My peacock plant is struggling:( The Doc said it’s overwatered but other sources say it’s under watered. Any ideas? My friend got me this plant and it means a lot to me, I really wanna heal it! I’ve been using a grow light for all my plants since there’s not as much light in my room atm. It’s working great for all my other plants so he’s the only one struggling.
I would take it out of its current soil and check for root rot (easy way to tell is smell the roots, it will smell pretty bad). Remove any mushy, unhealthy looking roots and put it in new well draining soil. Cut off any of the struggling leaves. It will probably look worse before it will look better, but with time it might improve!
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I would do what some of the others said - give it less light and check the roots & repot in new soil. I would also check for pests, my peacock calathea had spider mites and was dropping/yellowing similarly to that
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I disagree about the grow light. Calathea need an enormous amount of light. Direct sun not recommended but a dedicated grow light absolutely necessary in my opinion. Also watering Calathea with only distilled water makes a huge difference to brown edges on the leaves.
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I don’t think watering or light are the culprit here. Mine is in a bright spot and LOVES being wet and it doesn’t look like yours is in a different situation from mine. However, usually the reason calathea plants struggle in homes is because the air is too dry. They like about a moderate amount of moisture in the air. Recommend adding a humidifier or humidity tray if you’re sure there are no pests munching on it. If it is being eaten by spider mites, the extra moisture will also help prevent more of them in the future (they don’t typically like humidity).
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what kind of water are you using on this plant? it looks like damage due to chlorine, fluoride, and/or hard water. i treat water for my prayer plants with aquarium water conditioner and flush with rain water when available. many people will recommend distilled water but it’s too expensive and wasteful imo (all those plastic jugs…)
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