Learn how to grow Calathea with our detailed guide. Discover tips on proper light, watering, humidity, and soil to keep your Calathea thriving and beautiful.
How to Grow Calathea:
Growing potatoes: Here are the varieties to plant: (Annabelle is disease resistant.) For salad potatoes, choose varieties like spinach.
“Charlotte” – with yellow skin and flesh, boasting an irresistibly tasty flavor—remains firm when cooked, making it great for salads or boiling.
“Cherie” is an incredible red-skinned salad variety featuring waxy flesh. These varieties make an excellent combination for boiling.
Blue Danube, which resists blight, is another good variety available at these retailers.
“Cara” – Round, waxy, and drought resistant, it bakes beautifully.
‘Isle of Jura” – An all-round performer that produces large crops by late summer while remaining disease resistant
“Nicola” varieties feature yellow skin and flesh, small oval tubers with sweet taste.
Setanta varieties are drought tolerant and ideal for roasting and baking.
Optimal Conditions for How to Grow Calathea
Calatheas require special care to thrive. For optimal growth, they need consistent warmth and indirect light – not direct sunshine – throughout spring through autumn. Keep soil moist throughout this period by misting leaves daily or standing them on moist pebbles; additionally, use only filtered or distilled water (or rainwater) instead of tap water for watering purposes.
Where to Grow Calatheas:
Calatheas do best in bright, indirect lighting but will tolerate partial shade as long as direct sunlight doesn’t strike their leaves directly, and them away from drafts or direct sunlight that could scorch them. A minimum temperature of 15 degrees should be provided, and rooms that experience regular temperature fluctuations should be avoided – bathrooms make an ideal environment, as clothes thrive in humid environments!
How to Grow Calatheas:
Begin by placing your calathea in soil-based compost with two parts perlite for every one soil-based. Repot every couple of years into a slightly larger pot for optimal results.
Care For Calathea:
From spring through autumn, keep the soil evenly moist (but not soaking wet), using either distilled, filtered, or rainwater, as they are more suitable than tap water for this delicate flowering shrub. Make sure any excess water has drained off before winter watering sessions, keeping just moist conditions throughout its growth period.
Calatheas Flourish in Humid Environments:
To provide sufficient humidity, mist their leaves daily with warm water or place them on a tray filled with gravel or pebbles and keep watering throughout the year.
How to Propagate a Calathea
Its division is one of the easiest and simplest methods of propagating calatheas. When repotting it in spring, gently untwist its rootball with your fingers until a clump at one side comes away easily; inspect its roots and make sure each has part of them; report both plants into fresh compost in pots larger than their new root balls and see which has come away naturally; if this doesn’t happen naturally, then cut through its rootball with a clean knife instead.
Growing Calathea: Solving Problems:
- Curled leaves may indicate underwatering; once your plant has received enough moisture, its leaves should rebound quickly once you water again, and any excess liquid should drain away afterward.
- Yellowed or wilting leaves could also be due to overwatering. Calatheas plants in particular can become susceptible to this issue in soggy compost, where too much moisture causes their roots to rot – this often results in a blackened base of the plant. Before watering again, allow the compost to dry out a little before applying more; always let excess liquid drain away naturally.
- Brown patches could be caused by sunburn. To reduce risk, move your plant out of direct sunlight.
- Faded leaves indicate that your plant receives too much light; move to a darker environment for best results.
- Small brown spots on the leaves surrounded by yellow halo-like structures could be signs of leaf spots, caused by splashed water from raindrops or sprinklers. Remove affected leaves to stop any further spreading of this condition; tap water should never be used directly as it contains bacteria that feed into it and feed further spreading of problems.
- Brown edges or tips may be caused by dry air; to increase humidity around your plant, mist it or place it on a tray of damp pebbles. You could have overwatered, overfed it, or provided hard water sources instead.
- Advice for Selecting and Acquiring Calatheas Here’s our advice on selecting and purchasing the appropriate calathea for your home, including where they can be purchased.
- Calathea can be found at garden centers, nurseries, and specialist houseplant nurseries; you may get more options from one of these specialty nurseries.
- Make sure the environment meets ideal conditions for cultivating Calatheas; they thrive best in humid, indirect lighting environments. Before/Upon Arrival. Ensure your Calathea is healthy and plump without signs of pests/disease – Inquire Online (Calathea Online Store).
- Calathea varieties to consider growing include Calathea crocata (syn. Goeppertia crocata). It boasts beautiful burgundy leaves with vibrant orange flowers in summer that last several months indoors; most other calathea varieties don’t flower indoors as this one does.
- Calathea zebrina (syn. Goeppertia zebrina) features apple green leaves adorned with painterly dark stripes resembling stripes on an animal, also referred to as the Zebra Plant.
- Calathea lancifolia (syn. Goeppertia lancifolia) features long leaves which feature pale green with darker patches and red-purple undersides and is commonly known as the Snake Plant or Rattler
- Calathea ‘Medaillon’ (syn. Goeppertia ‘Medaillon’) features intricately patterned leaves in shades of lime, apple green, and dark green with dark red undersides – creating an exquisite effect.
- Calathea makoyana (syn. Goeppertia makoyana), commonly referred to as cathedral window plant, features pale green leaves adorned with translucent stripes that appear translucent when illuminated by light.
- Calathea orbifolia (syn. Goeppertia orbifolia) features gorgeous round leaves decorated with silvery markings for contrast.
FAQs
Q1. How do you grow Calathea at home?
To grow Calathea at home:
- Place in indirect light,
- Keep soil moist but not waterlogged, and
- Maintain high humidity.
Q2. Can you grow a Calathea from a cutting?
No, Calathea can not be grown from cutting. It is best propagated by division.
Q3. Why are calatheas difficult?
Calatheas are sensitive to:
- Light,
- Water, and
- Humidity levels.
So, that’s why it’s challenging to care for.