Calathea - home care

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

Calathea is a beautiful plant and taking care of it at home requires certain knowledge. This is a representative of the arrowroot family related to indoor ornamental plants. Calathea is very picky, so growers must gain strength and take the necessary steps to preserve her beauty and health.

It is not so easy with Calathea, there are many subtleties in her care at home that need to be mastered. If you do not follow the requirements for creating a favorable environment, a capricious flower may develop diseases.

Caring for Calathea at home

The most important condition for growing a Calathea flower and caring for it at home is the formation of a warm and humid environment. It is in such an environment that the plant will grow, maintain its beauty and health.

Lighting

If you give a flower too much light, you can harm its variegated color. Calathea will fold its foliage due to the bright light. If you properly follow Calathea, for example, the Medallion variety, as well as follow the requirements for home care, the plant will be able to please not only green foliage, but also purple.

The well-being of the flower is ensured in a normally square room in a shaded area. Only in this way will the plant be able to diversify the everyday interior and bring in some kind of attractiveness.

Air temperature, humidity

The flower does not need high air temperature preparation:

• in the summer period, from +16 to +24 degrees Celsius will be enough for him;
• in winter without soil irrigation - from +12 to +16 degrees Celsius.

Calathea is sensitive to changes in air temperature, especially if you open doors and windows, and also reacts to sunlight. Based on this, it is recommended to keep the plant away from light windows, regularly opening doors, where there are constant drafts.

Some growers who contain Calathea, when leaving at home, notice that the leaves are drying. In order for the plant to develop normally, the main requirement is high air humidity throughout the year. Every day it is necessary to spray the flower with a fine spray, always with clean water, which does not contain chlorine and calcium. The pot should be kept under damp material such as pebbles and kept moisturized constantly.

It is worth noting that plants with a velvety structure, as well as with drooping foliage, should not be sprayed with water. A better option is to shower twice a month.

It is best to spray the surrounding air around the flower a couple of times a day. If dust has accumulated on the plant, you need to use a dry cloth or brush and gently wipe the foliage. To increase indoor humidity, Calathea is recommended to be grown along with other plants.

Watering mode

Calathea, for example, of the Mix variety and others, requires high-quality water for its irrigation when caring for home. The water should be 2-3 degrees warmer than the temperature in the room. For watering, it is best to use soft water such as rainwater.

If there is no way to get such moisture, but there is only from the tap, you need to take a bucket of water in the evening, add about three handfuls of peat wrapped in gauze to it. In the morning it will be possible to water a flower with this water.

During spring and summer, Calathea requires more humid care at home, especially if the leaves are drying. Water the flower as much as possible. After the soil is moistened, it is necessary to get rid of excess moisture in the pot holder. If this is not done, root rot is possible.

In winter, moderate watering of the soil is necessary, and according to the recommendations of specialists, in order for the plant to develop favorably, it is necessary to keep the soil slightly moist.

The soil

In nature, Calathea is most often found in forests, for example, Bahema, which lives in Brazilian vegetation areas, when caring for which at home it is necessary to adhere to street parameters.

Before planting the plant, you need to prepare a soil mixture containing leafy soil, sand and peat in a 2: 1: 1 ratio. Charcoal, coca and some coniferous earth must be added to this mixture.

To improve physical properties as well as increase nutritional value, add about 30 percent humus. The stores sell a ready-made mixture for indoor plants.

Fertilizers

In order for the plant's soil to receive a sufficient amount of nutrients, it is important to regularly add top dressing. When the growing season lasts, it is necessary to fertilize about two or three times a month, using a fertilizer that does not contain calcium and nitrogen. It is necessary to feed before flowering, as well as after its end.

It is interesting that Calathea Lancifolia blooms extremely rarely when taken care of at home, sometimes even does not show its fragrant flowers at all.

Transplant Calathea

Young plants need to be systematically transplanted once a year, and already mature flowers - once every 2-3 years. The best time for transplanting is spring. The pot should be medium in size, wide and low in height.

The environment in which you want to plant the plant should be slightly acidic, loose, and also breathable. It is recommended to purchase ready-made potting soil for Calathea and its subsequent care at home in order to avoid the occurrence of diseases and their treatments.

If it is not possible to buy a substrate, you can prepare it yourself:

1. To do this, you need to take one part of heated river sand with the addition of two parts of peat, two parts of humus and two parts of deciduous soil.
2. During the transplant process, you need to do everything carefully, and also monitor the correctness of the actions.
3. First of all, a layer of drainage is tightly placed on the bottom of the pot, sprinkled with fresh earthen mixture on top.
4. Then you need to transfer the bush into a new pot, trying to preserve the root system and a lump of soil on it.
5. The resulting void in the pot must be filled with fresh earthen mixture.

With proper care of the flower, it will grow well, develop and will definitely bloom. For example, Calathea Crokata, with good home care, can bloom for 2-3 months.

Reproduction

Calathea can reproduce in several ways, each of which is presented below.

Dividing the bush

In the spring, when flowers are transplanted, the root system of an adult plant can be divided into parts, so that each part has several leaves and rhizomes formed.

Parts of the plant must be planted in separate pots and filled with a special mixture for representatives of the arrowroot family. Then the plants should be placed in a shaded place with high humidity and warm air.

A pallet with damp expanded clay should be placed under the pots and there should be heating equipment nearby. Strengthening Calathea takes a long time, and the success in the development of the root system depends on the correct care.

Propagation by cuttings

With this reproduction option, the above-ground cutting must be carefully cut off from the mother bush. For rooting, Calathea needs to be planted in moist soil, covered with a cut plastic bottle or a plastic transparent bag. When the first roots appear, you need to get rid of the shelter. It is important to understand that the stalk may not take root, such cases are often the case.

Using cuttings

This type of cultivation is very difficult, because even the most selected seeds may not sprout. In any case, you can reproduce in this way, and for this you need:

1. Take a pot, pour a mixture of sand and leafy soil into it in a ratio of 1 to 2 and sow the seeds.
2. Sowing must be placed in a place where the air temperature will reach from +21 to +25 degrees Celsius.
3. After the appearance of the first formed leaves, the seedlings dive into the box with the same mixture that was used for sowing.
4. When the flowers grow up and get stronger, they need to be planted in individual pots.

Diseases and pests

Living in a room with dry air, scale insects, spider mites or thrips can appear in Klatea, as a result of which the plant will begin to turn yellow and lose foliage.

To understand whether a pest has settled in a flower, you need to carefully examine it. The signs of insect habitat are the following formations on the leaves:

• sticky coating;
• cobweb;
• pale spots.

If these manifestations are noticed, you need to quickly perform the necessary actions:

• wash the foliage with soap and water;
• if insects remain, the plant must be sprayed with a solution of a special insecticidal preparation;
• use chemicals when fighting ticks.

If you do not properly care for the plant, as well as create the wrong environment for it, various problems can arise with the foliage:

1. Dryness of the tips - with such problems, you need to make sure that the air is humid. Drying of the tips takes place in a dry room. It is necessary to spray the plant as often as possible and place Calathea in a tray with damp pebbles.
2. Dry spots on the surface - Possibly after a large accumulation of water remains on the foliage after spraying. When the sun's rays react with these drops, a burn is obtained.
3. Complete drying - is obtained as a result of drafts, poor watering or as a result of thrips living in the plant.
4. Yellowing - if the lower part of the foliage turns yellow, then there is no need to worry, this is a normal process of leaf dying off. The appearance of yellowness in other parts of the flower can be triggered by an overabundance of fertilizers or an incorrect watering regime. Leaves turn yellow as a result of insufficient amount of water, as well as due to the liquid formed in the roots. Moistening the soil should be done at the moment when the top layer dries about 20 millimeters deep. The feeding process is also very important. Nutrient mixtures should not be added in full, but only half of the amount indicated on the package. In addition, cold air can also provoke yellowing of the leaves.
5. Twisting - the reason for this may be low temperature, insufficient humidity of the environment, as well as drafts.

All sorts of difficulties that can arise when growing Calathea are associated with improper care and the creation of a poor growing environment for the plant. This means that for the health of the flower, you need to properly care for them, feed them and monitor the temperature and humidity of the environment.