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What is happening to my Calathea please?

SpruceSpruce Posts: 11
in Problem solving
Hi
Could anyone tell me what's wrong with my Calathea please.
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Posts

  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546
    It looks fine for a Calathea, they're notoriously pernickety things!
    As it looks like just the one leaf it might be some simple physical damage - maybe something just flicked across that leaf to leave tiny scars. Is that a possibility?
  • SpruceSpruce Posts: 11
    Thank you. I suppose it is possible my son has knocked it with his bag.  It was by the front door but maybe too drafty so I've moved it.  Fingers crossed it thrives as I love it!
  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546
    Good luck with it.  No, they hate draughts and bright sunlight, don't want to be too hot or too cold and need careful watering, but if you can keep them happy they are beautiful plants :)
    I failed! By the way- if that is your actual surname you may be a distant relative :)
  • SpruceSpruce Posts: 11
    It is my married name!  😁 I keep trying to change my username on here but clearly I'm not doing it correctly!
    I gather they are not the easiest to keep, I will persevere!
  • LunarSeaLunarSea Posts: 1,923
    Mine was absolutely beautiful for the whole summer in the corner of the lounge but now it's going rapidly downhill. The leaves are curling inwards and the tips going brown. I moved it into the bathroom a month or so ago to give it a warmer more buoyant atmosphere but it isn't responding. I'll get another one later this year though if they're not too expensive.
    Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. 

    I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
  • SpruceSpruce Posts: 11
    I've read, leaves curling in is the plants way of retaining moisture?
    Think they have a mind of their own! 😩
    Good luck.
  • Slow-wormSlow-worm Posts: 1,630
    They can't be that difficult if I managed to keep some alive years ago, lol! Mine were in bright, indirect sunlight, in a 'quiet' bit of the room, I think I misted them sometimes, that's all they seemed to need apart from some water, so yours should hopefully perk up in a different room. 
  • SueAtooSueAtoo Posts: 380
    It's rather puzzling that plants like calathea like humidity to the extent that some sites recommend using a humidifier, but we are also told that humidity in houses leads to mould.....
    East Dorset, new (to me) rather neglected garden.
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    It's when humidity turns to condensation that the problem arises.  Kept to below 100 RH and it should be OK.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • LunarSeaLunarSea Posts: 1,923
    LunarSea said:
    Mine was absolutely beautiful for the whole summer in the corner of the lounge but now it's going rapidly downhill. The leaves are curling inwards and the tips going brown. I moved it into the bathroom a month or so ago to give it a warmer more buoyant atmosphere but it isn't responding. I'll get another one later this year though if they're not too expensive.

    I kept hoping it would recover but it went from bad to worse so I finally took it out to the compost heap yesterday and started to rip it to pieces. It was then that I noticed lots of new bulbous shoots coming from well below the compost (but forgot to take any photos). So I potted it up in new compost, watered it well and put it back in the bathroom. I'll report back if it makes a dramatic recovery. 
    Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. 

    I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
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