There is a very beautiful ornamental plant, which, above all, attracts with its leaves, or rather, with bizarre patterns on them. This is a calathea. Do the leaves of the plant dry and curl? Does it lose its appeal? This shortcoming immediately becomes noticeable, and flower growers seek to cure the plant as quickly as possible. However, to do this, you need to know its features.
Calathea: description and types
Calathea is a perennial ornamental herb, reaching up to 80 cm in height. Calathea attracts with the beauty of its leaves. They are large, can be leathery, glossy, velvet. The touch is always dense. They are up to 40 cm long and 5-15 cm wide, there are species with leaves up to 20 cm long. In shape they are mostly oval or in the form of an ellipse, they are lanceolate. They grow directly from the root outlet.
In nature, there are 130 species of flower. Each of them has very beautiful leaves with a unique pattern.
Types of calatheas - beautiful, wonderful, decorated, striped, Makoy, Veich, Bakhem, Burle-Marx, Warszewicz, Zebrin, leopard, mosaic and others.
Plant features
A flower has the following features:
- Inflorescences of the plant have an original structure. In nature, they can be pollinated only by the smallest bees.
- Leaves are always turned towards the sun.
- In the evening they rise up, and in the morning fall down.
- The leaves always seem to move, so the kalatea received the second name - a prayer flower.
What does kalatea love and dislike?
This is a moody and demanding flower. Calathea grew up in Central and South America, which means it needs a bright place, but without direct sunlight. He also loves warmth, since her homeland is warm edges. The optimum temperature of the content is +20 ... + 22 °, but not lower than 18 ° and not higher than 25 °. It does not tolerate drafts, does not tolerate dry air and dry soil. It can not be placed near a heat source - a battery, stove or fireplace, or on a cold windowsill. In summer, you should not take out the flower on the balcony. Heat during the day and lowering temperatures at night - this is stress for calathea, which is sick from temperature extremes. This also applies to watering. Calathea should not be watered with cold water. A slightly warm, settled water will work best.
What else does not love calathea? Leaves are dry due to lack or excess of moisture. The soil under the flower should always be slightly moist.
Home Care
In calatheas, why do the leaves dry and curl? Because it is a rather whimsical plant. However, subject to a number of rules, an enabling environment can be created.
- Find a dark place for calathea. It can be a sideboard, windowsill, wardrobe or bedside table. Remember that the darker the place, the thicker the leaves will grow. Therefore, from time to time, expose the plant to the light.
- Calathea loves moisture. So, in addition to watering, you will need a sprayer with which you will moisturize the plant 2-3 times a week. Cleaning the leaves from dust with a sponge or a cotton pad moistened with water will not hurt the calathe. Use wet peat. Place the pot with the plant in a moistened peat environment. However, you should know that waterlogging of the soil will lead to rotting of the roots. Therefore, use these procedures infrequently.
- The peak of calathea growth occurs in March-September. Therefore, in this period, you should regularly moisten the air and water the plant, maintaining the air temperature at the level of 17-18 degrees. In winter, the temperature should not drop below 16 degrees, but watering and humidification reduce.
- Never use hard water for irrigation. It is best to soften it with a bag of peat without fertilizer, leave a bucket of water overnight, and start watering in the morning.
- Make sure that the water in the pot does not stagnate during irrigation. This indicates an excess of moisture. Excess water in this case should be removed.
A few more simple rules.
- Calathea does not like temperature changes, so if you have a sharp rise and fall of the thermometer, this will affect the health of the plant.
- Do not move the calathea without special need, it does not like to adapt to new conditions.
- No need to overmoisten or overdry an earthen lump. Otherwise, you will grow calathea, in which the leaves dry and curl.
- Calathea does not like it when a lot of water gets onto its leaves at once, so water the plant as carefully as possible.
- Every year in the spring it requires a transplant. To do this, a wide pot is suitable, at the bottom of which there must be drainage and soil for azaleas or rhododendrons.
- You can feed the plant with fertilizers that do not contain lime or calcium salts. This should be done two weeks after the transplant with a frequency of 1 time in 2-3 weeks.
You can follow these rules, but what if the plants dry and curl, and you don’t know how to help?
Calathea: leaves dry and curl
This is a very beautiful plant. But what can unpleasantly surprise calathea? The leaves dry and curl, can turn yellow or turn pale, or even completely lose their color. The tips may become dry and brown. The leaves are able to curl up or wither, lose their elasticity and density. All problems with them arise due to suboptimal air temperature, sunburn or lack of light, due to drafts.
The roots of the flower can rot from an excess of moisture. They also get sick if the ground under the calathea is either too dry or too moist. A flower loves constancy. For the roots to always be healthy, the ground should always be slightly moist, but not wet or dry. Of course, the beauty of the leaves depends on the state of the roots.
How to cure calathea?
If calathea is sick, the leaves dry and curl, their tips become brittle and brown, then the plant needs resuscitation. To do this, you need to pay attention to three things: light, humidity and the presence of drafts.
Calathea does not like direct sunlight to fall on her, but she cannot even without light. Therefore, look for the right place for her, and then you will avoid the problem of drying leaves.
In our apartments dry air reigns, which is contraindicated calathe. Even if you regularly moisten the plant by spraying or wipe the leaves with a damp sponge, you will not solve the problem. You can accustom the calathea to the humidity level of your apartment. Spray the plant and then cover with polyethylene. Repeat the procedure every day, and then begin to open the plant for 10 minutes, then 30, and so on, gradually increasing the length of stay in the "open" air. Calathea, in which the leaves dry, is quickly resuscitated.
Another reason for the drying of the leaves lies in the presence of drafts. If the temperature on your windowsill is lower than 16 degrees, then you should not ask the question why the leaves curl around the calathea. This is now obvious.
Calathea, in which leaves dry and curl, may also lack sunlight. This is a capricious plant, and you will have to establish a place of its stay empirically. It is important to find a middle ground. The flower should not overheat in the sun, be located in direct sunlight, while it needs light. Leaves can curl when a plant is very stuffy. In this case, you need to moisten not only the soil, but also the leaves, rearrange the flower from the windowsill (especially in the summer) and ventilate the room well. But at the time of airing, the flower should be removed from the windowsill. This procedure should be repeated regularly, combining with feeding and spraying.