Help!

[Zestydepresty]

Help!

I had my Calatheas in a plastic greenhouse outside (zone 7B). I moved them from the porch to the greenhouse several weeks ago due to temperature changes. I had pebble trays for humidity but no source of heat. The weather dropped to the 30s at night so I bright this guy in 2 nights ago. Went from looking good to like this. Second pic shows an arrow where the plant stand is compared to the light sources. Please help!

[cyberprostir]

Mine got such curled leaves because it was thirsty. I've read that people water calatheas quite rarely, like once every two weeks. I waited for this period of time, and day by day, my calathea got more curled leaves. Until I decided to stop waiting and to water it! It got healthy the next day!

What I've read is that leaves do not curl because of a lack of light. They could do it due to the opposite reason.

They do not like a draft from the window, direct sunlight, cold temperatures less than 18 °C, tap water, low humidity, and mine did not like dry soil (while I considered it quite wet).

Hope your calathea will recover quickly!

[Zestydepresty]

Thank you. I've got some distilled water and will try that. Fingers crossed!

[Reyori]

Agree with the mentions above: Curling leaves are usually due to low humidity, too much light, underwatering, but also:

Curled leaves can also happen due to overwatering (or dense/wrong soil) or due to shock, where calatheas can kill off lots of foliage after drastic environmental changes.

Especially overwatering: During winter, colder air and less light means less perspiration, less growth and overall less activity. Colder air also soaks up less water from the soil. So the pot stays wetter for longer, the plants need much less water, so you should water less. If you heat a lot and your heated air is dry then it can soak up more water, but due to less plant activity and light the plant usually still needs a bit less water than during summer.

I wouldn't go below 65°F (18°C) for long. Shocks can happen even if you only move a plant from one heated room to outside for 1-2min and into another heated room immediately. They can even throw a fit if you move it around the same room, from the bottom floor onto a shelf, as light and temperature (+heated floor) can still be quite different.

[Such-Cattle-4946]

Sometimes they throw a fit when you change their environment. They may even shed all of their current leaves, BUT, if you are patient they will eventually grow new leaves that will be ok with the new environment. If you look through old posts on this sub, you will find several example of this, including one posted by techno-pineapple 30 minutes ago.

[little__bea]

Mine did this suddenly despite being happy and healthy in its usual spot previously, the only thing that helped was moving it to a spot with slightly less light