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I had to repot one of my Calatheas, because this one was a bit unhappy with the potting configuration.
It has been growing in semi hydro for half a year now, and has been in soil before when I bought it.
This is why the upper parts of the roots are brown-ish.
They make rhizomes, similar to ginger or potatoes, to store energy for the future. From those bulbs can also emerge new shoots if they are near enough the surface, and can be divided there for propagation if the plant is big enough.
My "secret tip" is having them in semi-hydro (passive hydroponics with LECA).
The claim that they'll need 60+% RH is wrong in my experience, they "only" need the absolute perfect balance between having a substrate that's too wet (rotting risk) and too dry (wilting and burnt leaves).
Also, tap water is very bad for them, even here in Germany with extremely high standards (no chlorine or fluorine, etc.).
My nutrient solution is made with a full nutrient fertilizer and pure water (osmosis or rain), so there's no bad stuff (carbonates, etc.) in there. They react very badly to those things.
My collection is less than a year old, most of them not even a few months. They've been growing like weeds, even in winter!
You're making me want to try it again. Mine never quite hit the "growing like weeds" stage, just a very gradual decline ever since I got them. I saw that about tap water a few months ago and got a big boost after switching to distilled water. But then something happened after I tried a humidifier, possibly the particulate dust poisoned the plant just like tap water would. 🤷♀️
I wouldn't recommend it tbh.
Transitioning plants, especially calatheas and such, from soil to hydro is very very veeery annoying.
You have to get every little last bit of dirt off, or else everything rots away.
This process can be quite challenging for many plants, and I would advise anyone without expertise to not bother, or else you're up to a lot of frustration.
You can easily get a few cuttings of the Maranta leuconora if you want.
Propliftingis the term you'll want to search for ;)They can be very easily propagated via cuttings, opposed to Calatheas which can only be done via root splitting