Calatheas are fussy and delicate plants at the best of times, but when they’re really unhappy, they can develop problems far worse than a few crispy leaf edges. If you found this article because your plant is rapidly wilting, shriveling, and losing leaves, try not to panic. You might still be able to revive and restore your Calathea with proper care.
Start by making sure your plant’s environment is stress-free – for a Calathea, that means warm, stable, and out of direct sunlight. Then trim away any dead leaves. If your plant is suffering from sunburn or temperature shock, this may be enough to restore its health. Otherwise, look for signs of pest infestation and overwatering, which call for intensive treatments like root pruning or spraying with soap and neem oil.
Once you’ve addressed the immediate issue, you’ll need to be very gentle with your plant for the next few weeks. Make sure it stays out of the sun, avoid fertilizing, and take care not to overwater. You should also try to give it as much humidity as you can. We provide much more detail below in our step-by-step guide to saving your dying Calathea.
How to Revive a Dying Calathea
When it comes to Calatheas, it seems that almost anything, no matter how small, can send them into a downward spiral. If you have a Calathea that is wilting or losing leaves, you’ve come to the right place. Below are eight steps you should take to revive a dying Calathea.
Step 1: Move it Away From Any Windows
The cause of your Calathea’s poor health may be found in its immediate environment. If it’s sitting right by a southern or western window, there’s a good chance it’s getting too much sun and heat. Prolonged exposure to direct sunlight dehydrates the leaves, turning them into pale and dried-up husks of their former selves.
Cold drafts can also shock a Calathea’s system and cause its foliage to droop and die off. That means windowsills can be dangerous even on gloomy winter days when the sun isn’t a problem.
Sunlight and temperature shock can exacerbate other issues even if they’re not the primary cause of your Calathea’s poor health. So until you’ve identified and solved the problem, it’s best to keep your plant out of the sun. Don’t keep it in a dark room, but move it 4-5 feet away from any nearby windows.
Step 2: Check the Temperature
Is the temperature in your Calathea’s room below 55 degrees Fahrenheit or above 90? If so, you may have found the reason for your plant’s misery. Temperatures outside a Calathea’s acceptable range in either direction will harm it – severe heat has an effect similar to sun scorch, while severe cold often causes leaves and stems to turn yellow and go limp.
Make sure your plant isn’t sitting near a heater or air conditioner that could be hitting it with sudden bursts of heat or cold. And look out for any sources of cold drafts.
Step 3: Trim Away any Dead Leaves
Leaves that have turned completely brown, dry, and shriveled are doing your Calathea no good, but they’re still pulling some energy away from the rest of the plant. Prune them off so that your Calathea can direct its resources where they’ll do some good.
Pruning scissors are the best tools for the job, but ordinary scissors will also work if they’re sharp enough. Disinfect the blades with rubbing alcohol or household bleach watered down to 10% strength – this will reduce the risk of the cuts getting infected.
Leave as much healthy tissue as possible – cut the leaves off as high on the stem as you can, and if a leaf is only partly dead, cut off the shriveled portions but leave the green parts alone. They’ll continue to take in energy to help your Calathea recover.
If you’re confident that your plant’s troubles were due to sun scorch or temperature shock, you can skip ahead to step 8. A Calathea damaged by environmental conditions should recover with enough time in a more hospitable climate.
Step 4: Look for Signs of Pests
While you’re pruning your plant, take the opportunity to inspect it for signs of invading bugs. Unwanted guests can cause serious damage to a Calathea before you even realize they’ve arrived.
There are a few telltale indicators you should look for:
- Bugs. Not all Calathea pests can be seen easily by the naked eye, but some can. Aphids resemble tiny ovoid bumps on the leaves and stems, scale insects appear as shiny brown growths, and mealybugs look like little bits of white fuzz.
- Sticky fluid. Aphids, scale, and mealybugs generate a sugary residue called honeydew.
- Sooty mold. This charcoal-colored fungus often grows in honeydew left behind by pests.
- Scarring. Most pests leave pale markings where they’ve been feeding on your Calathea’s leaves. With spider mites, thrips, and aphids, the scarring looks like tiny speckles that make the foliage appear dusty. Mealybugs and scale produce larger blotches.
- Cobwebs. Spider mites create a wispy webbing that may appear to be filled with tiny particles of dust (actually their eggs).
If you have an infestation, you’ll need to take quick action to get your plant healthy again. Pest treatment for Calatheas is a subject for an entire article – luckily, we’ve written one that you can read here. The following is a very abbreviated summary:
- Quarantine the plant away from any other houseplants immediately.
- Spray it down with a dilute mixture of mild dish soap, neem oil, and warm water.
- Wipe the leaves and stems with a cloth soaked in the same solution.
- Repeat every few days until you’re certain the infestation is gone.
- You may need to switch your treatments up every so often to prevent the pests from developing resistance. Try alternating with hydrogen peroxide or watered-down rubbing alcohol.
A pest problem calls for an entirely different treatment than most other Calathea problems. Skip the rest of the steps in this article and follow the protocol above until your plant is healthy once again.
Step 5: Inspect the Roots
If there are no signs of pests and no obvious environmental cause for your Calathea’s illness, then you probably have an overwatering issue. Excessive watering leads to sludgy soil, which keeps the plant’s roots from getting enough oxygen. As a result, your Calathea suffers from dehydration despite having much more water in its pot than it needs.
Overly soggy soil also provides a nurturing home for bacteria and fungi. They can multiply rapidly and sneak into the roots of an overwatered Calathea, causing a houseplant lover’s worst nightmare: root rot.
Even if the soil appears dry right now, it’s no guarantee that you weren’t overwatering. The mix at the pot base can remain wet for a lot longer than the upper layers. And if your Calathea has picked up root rot, the infection could continue spreading through the plant even after the soil has dried out.
Grip your Calathea by the stems and tip the pot over to slide it out. Wash any clinging soil off of the roots and give them a thorough inspection. If any of them feel squishy, smell sour, or look gray or black, you’re dealing with a case of root rot, and you should go on to step 6. If all of the roots are healthy, skip to step 7.
Step 6: Prune and Clean the Root Mass
You’ll need to trim away every last bit of rotting root tissue. Thoroughness is crucial here – if a root looks, feels, or smells even a little bit suspect, cut first and ask questions later. Disinfect your scissors between snips as we described in step 3.
In especially bad cases of root rot, you may have to cut back a substantial fraction of the root ball. If you remove more than ⅓ of the roots, trim off about a third of the foliage as well, starting with the least healthy-looking leaves. This helps the remaining roots conserve energy while they recover.
Those who want to be extra-thorough about cleansing all of the rot can dunk the roots in a dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide. Use one part peroxide (at the 3% strength you can get at a drugstore) in two parts water.
Step 7: Repot in Airy Soil
Part of the reason overwatering is so common is that many commercial potting soils have surprisingly poor drainage. They’re made of very fine particles that keep water trapped in the lower layers of the soil.
So when you repot your Calathea, place it in a custom blend rather than something store-bought. Our favorite recipe is 40% coconut coir, 25% coarse-grain perlite, 25% orchid bark, and 10% vermicompost. Before you replant your Calathea, lightly moisten the potting mix until it’s about as damp as a wrung-out washcloth.
It’s good to give your plant fresh soil even if there’s no sign of overwatering or root rot. Mineral salts from fertilizer or tap water can build up in the pot over time, and at high concentrations, they can harm your Calathea’s roots. Repotting in a new growing medium gives your plant a fresh start.
Step 8: Handle With Care
Your plant will need a lot of tenderness after all the stress it’s been through. Be prepared to baby it for a while to get it back on its feet.
Keep your Calathea out of direct sunlight as we advised in tip #1, and make sure that the temperature in its room remains steady at around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Don’t give it any fertilizer aside from the little bit of worm compost you mixed into the soil in step 7, because its roots will be in a very delicate state.
You should be very cautious about overwatering for the same reason. Before each watering, poke a wooden barbecue skewer or chopstick down to the base of the pot, leaving the probe to sit for a few minutes before pulling it out. Water only when it seems very lightly damp – if it comes up soaking wet, wait a day or two and check again. (If this chopstick method doesn’t appeal to you, invest in a
When it comes to humidity, on the other hand, be very generous. Your Calathea needs plenty of moisture while its roots are still tender. The best way to provide it is by setting up a humidifier nearby. Alternatively, you could slide a clear plastic bag over the plant’s foliage to trap the vapor escaping from its leaves. Our article on humidity for Calatheas has more information.
Keep this intensive care up until you see your Calathea sending out healthy new foliage. That’s your sign that the roots have taken hold in their new soil and the plant has recovered.
What if Your Calathea Looks Completely Dead?
Believe it or not, there’s a slim chance that your Calathea could still resurrect itself even if all of its foliage appears to have died. These plants often store energy in special root structures called rhizomes. They can use this reserve to create new growth when everything above the ground has died.
Cut the foliage back to the soil and follow the care protocol from step 8. After a month or two, if you’re very lucky, you might see new growth start to peek back up from the soil.
This is a long shot, of course. Nothing in this article is a guarantee – Calatheas don’t always recover from significant health problems. If you’ve lost your plant, you have our sincere sympathies. The only consolation we can offer is that the lessons you’ve learned from the experience will make you a better indoor gardener in the long run.
Final Thoughts
Reviving a dying Calathea is hard, but the steps we’ve outlined above will give you the best possible shot at success. Give the plant lots of TLC while it’s in recovery and keep a close eye on its health in the future. With patience, care, and a little bit of luck, you can help your Calathea live to fight another day.