particles. In fact, as you add perlite, o/a aeration decreases until you reach the threshold ratio of coarse material to fine material (this is when the volume of fine soil particles is exactly enough to fill all air spaces between the coarse particles) which is actually the most difficult medium to grow in. Of the images A-G below, D is the most difficult to grow in (just enough fine material to fill all spaces between the large particles, and G is easiest to grow in as long as the particles are not too large. 1/10 to 3/16" would be about perfect. If you can't see the screenshot clearly, Find it Here.

    Click on screen shot to enlarge.


    Al

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