Calathea warscewiczii is a name of a beautiful plant. I know it is hard to pronounce correctly. The name is tough to speak but the calathea warscewiczii care is simple and quick.
Calathea warscewiczii is a family member of Marantaceae family. Its velvety leaves have patterns on them. This plant is a cousin of the prayer plant. Because like prayer plant this also folds its leaves at night and opens them at the beginning of the day.
In its native place, it grows on the forest floor. There it gets indirect bright light with high humidity. But it can tolerate low humidity. Fertilization is not necessary if you grow it in high fertile soil.
Today you will learn everything about the calathea warscewiczii care and its growing needs.
About the plant
It is an evergreen perennial plant and is naturally found in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. A healthy calathea warscewiczii can grow up to 1 meter in height and spread 0.5 meters wide.
The leaf pattern is dark green in color and underneath the leaves it develops purplish-red color.
In its blooming season, the plant produces creamy flowers.
Quick care Guide
| Common Names | Calathea Jungle Velvet |
| Toxicity | Non-toxic to pets and humans |
| Soil | Well-draining, light weight |
| Light | Low bright light |
| Water | Moderate |
| Temperature | 16 to 30 degrees C |
| Humidity | 50 % or above |
| Pests and Diseases | Mealybugs, Spider mites and Leaf spot |
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Calathea warscewiczii care guide
Follow the below guide if you want to or you are growing it in plant pots.
Light
Save the plant from high intense sun rays. It only needs low intense bright light to grow. In the jungle, it grows on the floor. There it only gets filtered sunrays. But at home, if you put it on the sunny window the plant leaves get burn.
Leaf scorching is a common sign of over-light exposure.
Locate the plant pot in such a place where it gets indirect sun rays. For this purpose, you can use a sheer curtain on windows and then put them near any window.
You will be surprised to know that your ceiling light is sufficient to grow it. If you turn ON the ceiling light for 7 continuous hours per day. Calathea warscewiczii will not need sunlight.
The light has to be at least 50 watts powerful.
Another method of the light source is artificial grow lights. These lights are designed to grow plants in the absence of sunlight. With their help, you can grow it even in your basement.
150 watts LED grow light will be the best choice over other lighting technologies.
Soil
For best Calathea warscewiczii care and maintenance use fast-draining soil. This type of soil does not store water in it. The molecules of the potting soil store the water content. And let the extra water drain quickly. Whereas other soils hold the entire amount of water and become wet and soggy.
Wet soil loses the level of oxygen in it and increases the chances of root infection.
The best soil mixture is
1 part perlite + 1 part coco coir + remaining garden soil.
No doubt the coco coir has some organic nutrients but they are not enough to grow plants.
Therefore, you need to use fertilizers. The best method is adding organic mediums in the potting soil.
For outdoor plants, you can use compost like rich organic substances.
The soil that you are going to use in the pot (only garden soil) needs sterilization. This is the process that kills all harmful bacteria in the soil.
It will not affect the percentage and efficacy of the natural nutrients of the soil.
If you do not have enough time for the Calathea warscewiczii care. Then you should use pre-fertilized soil. This soil has everything in it that a plant needs to grow.
Go to your local garden store and ask them to show you the different types of pre-fertilized soil.
Choose that is cheap to buy and contains all organic nutrients.
For good deals you can visit Amazon.com.
Watering Calathea warscewiczii
You need to keep the soil moist and it is only possible if you regularly water the plant pot. In the summer season, you have to give it more water due to the hot weather. In winters water the plants less frequently because this is their rest time.
There is not any perfect time or watering schedule.
You need to use the moisture meter to check the soil moisture.
Poking the finger in the soil gives you a rough idea of the moisture. But the digital soil moisture meter gives you the exact reading. Working with readings (data) is easy for us.
Buy any soil moisture measuring meter from the Amazon.
For safety use normal temperature water. The water should be clean and drinkable. The water that you can drink is safe for your plants. Tap water might contain chlorine and this is a type of water that is not good for drinking and watering plants.
Water the plants in the morning time. So that they can have enough time to absorb this water before the night.
Temperature
Calathea warscewiczii needs warm weather to grow. In its initial growing stage, the temperature has to be between 16 to 26 degrees C.
Once the plant gets matured it can tolerate the temperature up to 35 degrees C. With one condition and that is there must be high humidity in the room.
As long as the air moisture is appropriate the high temperature is not a problem for the plant. But we all know with the rise in temperature the humidity drops down.
You can put the plant pot outside in summer if you like flower pots on your front door. Move it indoors when the temperature drops to 18 degrees C.
For proper Calathea warscewiczii care install a temperature monitoring meter in the grow room.
Humidity for Calathea warscewiczii
This plant needs a little bit higher humidity than the normal home humidity range. With various methods, you can easily adjust it.
The easiest method of boosting the humidity is using humidifiers.
Maintain the humidity above 50% throughout the year to grow this plant.
It can survive in little humid fluctuations. But then it cannot produce flowers. Personally, I do not like its flowers. They are creamy and tiny in size. The foliage is way beautiful and attractive than flowers.
Most of the houseplants do not produce flowers due to improper growing conditions.
If you like flowers then go for flowering plants. They are known for their beautiful flowers. But Calathea warscewiczii is famous for its leaves.
Ways to Increase the humidity
The first method is the use of a pebble tray. Take a tray fill it with some small size pebbles and pour water into it. Then put the plant pot on it. Make sure the water does not touch the bottom hole of the plant pot.
When the hot air touches the water, it gets evaporated. The exported water drops make a layer of moisture around the plant.
Here you need to keep eye on the tray water. Fill it immediately when it gets almost empty.
Fertilizers
Calathea warscewiczii do not need fertilizers. Fertilizers are required for those plants that produce eatables or heavy bloom.
But for good growth, you can use any balanced liquid fertilizer. It has to be little high in nitrogen the other two nutrients.
Follow the instruction of the bottle and dilute it accordingly.
Use organic nutrients only because they do not damage the roots. Plants like Calathea warscewiczii have soft root tissues. That can easily be damaged with fertilizations. In the case of organic nutrients if you accidentally give more nutrients even then your plants are safe.
Because they contain all organic substances and such nutrients are slow-releasing nutrients. A sudden high dosage of nutrients damages the plants. But slow-releasing nutrients benefit the plants in many ways.
Propagation of Calathea warscewiczii
There are two methods of Calathea warscewiczii propagation. One is Rhizome division and the second is stem cutting
Rhizome division
Take out the overly grown plant from its pot.
Remove the soil from the plant roots.
Divide the plant rhizome into parts
Every part should have at least one leaf with healthy roots
Take small containers and plant rhizomes separately.
Place the plant in the high humid place
Or
Cover the pot with plastic over to increase the humidity.
You will see signs of growth in just a few days.
Stem cuttings
This is the traditional method of plant propagation. If you are an experienced grower then you know how to do it.
Cur the 4 healthy stems.
Each stem should have one or more leaves.
Place the cuttings in the seedling starting mix (50% peat and 50 % sand).
Put the pots in a warm location in high humidity.
Once the stems start growing this means they develop the roots. This is the time to repot them into their final pot.
Pruning
Pruning is the essential step of the Calathea warscewiczii care guide. In this step, you take the sharp shears, sterilize them. And cut the overly grown parts of the plants. Also, remove the infected leaves and dead parts of the plant.
Heavy and regular pruning is required in large size and bushy plants. Calathea warscewiczii needs seasonal pruning. For large leaves prune it 3 weeks before its growing season.
Never prune plants in their blooming time and in the winter season.
Calathea warscewiczii plant diseases
Yellow Calathea warscewiczii leaves
In most cases, overwatering is the true cause of yellow leaves. Humidity is the second cause of yellow leaves. You need to check what causes the yellow leaves of your plants. Then you can take action.
Become a detective for a day and find out the root cause of the problem. Then follow the above guide to fix it.
Calathea warscewiczii leaves curling
Lack of air moisture triggers the leaf curling. Because once the plants detect the low air moisture. They fold their leaves to protect the water stored in them.
Because they know they will die once they get out of the moisture.
Put the plant pot in a high humid place or turn on the humidifier for some time. The affected plants will become normal in few days.
Common pests
Incomplete Calathea warscewiczii care routine results in common pest attacks. Mealybugs, spider mites, and Scales are the common insects that attack unhygienic Calathea warscewiczii plants.
Once you see them immediately shower your plants with normal tap water and soap. Use normal insecticidal soap.
Then pour some isopropyl alcohol on a cotton cloth and wipe the plant leaves. This will kill their colonies.
At last spray natural anti-fungal and anti-bacterial spray on plants.
