If want to know everything about the show stopper Calathea Rosy also known as Calathea Roseopicta. You are reading the right piece of content.
Because today I will talk about How to grow and care for Calathea Rosy, how to propagate it and keep it thriving for its entire life, and how to prevent common problems.
Light is the main growth factor and variegation depends upon the amount of light your plant is absorbing. Water and fertilizers play important role in photosynthesis and in making plant glucose. Keep humidity on the higher side to keep calathea Roseopicta healthy and vibrant.
Now let’s discuss in detail:
About the Calathea Rosy
Calathea Rosy is also famous with the common name of Rose Painted Calathea. It is naturally found in the tropical forests of Brazil.
It has beautiful oval-shaped leaves with burgundy undersides. The top surface of the leaves has a pink center with a green border.
The pink portion of the plant looks like, someone is just painted the center part of the leaves.
The maximum height of this plant is nearly 2 feet. But the indoor grown calathea rosy plants generally grow only 1.2 to 1.5 feet in height.
If you like to naturally decorate your home. Then you must have a few thriving calathea rosy plants in bedrooms and living room.
To encourage the height and leaf size of this plant you should use general-purpose fertilizer in its active season.
How to Grow and Care for Calathea Rosy plants
Calathea Roseopicta is a compact plant and needs the same care as Calatheas Louisae and Calathea Crocata but with some little tweaks.
Everything is explained below, read each part and make important notes. So, that you can grow an excellent and beautiful Calathea Rosy without facing problems.
Calathea Rosy Light Needs
Bright filtered light is required for its proper growth. Calathea Rosy can also grow in low light conditions but then you will not see pink variegation.
To encourage your plant to produce a large pink portion on its leaves. You must expose calathea Rosy plants to indirect bright light for 8 to 10 hours per day.
In the summer season, you can place your plant near any sunny window and can arrange the filtered light for it.
The problem comes in winter when we don’t see Sun for days. In this condition, you should use LED grow lights.
Remember that light is the most critical growing factor of Calathea Roseopicta.
200 watts grow light will work fine and emit a sufficient amount of light energy for this plant.
Moreover, these artificial grow lights throw full spectrum light means light waves similar to the sun.
My Calathea Rosy is growing on an east-facing window. It enjoys morning sunlight for 2 to 3 hours and filtered bright light for rest of the day.
You should never place Calathea Roseopicta in too much bright light. Extra bright light is harmful to the plant.
The leaves will start turning brown from their tips due to the loss of excessive moisture.
Use a light meter to measure the amount of light in food candles. It needs 300 to 450 foot candles of light for perfect growth and good variegation.
Potting soil
Calathea Rosy needs soil that is lightweight and makes it easy for its roots to absorb water and nutrients.
The second quality we need in the Calathea Rosy potting soil is fast-draining ability. This quality is required to save your plant roots in accidental overwatered situations.
Top 3 ingredients that are required to make perfect soil are:
- Perlite
- Peat
- Coarse Sand or Coco Coir
Note: Add 2 parts of peat + 1 part of perlite and a little bit of coir or Sand to make potting soil for Calathea Rosy.
Perlite is required to hold the moisture for a long time. This ingredient helps to prevent dehydration and always stores enough moisture for plant roots.
This porous material store water in its pores and roots can access it whenever they need water. Perlite also makes the soil lightweight and increases the aeration.
Peat also holds a little bit of moisture but, in this formula, its main use is to drain extra water out of the plant pot and hold the plant structure.
It is an inexpensive ingredient and is easily available everywhere in the United States.
Coarse Sand makes the soil lightweight and it also allows extra water to go out of the pot easily. Whereas the coco coir does the same but also makes the soil fluffy.
Fluffiness reduces the pressure on the roots and they work on their 100% efficiency.
Ready to Use Soil mix is:
African Violet Mix, Check its Price on Amazon.
Watering Calathea Roseopicta
Like other topical plants calathea rosy needs good moisture in its soil. It cannot tolerate dry conditions for long.
Within 2 to 3 days your plant leaves will start turning brown and it is hard to revive dehydrated Calathea Roseopicta.
Therefore, to prevent watering-related problems you should keep the soil moist all the time without making it waterlogged.
The helpful technique is:
Poke your finger in the soil and if you find the top 2 inches of the soil are dry. This indicates that your plant needs immediate water.
But
If the soil has a good amount of moisture this indicates that your calathea rosy is not thirsty at the moment.
Generally, it takes 7 to 10 days to absorb given water from the soil on summer days.
Whereas in the winter season rosy plants become a bit lazy and took 15 to 20 days to absorb given water from the soil.
Overuse of water in any season of the year leads to root rot. It is a fungus that is deadly for calathea roots.
To prevent this condition, follow the right watering technique.
The ideal temperature for Rosy Calathea
The ideal recommended temperature range for calathea rosy is 60 to 75 degrees F.
It can tolerate a maximum temperature of up to 85 degrees F. Above this will only cause harm to its beautiful pink painted leaves
Too high a temperature increases the use of water in transpiration and respiration. As a result, your plant can easily go out of moisture.
In simple words, the Calathea Roseopicta becomes dehydrated and dies in a few days.
The minimum temperature tolerance of this plant is 60 Degrees F. If you place it temperature below 60 F.
The moisture stored in its leaves starts freezing which will damage the cell walls of the leaves. The potting soil becomes cold and as a result, the plant roots stop functioning properly.
In short, your plant loses its warmth and starts dying.
To prevent it from dying:
- Do not place it at freezing temperature.
- Use heat mats if you place your plant in your garage.
- Adjust your home thermostat to keep the home temperature in a comfortable range.
- Do not place your plant on a cold floor, especially if are using plastic pots.
- Do not place it near the heating vents, the hot air will make your plant leaves dry and crispy.
- To avoid cold shocks do not place it near the main door entrance and on large windows.
Humidity Requirements
Try to keep the home humidity between 50% to 60% for the good health of your growing Calathea Roseopicta Rosy.
Below 50% is generally not recommended. As this is considered low for the plant and can destroy its beautiful leaves.
The leaves will develop brown spots with crispy edges and curl. Calathea leaves curling is the early warning sign of low humidity.
Above 60 % is not a problem for the plant it can enjoy 90% air moisture. But this range is difficult to maintain and is also not good for human health.
Between 50 to 60 % is the ideal range of air moisture.
Best Methods to increase low humidity:
Misting Water:
Use a spray bottle and mist some clean water on calathea rosy leaves. Cover the entire plant in 3 to 4 sprays.
Be careful not to wet the leaves or this will invite leaf fungus bacteria.
Pebble Tray:
This method is common and is very helpful in low humidity. Take an empty tray, fill it with small rocks and add water to it.
Place your plant pot over it and let it enjoy the evaporating water of the bottom tray.
Plant Humidifier:
This is an excellent and most effective way of increasing humidity. Add clean water to the machine and turn it ON.
Place all your plants that are suffering from low humidity in one room. The humidifier will add the right level of moisture to the air in a short time.
Fertilizing Needs of Roseopicta
Fertilization is a must to keep the Rose Painted Calathea healthy. Give your plant nutrient-rich water in spring and summer only.
Do not use nutrient supplements in the winter season. It is the dormancy time of calatheas. They take rest on winter days and do not need a high boost of nutrients.
All-purpose plant food is best to use to avoid fertilizer burn and to reduce fertilizing expenses.
Many gardeners recommended expensively and specialized calathea fertilizers. But in my experience, they don’t do any miracle.
General houseplant fertilizers have everything that pink calathea needs to grow and stay fit.
Pruning & Maintenance
Because it is not a fast grower and stays short in height, you will not need to prune your plant frequently.
Occasional pruning is required to keep your plant protected from pests and fungal diseases.
Trim yellow leaves, especially those that are at the bottom part.
Bottom leaves naturally turn yellow due to age factors and it is safe to remove them.
Save the energy of your plant by trimming the brown leaves and brow tips.
Before trimming, it is necessary to disinfect the tools with rubbing alcohol. Also, keep the plant surroundings clean and hygienic.
Use a clean and damp cloth to clean plant leaves once in 5 days.
Toxicity
Calathea Rosy is not toxic to humans and animals even if ingested in large quantities. This means you can freely grow this plant in any location. No need to worry if your pets or kids are playing around with this plant.
Repotting
Repotting is a must once in 2 to 3 years. By repotting you can keep your calathea rosy happy and increase its life span.
There is no fixed time for repotting plants. You must know the signs of repotting. Lift the plant pot and see if the roots are coming out of the drainage hole.
This means roots want to grow large in size and the pot is small for them.
Take a 2 inches bigger pot and use fresh soil and plant your calathea rosy in it. Give some water to add moisture to the potting soil.
Place repotted plant in its place and follow regular care.
Propagating Calathea Roseopicta Rosy
Stem-cutting and leaf propagation methods do not work in this case. I know the stem cutting method is easy and less messy.
But we have only one option which is root division. The main positive point of root division propagation is you instantly get a new plant.
No need to root the stems and wait for new roots to develop. Just divide the roots into parts you have another calathea rosy.
Step-by-Step Process of Propagation:
- Water your plant 24 hours before propagation.
- Gently lose the soil and tilt the plant pot to take calathea rosy out of its current pot.
- Remove the soil from the roots. If you like you can wash the roots with clean water.
- It is a nice time to inspect roots for infections and damaged parts.
- Remove the damaged root portions.
- Choose sections where roots are naturally separated from each other.
- Divide the roots into parts, you can use a knife if it is necessary for the process.
- Now plant back the mother plant in its pot and place new division in a new pot in new soil.
- Now that you have two plants, you are done with propagating Calathea Roseopicta.
Common Problems
Brown Leaf tips
Having brown tips on calathea rosy leaves indicates your plant is dehydrated. There is only a limited amount of moisture left in the leaves.
Immediately check the soil and give water to your plant.
If the soil has moisture, then the cause behind brown spots is a fungal disease. When leaf fungus eats the internal tissues of leaves. The leaves develop brown or dark spots on the place.
To prevent brown leaf tips, follow the above-mentioned watering technique and keep your plant clean and hygienic.
No Pink Variegation
If you are doing everything right but your plant is not developing pink variegation. Then the problem is with the light energy.
It needs a minimum of 7 hours of bright light for variegation.
Move your plant to a brighter place to kickstart the variegation process. Expose your plant to morning sunlight.
Place it on the east-facing window and let it enjoy direct morning sunlight for a few hours. Your plant will definitely develop a pink portion on its leaves.
Add organic fertilizer to the soil if the soil is less fertile.
Root Rot
It is a result of overwatering and in this disease, the leaves of calathea rosy start turning yellow. The soil stays wet and smells like rotten eggs.
After seeing all these symptoms in your plant, immediately unpot it and check the roots.
Use a sharp and sterilized knife to cut the decaying part of the roots.
Then use fresh soil and a new pot to plant it. Give some water to make the new soil moisten. Follow regular care and your plant will heal in 15 to 20 days.
Weak Stems
Weak calathea rosy stems signal two conditions cold damage and second is lack of sufficient nutrients.
If you are using fertilize the soil and also use fertilizers. To heal your plant and make the stems strong again.
You must change the place of your rosy calathea and place it in a warm location.
Pests on Rose Painted Calathea
If there are insects on your plant, quickly separate it from other healthy plants. Buy insecticidal soap and rinse your plant by using clean water.
Let your plant drain extra water and it will take 45 minutes to 1 hour to completely drain extra water.
Once your plant becomes dry spray neem oil on its leaves. Neem will help your plant to heal soon and also prevent more pest attacks.
Conclusion
Now that you know everything about calathea rosy care and maintenance. It will be easy for you to grow this plant indoors without facing problems.
But if you still have any questions, you can comment below.
