Calathea Production Reference and Care Checklist

Check your setup, then compare the original university production note with later indoor-care guidance.

Check your Calathea setup

Tick the items as you record your setup.

Identify whether you are reading production or indoor-care advice.Record the potting medium, watering pattern and drainage.Record light, temperature and humidity before changing care.Check the actual pH and test method before adjusting a mix.Inspect leaf undersides, growing points and roots for problems.Keep a dated note of symptoms and changes, then compare it with the sources.

Download the reference table (CSV)

You can tick the boxes and read the reference without JavaScript. Saving, progress, adding items and resetting need JavaScript. Use your browser's Print command to print the list.

Production conditions and indoor care are different

The archived UF/IFAS Calathea Production Guide, RH-91-9 is by R. T. Poole, A. R. Chase and L. S. Osborne. The later UF/IFAS ENH1030 / EP285 is by Jianjun Chen and Dennis B. McConnell. Keep the source and setting attached to each recommendation.

Calathea reference: historical production note and later university guidance
Topic	Original production note	Later guidance and reading limit
Medium and pH	Describes moisture-retentive peat:sand media and pH near 6.5. Original note	Describes soilless peat, bark, vermiculite or perlite blends; production pH around 6.0. Later guidance
Light and environment	Production light: 1,000–2,000 foot-candles; large plants lose quality in excessive heat. Original note	Separates indoor conditions: 150–200 foot-candles, 65–80°F and 40–60% humidity. Later guidance
Nutrition	Uses a 3:1:2 fertilizer ratio; excess potassium can cause spotting. Original note	Recommends monitoring substrate pH and electrical conductivity in commercial production. Later guidance
Symptoms	Brown edges can involve light, pH or excess fertilizer; pale leaves can involve nutrition. Original note	Wilting may reflect drought or root pathogens; symptoms need context. Later guidance
Propagation	Discusses divisions and nodal cuttings. Original note	Describes division and commercial tissue-culture liners. Later guidance
Diseases	Covers bacterial leaf spots, Alternaria, Helminthosporium, Fusarium, mosaic virus and nematodes. Original note	Its physiological-problem table is not a substitute for identifying a pathogen.
Pests	Lists caterpillars, gnats, mealybugs, mites, scales, shore flies and slugs. Original note	Use the historical note to locate a topic, not as a current pesticide label.

Use the reference with your observations

Write down the conditions you actually measured and the change you made. Keep the measurement unit with the number. A light reading in foot-candles is not a duration in hours, and a medium pH result is not a fertilizer mixing rate.

Choose the setting that matches your question. The later guide separates commercial production from shipping and indoor care. Do not apply a greenhouse area-based fertilizer rate directly to one houseplant pot. The table above is a reading aid, not a new fertilizer recipe.

When a symptom needs a closer look

Use the named problems in the original note to find the relevant discussion, then record what you can actually see. A brown edge or a wilted leaf alone does not identify one cause. The checklist leaves room for water, medium, environment and visible pests before an intervention is chosen.

The archived note includes historical pesticide discussions. This reference does not reproduce those treatments or establish present-day registration. Follow the current label for any product you use and its permitted plant, pest and location.

About this reference

It preserves access to the archived note and distinguishes it from later guidance. It does not average their values or treat the two documents as one experiment. The CSV keeps the topic, source URL and context with each entry.

For growing-medium ingredients, use our ingredient research table. For filling a new container, use the pot-volume calculator.