Caring for a prayer flower calathea at home

Calathea, sometimes referred to as the prayer plant, adds color and pattern to any interior design. This tropical plant gives your interior space a serene touch in addition to beauty. But proper care is essential to maintaining the health and vibrancy of calathea plants, as they can be picky about their needs.

Do not worry if you are new to taking care of Calathea. You can maintain this lovely plant’s health in your house with a few easy steps. It’s not as hard as it might seem to understand this plant’s requirements—from the proper amount of water to the ideal location with indirect sunlight.

We’ll look at how to properly care for a calathea in this article so that it can grow and maintain its best-looking leaves. Now let’s focus on what you need to know to keep your calathea happy and healthy.

Care at home

If you’ve made up your mind to keep a prayer book, be ready for a lot of challenges. Calatheas are very finicky flowers that need special attention when cared for at home.

Lighting

The amount of daylight hours that Calathea requires is quite lengthy; roughly 15 hours should be sufficient for comfortable conditions. The prayer book is among the many crops that prefer shade, so you shouldn’t place it on a windowsill that is lit, and direct sunlight will harm it. Placing the plant tub in the far corner will ensure that the flower is not only in the ideal spot but also elevates the otherwise uninteresting corner.

Crucial: the color of the leaves indicates how little light there is; in cases of discomfort, the leaves start to fade.

Watering requirements

The frequency of water procedures also varies with the season; in the summer, they typically occur three times a week, while in the winter, you may get away with just one.

However, it is not always necessary to strictly adhere to these criteria. You should pay attention to the condition of the soil and the appearance of the foliage. With excessive moisture, the cuttings begin to lose turgor, become lethargic. In this case, you need to wait until the soil dries out a couple of centimeters. If this does not help, the flower should be replanted.

It’s important to note that the watering liquid needs to be settled and should be 2-3 degrees warmer than room temperature on average. You can naturally filter it to add softness; to do this, fill a bucket with running water, add two large handfuls of peat, and let it sit for 12 hours.

Air humidity

A given plant requires a room with a humidity level of roughly 70%, but the culture cannot withstand being sprayed in an unsanitary manner. For instance, because of the velvety texture of the leaves, Kalatea Shafrannaya becomes covered in unsightly muddy divorces when leaving the house in this manner—that is, with a spray gun. The best course of action is to add a hot liquid to a nearby pitch; the pairs of liquids will produce a humidity that is quite close to the ideal humidity.

Important: it is strictly forbidden to place a pot close to any heating appliances as this could cause the plant to dry out and eventually die.

Temperature regime

The original growing environment of the flower—a forest—determines the ideal temperature for it. Because of this, the suggested indicators for this culture fall between 18 and 24 degrees.

A drop to +16 °C is possible in the winter. It is important to exercise caution, though, to avoid abrupt changes and the lack of drafts.

Soil requirements

Calatei is sensitive to the soil; it should be loose and have a slight acidic taste. For the flower, you can buy a specific universal substrate; however, you should add a tiny bit of sand to it.

You will need to combine sand, peat, and leaf soil in a 1:1:2 ratio, along with coniferous land, bark, and coal, to prepare the soil mixture. A maximum of 20% of humus is allowed for increased nutrition.

Advice: In order to prevent the earth from becoming acidic, it is imperative to create a relatively high drainage system in the casop due to the surface root system of this room culture.

Top dressing

A prayer book is like a plant that requires careful attention, as even the slightest mishandling can have disastrous effects due to its strong reaction to fertilizer excess or deficiency.

It is sufficient to fertilize the flower once every six months during the period of active growth, which spans from March to September. During this period, preparations should be applied a few times every thirty days.

Advice: You ought to pick intricate preparations as a way to improve the soil.

Pest control

Pests appearing on the bush is one of the reasons why calathea leaves curl and dry. Parasites like ground thrips, scale insects, and spider mites frequently attach themselves to the delicate and erratic flower. The flower can only be saved by accurate diagnosis of the plant’s condition and prompt action.

• Spider mites are tiny bugs that, despite their compact size, quite actively absorb calathea juices. It can only be identified by the presence of a whitish thin web that it weaves, mainly on the back of the leaf blades. To get rid of the pest, it is necessary to wash the green mass with warm water with the addition of laundry soap and increase the humidity of the room to the recommended levels. It is the arid environment that is optimal for this pest.
• The scale insect is another insect that feeds on the life force of indoor plants. Unlike ticks, it is much easier to detect. Brownish spots can be seen on the green mass, this is exactly what the scale insect looks like, tightly adhering to the surface. In order to help the calathea, it is necessary to mechanically clean the beetle from the leaf blades (a cotton swab soaked in an alcohol solution is quite suitable for this), and then treat it with any insecticide.
• Thrips are insidious by nature in that they live in the ground, and their activity is diagnosed only when the plant begins to wither. In this case, you cannot do without the use of insecticides. Perhaps, you will need to transplant the prayer book to a new place of residence.

Reproduction of calathea

Calatheas are extremely difficult to grow, and those who are able to preserve this exquisite flower work hard to produce new specimens from the mother plant. There are various methods:

• Leaf propagation. This method does not promise a 100% guarantee due to the capricious nature of the crop. It is necessary to carefully cut off a large and healthy leaf, and then stick it into the prepared soil until the roots appear. To speed up this process, the container with soil is covered with glass on top. Under such conditions, the substrate moisture is always uniform due to the appearance of condensation.
• The principle of propagation by cuttings is similar to the previous one. In this case, the daughter shoot is disconnected. If it has considerable dimensions, then instead of glass you can cover it with a plastic bottle with a cut off neck.
• When growing a flower from a seed, it is necessary to take a responsible attitude not only to the soil moisture, but also to the temperature. For better germination, it should be about 25 degrees. The soil mixture is made up of two parts of leaf soil and one part of sand.

Planting as many seeds as you can is advised for insurance, as this method of calathea growth does not ensure a perfect outcome.

Interestingly, a lot of plant enthusiasts are still unaware of whether calathea blooms. It’s likely this type if you haven’t been able to appreciate the buds in a while. Among the calatheas in bloom, Saffron, Warszewicz, and Makoy stand out.

Caring for a Calathea at home can be a rewarding experience if you understand its needs. This plant thrives in a warm, humid environment and prefers indirect light. It"s important to water it regularly, keeping the soil consistently moist but not waterlogged.

Maintaining healthy leaves requires regular irrigation as well as high humidity levels. You can help the plant mimic its natural tropical habitat by misting it or putting it next to a humidifier. Additionally, don’t forget to fertilize your Calathea during its growing season with diluted fertilizer.

Your prayer plant’s vivid, lovely foliage will be your reward for giving it a little love and care. As long as you provide it with the right conditions, it will flourish and add a little bit of nature to your house.

Maintaining the ideal ratio of light, moisture, and humidity is essential for taking good care of a prayer flower calathea indoors. This tropical plant requires regularly moist but not soggy soil, thrives in indirect light, and benefits from frequent misting to maintain high humidity levels. The calathea can thrive indoors with the right care, adding beauty with its colorful, patterned leaves.

Video on the topic

Prayer indoor plant Calathea – what is its secret? Overview of varieties. How to care for calathea.

CALATHEA – a prayer flower or a capricious tropicanka. Secrets of caring for Calathea!

Calathea Lancifolia – a prayer plant | Review of a variety from the Marantaceae family

No. 47. How to care for calathea? What to do to prevent the leaves from drying out, curling up and turning yellow?

Calathea, or a capricious tropicanka. Home care