The Calathea medallion plant is popular among houseplant lovers. You can lighten up any corner of your house with this amazingly beautiful medallion calathea.
It has beautiful leaves and in some parts of the country, it is called a prayer plant but in actual it is not a prayer plant. There is a good difference between both them. Later in this article, you will know how they are different, with other fun facts.
Note: This plant is not for beginners because it needs extra care to grow. Those who do not have enough time for the houseplants should choose other varieties of calathea.
Now let’s talk about the Calathea medallion plant care tips and common problems. First, we will know some important information about the plant then we will jump to the main part.
About the Calathea medallion plant
The Calathea medallion plant is also known as Calathea Veitchiana. It belongs to the Marantaceae family.
Under ideal growing conditions, this plant grows from 12 to 30 inches tall.
It has round-shaped leaves with excellent green and silvery patterns on the top portion with burgundy or reddish undersides.
For the best Calathea medallion plant care use a plant pot that has a bottom hole.
Calathea Medallion folds half of its leaves in the evening like the prayer plant and opens them again in the morning. Not all calathea medallion varieties fold their leaves.
This is the reason people call it a prayer plant but in reality, it is not a real prayer plant.
There is a difference between the prayer plants and the calathea medallion.
The leaves of prayer plants are long and oval-shaped whereas medallion calathea leaves are wider and round-shaped.
The prayer plant folds its leaves upwards from close to the stem just like we do while praying.
And medallion plant slightly folds its leaves.
Quick Care Guide
| Common Names | Calathea roseopicta, rose-painted prayer plant |
| Toxicity | Non-Toxic |
| Size | 10 to 30 inches tall |
| Light | Indirect sunlight |
| Water | Keep the soil moist |
| Temperature | 65 to 85 degrees F |
| Humidity | Above 50 % |
| Fertilization | General houseplant liquid fertilizer in summer |
| Pests | Spider mites, Aphids |
| Diseases | Brown tips, leggy growth, root rot. |
Benefits of calathea medallion
- Calathea Medallion purifies the room’s air
- It absorbs toxins and dust particles from the indoor air.
- This calathea is non-toxic to pets and children
- It lightens up your home with its charming looks
- If you have dry skin issues then put this plant in the room. It will increase the room humidity.
- It does not need heavy fertilizers (huge savings on plant nutrients).
- Lower the percentage of carbon dioxide in the room and release fresh oxygen.
Calathea medallion plant care tips
For the happy calathea medallion plant, you need to follow the below calathea medallion caring tips and techniques. Take a pen and paper to make some important notes.
Light requirements for calathea medallion
Your calathea medallion plants need medium-light for happy leaves.
No doubt they can survive in low light but we grow them for their beautiful leaf patterns. They need medium indirect light to produce beautiful markings on leaves.
So, you need to place the plant pot in a place where the medallion plant can get a sufficient amount of filtered light.
For example: Place it near the north-facing window or install a curtain on a sunny window to block direct sunlight.
The direct falling sun rays can burn the medallion plant leaves. If the leaf edges are brown and crispy this means your plant is suffering from high-intensity light.
Immediately shift it to the less bright location to save its life.
Watering calathea medallion
For watering calathea medallion plants you need to use fresh clean water.
Do not use tap water because in some parts of the country tap water contains a high amount of chlorine, salts, fluoride, and minerals.
All these substances are deadly for plants.
If your calathea medallion plant leaves edges are turning brown. This means the water you are using for watering medallion calathea contains hard minerals.
Shift to soft water or filtered to save your plant from dying.
This plant is prone to root rot which is a result of extra water in the plant pot. Therefore, you need to choose a pot with drain holes.
And also learn the perfect watering technique.
Before watering calathea medallion plants insert your fingertip in the potting soil up to 2 inches deep. If the soil is dry or is approaching dry.
Then give water to your plants.
Best Potting Soil
Because the medallion plant is from the tropical jungle it needs well-draining soil.
If you have good knowledge of potting soils then you can make it at home by mixing the following three ingredients in equal amounts.
Perlite
Peatmoss
Potting soil
On the other hand, those who like to use commercial potting soil. African violet potting soil will be the best and most inexpensive option.
It contains Sphagnum peat moss, perlite, Volcanic pumice, and earthworm castings with little lime to adjust the pH of the soil.
This type of soil has good draining powers with excellent aeration qualities.
The use of the wrong ingredients can kill your plant in a few days. Do not mix your garden soil in any formula.
If you are out of the potting soil then you can use your garden soil instead of it.
But before mixing in the formula you need to sterilize it to kill the all-harmful pathogens and viruses.
You May Also Like: How to Sterilize Garden Soil?
Temperature Range
The best temperature range for perfect calathea medallion plant care is between 65 to 80 degrees F.
The good news is we have our home temperature in this range which means no worries about the temperature.
Keep your plants away from the direct Air conditioner air and hot air of heating systems.
The lowest possible temperature for calathea medallion is 55 degrees F. Below this temperature, your medallion calathea plant will start dropping its leaves.
This results in permanent damage which cannot be reversed with any method.
If you set your plant pot outside in the spring and summer.
Then you should bring it inside when the outside temperature drops to 60 degrees F. Leaving it outside in cold to grow will result in the total loss of a beautiful plant.
Humidity
All tropical plants need high humidity to live. But this high humidity is not suitable for humans.
So, we need an air moisture level that is good for both humans and tropical jungle plants.
Keep the room humidity between 50% to 65 % for better health of your calathea medallion plants. In case the room humidity is on the lower side.
Then shift it to another room or follow the below practices to help your plant to increase room humidity.
Misting water
This an old technique in which we use a spray bottle and fill it with clean filtered water. Then spray the water on all the leaves. This technique is good where humidity is slightly lower than the recommended point.
Pebble tray
This technique helps to increase the humidity by 10 %. All you need to do is take a humidity tray, fill it with water and add some small rocks.
Then put the plant pot over it. The hot air will evaporate the water of the tray and this will add moisture to the air.
Keep the adequate water level in the tray to avoid low humidity levels.
Humidifiers
This a professional and strong solution to low humidity. Buy any inexpensive plant humidifier and fill the reservoir with filtered water and turn it ON.
Place it next to the plant and it will increase the entire room humidity in a few hours (depending on the size of the humidifier).
There is another method where we put all the plants close to each other. But this method will not work in the case of calathea plants.
Fertilizing calathea medallion plants
Fertilize the medallion plants only in the spring and summer seasons.
These are the seasons when they grow rapidly and need a good amount of nutrients to make their stems, new leaves, etc.
Use general-purpose liquid houseplant fertilizer for calathea medallion plant care.
Dilute it according to the instruction of the manufacturer and pour the solution directly to the base of the plant.
Never mist nutrient water on the plant leaves. This will burn the beautiful leaves.
Note: You cannot speed up the growth of your medallion plant by supplying it with a high amount of nutrients.
Overfertilization is a serious problem. Most of the new growers face this problem once in their life.
Stop fertilizing medallion plants in the winter season. Let them take a rest on cold days. This saves their energy and makes them internally strong.
If you see white salt on the top layer of the potting soil this means you give extra nutrients to your plants.
- In this condition flush the soil to save your plant.
- Take the calathea plant pot to the sink
- Turn ON the tap on the plant for 5 minutes.
- You will see the salts draining through the bottom hole.
- After that leave the plant for 30 minutes to drain properly
- Then place it back in its place and do not water it for some days.
Pruning
No or little bit of pruning is required for maintaining the good health of calathea medallion plants.
You only need to prune your plant when you see yellow leaves or dead leaves. After some time, the old leaves turn yellow and become dead.
You should use sharp tools to cut the yellow leaves to save the energy of medallion calatheas. The plant will use this energy to produce new leaves.
Toxicity
The leaves and sap of the calathea medallion plants are non-toxic to pets and humans. The leaves are tasty to eat therefore keep your pets away from this beautiful calathea medallion plant.
Propagating calathea medallion plant
There are 3 methods of Calathea medallion propagation.
- Seeds
- Cuttings
- Root division
Seeds and cuttings are two difficult methods of propagation. There are very few chances of success in these methods whereas the root division method has a 98% success rate.
Let’s learn how to propagate medallion plants with the root division technique.
The first step is removing the plant gently from its pot without damaging the plant roots.
- Remove the soil from the roots and you will see rhizomes
- Use sharp shears to cut the roots in different divisions.
- Now repot every single division in a separate plant pot by using fresh soil.
- Give some water to keep the soil moist.
- Put each plant pot on its location and you are done with propagation.
Pests and Diseases
Spider mites and Aphids
Because the sap of the plant is tasty these sap-sucking pests often attack calathea plants.
Once the plant gets infected you have two options.
One is to use isopropyl alcohol and a cotton cloth to wipe them from each leaf with hands. If you find it time-consuming and need a quick solution.
Then use insecticidal soap to rinse the entire plant. This will kill them, to prevent their future attack keep the plant and surroundings clean.
Apply neem oil and water spray over the plant to prevent other pests.
If the problem is on an advanced stage, then use commercial pesticide spray.
Note: Whenever you see pests on your plant. Separate it immediately from other healthy plants and then treat it. Once you are sure there are no pests left on the leaves then bring it back inside.
Root rot
This is a common problem in calathea medallion plants. Not because there is something wrong with these beautiful plants but because of human error.
Extra watering results in root rot.
When a grower intentionally or unintentionally overwaters a plant. This results in root fungus.
The high amount of water in the potting soil makes it wet and soggy. This invites the decomposing bacteria that attack the plant roots and start eating them.
Soggy soil and yellow leaves are the first signs of root infection.
Solution
- Take the plant out of its pot
- Cut the infected parts of the roots with sharp shears.
- Change the potting soil
- Plant it back in the fresh soil
- Mist limited amount of water.
- Put it in indirect bright light and you are done.
FAQ
Calathea medallion plant leaves are curling
There are 2 possible reasons for leaf curling in calathea medallion plants.
The first reason is underwatering. In this condition, your plant did not get enough water, and the water stored in the leaves gets utilized by the plant in photosynthesis.
Hence the leaves become dry and they start to curl. You will also see wrinkles on thirsty leaves.
Too much bright light is the second common reason. To save themselves from high bright light. Plants start folding their leaves.
To save your plants, immediately give enough water in case of underwatering.
Move plant pots to a less bright location and protect them from direct sunlight. In 7 to 10 days, you will see improvements in your plant health.
Brown spots on calathea medallion plant leaves
The brown spots on the plant leaves are the result of pest infestation.
When an insect bit the plant leaves, it injects a harmful chemical into the leaves. This results in brown spots on medallion plant leaves.
Inspect your plant leaves and stems closely and use a fungicidal spray to get rid of brown spots on medallion plant leaves.
This is all about calathea medallion plant care and maintenance. If you are not sure about any point, write us, and we will reply ASAP.
