I finally stopped babying my calatheas and they're thriving now

I used to fuss over my calatheas every single day in my Boston apartment, misting them and checking humidity levels like a mad person. Then I went on a two week trip last summer and left them completely alone, came back to the biggest new leaves they'd ever put out. So is the whole 'calatheas are high maintenance' thing just overblown or did I actually get lucky with my specific plants?

2 comments

2 Comments

betty_shah3d ago

Wanna know what gets me though - did you change ANYTHING else when you stopped babying them or just straight up ignored them? Like are you still watering on a schedule or just letting the soil tell you when it's dry? Because I got a rattlesnake calathea that was doing fine until I started being all "oh you need distilled water" and "oh let me check the humidity" and now it's got crispy edges worse than when I just gave it tap water and forgot about it for a week.

eric3593d ago

Honestly, my buddy Dave was the exact same way with his calatheas. He had a whole humidifier setup and was checking the soil every morning, then he got super busy with work and basically forgot about them for three weeks. He came back to find his Maranta had shot out six new leaves and his orbifolia had doubled in size. Ngl, I think a lot of those "high maintenance" tips are just stuff people repeat online without actually testing it.