My Calathea has recently developed a problem as her leaves have curled and are pointing downward instead of outward, I sent a picture of her former self where she looked normal. She is in a window that gets bright sun 3 to 4 hours a day, and is a foot from the window. Is she getting too much sun? She certainly is not normal right now. TIA for any help you can give me.
Do the leaves perk up when it’s the brightest part of the day? If so, that’s the nature of a Calathea, hence their nickname “prayer plant”—they raise their leaves up to the light
2 Likes But also the speckling on the back of a leaf I see on the left worries me. Do you have any other issues besides drooping leaves? It’s kind of hard to telll if there’s any other issues with this photo, maybe you can get some closer up and brighter
1 Like At this point in time her leaves are curling down all the time. Since this is my first Calathea, I find your information about why they are called prayer plants very interesting and beautiful, just like the calathea.
1 Like Thank you for noticing the spots on the back of the leaf. It turns out it was black spot, and a number of my plants are infected with it.😝 I am treating everybody.😊
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You may need less sun and more humidity
0 Likes I must be a terrible plant mother, because you alerted me to the spots on the back of the leaves that I haven’t noticed before. It’s kind of hard to check the backs of the leaves because they are so stiffly curled odownward that I almost feel like I’m going to break the leaf as I pull it up to examine it. There are speckles on more than half the leaves. I absolutely have no idea what this is. I’ll research it and see what I come up with. Has anybody out there seen this before? That’s a silly question because I’m sure many of you have. I’m just rather inexperience. TIA for any light you can shed on this issue.😢 PS while trying to take a picture of these leaves, I noticed there was some sticky substance on the back of the leaves that show up like shiny spots. Another clue??? Help!
Another PS – you can’t see the sticky substance, but I could feel it and when the light hits it at a particular angle the sticky spots glisten. Is that any more help???
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My calatheas used to get to those sticky spots a lot. I still don’t know exactly what causes it but I don’t take chances these days 😩. I would also notice little holes in the leaves sometimes as well. Not sure if you’re seeing any? I rinse my calatheas leaves off pretty often now - maybe once a month or so. I just spray the leaves down gently with the kitchen sink sprayer, let them dry off a bit then I spray them down with a neem oil solution. That seems to keep the leaves pretty happy.
1 Like I will do just as you suggest, thank you. The app “Picture This” says my plant has black spot which my rose had. I am looking closely at my other plants, and it appears several plants may have black spot (drat!). So now I will “neem” not only my Calathea but others that appear to have the same disease. And surprisingly, I noticed when I moved the Calathea to another spot to quarantine her, which was darker, the first thing I saw was that her leaves were uncurled and nicely bouncy, not in that stuck downward curl. So it appears both problems may have been addressed. Thank you so much for your help.🥳 What would we do without each other?
0 LikesI’d be worried about spider mites if it’s sticky…they’re also a pain in the butt to spot on calathea’s because they can hide in the curl of new growth. Rinsing like Lynda said is very much the ticket in that case.
1 LikeOh gosh, I forgot to say: BUT make sure you dry the leaves thoroughly after or it’ll likely get chemical burns
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Is your plant close to any air conditioners or open windows? They like to be sitting 60-80 degrees Fahrenheit, not saying this is the problem but maybe a contributor? Another thought maybe could the black spots be some form of fungi or mold growth? I’m not the most knowledgeable yet but maybe temperature and humidity would be worth looking into?
1 Like Thanks Lily. I think that she is responding to changes in temperature. When she gets too cool, she locks her leaves downward. When she warms up properly, her leaves go up and become naturally soft and normal.
1 Like Has anyone else noticed this about the Calathea?🧐
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