Calathea beauty star is native to South America. This Calathea plant produces very beautiful foliage with light and dark patterns.
You can put this plant in any part of your house because of its simple growing needs. No need to buy fancy equipment for this beautiful foliage plant.
Today I will walk you through the calathea beauty star care needs and maintenance tips.
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About the Calathea beauty star
This calathea beauty star is a member of the Marantaceae family. It has long oval-shaped dark green leaves with white and light-yellow markings.
The undersides of beauty star leaves develop purple color.
This plant folds its leaves in the evening as we do in prayer. In the morning it opens its leaves to gain the maximum amount of light.
You can put it in any corner of your house it will lighten up the dull corners.
Another benefit of growing calathea beauty star is their air-purifying qualities. It gives you a toxin-free indoor environment by eliminating pollutants.
This is the second most common reason behind its popularity.
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Quick Care Guide
| Common Names | Calathea beauty star |
| Max growth | 2 feet |
| Light | 1 hour direct light |
| Water | Moderate |
| Soil | Well-draining loamy soil |
| Temperature | 60 to 85 Degrees F |
| Toxicity | Non-Toxic |
| Diseases | Root rot |
| Pests | Mealybugs, Scales, and Aphids |
Calathea Beauty Star Care Steps
Before purchasing it from the gardens store, decide where you want to put it in your house. Make sure the place has a good amount of indirect bright light.
Inspect the selected plant carefully.
Do not buy if you see signs of pests and diseases.
Do not buy calathea with yellow leaves that look weak and unhealthy.
Sometimes garden stores give good discounts on some plants. Double-check these discounted plants and if you see recently repotted signs do not buy them.
When you bring the plant home, repot it in the terracotta container. Use fresh soil that has some kind of organic material.
Always buy plants in the summer and spring seasons.
Because it is easy for them to accept your home environment in these months.
Now let’s talk about how you can grow your plant tall and healthy and what things you need to grow?
Light requirements
For proper calathea beauty star care expose it to direct light not more than 60 minutes per day. Calathea plants have soft leaf tissues.
Therefore, these species cannot survive in direct sun rays.
The straight-falling sunlight can burn their leaves. The first sign of overexposure is yellow and pale leaves.
It is tropical plants and we all know the plants that grow in grow on the ground of tropical jungles do not get bright light.
They get a limited amount of filtered light because of the plant canopy.
This means your beauty star needs just a few hours of low light to grow healthy. This makes them good indoor plants.
If you are living in USDA zones 11 and 12 then the north-facing window will be the best place for growing calathea beauty star.
Soil for Calathea Beauty Star
This houseplant needs continuous moist soil to grow especially in spring and summer.
Therefore, you need to use soil that is based on peat moss. Because such soil has good draining powers with an excellent capacity of retaining moisture.
If you have a general potting mix at home you can use that also.
Before that, we need to make it suitable for the calathea plants. Mix one part perlite + one part peat moss + one part of loamy soil.
Your brilliant potting mix is ready to use for a caring calathea beauty star.
The pH of the soil has to be between 5.8 to 6.5 for the optimum growth of plants.
Never use garden soil for growing calathea beauty star. Because garden soil becomes wet and soggy when watered.
And Calathes cannot survive in wet soil. They get infected by root rot.
Watering beauty star
Water your plants when the soil becomes dry otherwise it will result in overwatering.
Before pouring water see the soil condition if it is dry then give water.
In winters mist some water on plant leaves (once in 10 days). This will keep them protected from the dry air.
But while misting make sure there is no disease or pest infestation.
Before misting water check the leaves, they should be dry enough, if they are moist postpone misting to some other day.
For Calathes use clean drinkable water that does not contain heavy minerals.
Note: Overwatering results in root rot and once the calathea beauty star roots will get infected. It will be hard for you to save this plant.
Temperature
To make your plant thrive like crazy maintain the room temperature between 60 to 80 degrees Fs.
If the grow room has an incorrect temperature, then it is best to shift the plant to another place.
This tropical plant does not like cold and hot winds. In the summer season, your plants can manage them somehow.
But the problem comes in the winter season when the temperature drops below 60 F.
In cold temperatures, the sap of the plant starts freezing and it develops stunted growth signs.
Do not put the plant near the heating vents, in front of the AC, also avoid entry doors.
You can take the help of a room temperature monitoring system. These devices are easily available on Amazon.
Some of them are specially designed for indoor gardens.
Set the temperature limit and it will alarm when the room temperature drops or rise.
Humidity
The room humidity must be between 50 to 65%. This is the perfect range for calathea beauty star care and maintenance.
In its native growing place, this plant grows in high humidity. But those high levels of humidity are not possible in our homes.
We have a family and we need to think about their health also.
High humidity is not good for the human body and lungs.
40 to 65 % humidity range is good for plants and human beings.
Use a humidity tray in case of low air moisture. It is a simple method of increasing the humidity.
There are devices called plant humidifiers. They are specially made for indoor plants.
They are portable, affordable, and very effective for plants.
Fertilizers
Calathea beauty star is a fast-growing plant. It gains its maximum height of 2 feet in less than a year.
Therefore, it needs highly fertile soil and you need to refill the soil with nutrients once it absorbs all of them.
The general guidelines say,
fertilize your calatheas once every 30 days. Especially in growing seasons (summer, spring, and fall).
Stop fertilizing it on winter days otherwise, it will result in nutrient-burned leaves.
Use any normal houseplants fertilizer. If you have a good budget, you can buy special calathea liquid fertilizer.
Dilute the required ml of nutrients in the clean water and pour it directly into the base of the plant.
Do not mist nutrient-rich water on plant leaves. This action will burn the plant leaves.
Trimming
You only need to trim the old leaves. Because they become yellow and lose their natural color pattern.
Also, remove the damaged leaves, and cut the infected leaves.
You can also trim the plant to give it any shape of your choice. Some people like natural looks while others want to take full control over plant growth.
That is only possible with pruning/ trimming.
Repotting
To repot calathea beauty star spring is the best time.
Plants repotted in this time easily get established in their new plant pots.
Take the beauty star out from its old pot and inspect the roots.
Cut the brown and damaged parts of the roots.
Use fresh soil in the new pot and plant it in a new pot.
Give some water and place the new pot in its place.
The repotting is finished.
Toxicity
The good news is calathea beauty star is not toxic to dogs, cats, horses, and humans.
This means you can grow this plant without worrying about the toxic effects.
Buy it from the local garden store or order it online and grow it in any part of your house.
Propagation
Propagation in soil
For soil propagation, you need to have a good-quality of potting soil. You can use the same soil for propagation that you use to grow calathea beauty star.
Propagation of calathea beauty star is only possible by root division.
Take the plant out of its pot and remove the soil from the roots.
Divide the roots and plant them in different pots.
Give some water and put the pots in a warm, humid place.
Propagation in water
Cut the healthy stem of the plant
Dip the edge in rooting hormone and put the cutting in a glass of water
Change the water once it gets dirty or once in 7 days.
Keep the room warm and moist.
The cuttings will develop roots in a few days.
Once the roots grow 1 inch long then you can transfer the cuttings into a plant pot.
Pest problems
Mealybugs, Aphids, and Scales are the common pests that infect the beauty star calathea plants.
They suck the liquid from the plant leaves and turn them yellow and pale.
Mealybugs are more common on calathea plants. To get rid of them you need to take quick action. Use isopropyl alcohol and cotton to wipe plant leaves.
You can also use neem oil to kill mild fungus and also to prevent it in the future.
Insecticidal soap and commercial pesticides are the last options.
Diseases
The most common disease is root rot which may affect plants.
Extra water in the potting soil trigger root fungus diseases. This fungus first affects the plant roots then it spread to other soft parts like leaves and stems.
To prevent this condition, you need to water your plants wisely. If they are already infected then you need to use fungicides to treat plant leaves.
But to treat root rot you need to take the plant out of its pot and cut the infected roots. At once you can cut 40 % of the roots.
If more than 60 % of the roots are infected then the best idea is to use the division and propagate it.
You can also use stem cutting for propagation.
Brown edges of beauty star plant leaves
Less watering and extremely bright light are the two common causes that trigger brown edges in calathea plants.
In case your plant gets infected give it some water immediately and move it to a partially shady place.
Where your plants can easily receive enough filtered light.
For the best calathea beauty star care and maintenance strictly follow the growing guide rules.
