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Hi all, I’ve posted about my calathea before. It’s only had a few… | Hydroponics & Semi-hydroponics | Planta community

Molly 🪴

Hi all, I’ve posted about my calathea before. It’s only had a few leaves for months now and I’m getting kinda tired of it. Is there any hope? Otherwise I might toss it this weekend

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6 comments

  1. NewerHorizons777

    Don’t give up! I’ve never used lecca, but I imagine it’s a bit more high-maintenance than real soil. Maybe experiment with a different medium to see if that makes a difference? But it still looks rather healthy!

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  2. ToPlantHarmony

    I have one in leca as well, but even when still in soil it was one of my slowest growing calatheas 😩. It started putting out leaves fairly quickly after I got it in October, but once we really went into fall, it just stopped. I moved it to leca in January. Still no new leaves 🙄 I’d say either try to increase its humidity but putting it right by a humidifier for a week or so, or wait until spring to see how it does with the brighter light and slightly warmer weather. It might start putting out leaves then.

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  3. Plant Father

    give it more light (diffused if direct) and make sure you’re using the purest water available, rainwater is great but filtered water (like through a zero water pitcher filter) treated with aquarium water conditioner is a great alternative

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    • Molly 🪴

      I have it about 3 feet from my south facing window and I’ve been using filtered water. I think I need to clean my LECAs from before I started using filtered water

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  4. The Mar Vistan

    This is a total shot in the dark, but I had a maranta that I originally transferred to LECA and then transferred to a 50/50 mix of pumice and perlite after months of lackluster growth. After the initial transition period, it took off and has been growing like gangbusters. (It’s a wicked setup; don’t think you could do pumice/perlite with the reservoir method.) This could be total bunk advice, but I always associate calathea and maranta because of their similar needs and markings. Just a thought, especially if you are looking at switching media anyway.

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    • Molly 🪴

      Thanks for the reply! What an interesting medium, I’ve never heard of using pumice/perlite before. I left my calathea in the LECA and good news: two new leaves are growing! After about 6 months of struggle, it’s finally making a comeback. I was super close to throwing it out too 😅

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