Hello! I just rescued this prayer plant from my local grocery store. This is my first prayer plant. It’s looks pretty healthy except for a little bit of browning on one of the leaves and I think it’s root bound by the roots coming out of the bottom of the pot. Do they like to be snug in their pots and root bound or do I need to repot? Should I remove the brown leaves? Any tips would be greatly appreciated :)
I would not remove the leaves. The crispy tips are fairly common with prayer plants. I would pull it out of the pot to see if it’s truly root bound. Sometimes roots will sneak out the bottom but there is still a lot of room in the pot. Good luck!
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I agree with checking if it’s truly root bound, but disagree with leaving the damaged leaves. It looks to me like damage as opposed to illness or something and I understand that the plant will spend a lot of energy trying to repair damaged leaves when it actually can’t. I would personally remove it and let the plant spend its energy on growing instead of trying to repair itself.
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Definitely, keep that barely damaged leaf. It hardly qualifies as a damaged calathea leaf. Google it or search these posts to truly see examples of damaged calathea leaves. There is plenty of surface area to absorb sunlight. Plus, the plant does not spend energy trying to revive dead spots on leaves. I completely agree you have to look at all the roots to determine if a plant is root bound. So, carefully remove the pot to check.
You can easily fix this. Sterilize your sharp scissors and cut around each blemish. No one else will ever know. It doesn’t hurt the plant, makes it look new to you, and gives you a free therapy session while trimming it. Put on some meditation frequencies and zen with your beautiful friend.
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