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Rant: My calathea is a victim of online plant forum chaos
I noticed my calathea's leaves curling up, so I checked a popular plant care forum for tips. One person insisted it needed a pebble tray for humidity, so I set that up. Another user swore it was a watering problem and told me to only use distilled water. Then a third comment said it was root bound and needed a bigger pot immediately. After following all this advice, my plant looks worse than ever, with yellow spots everywhere. It's so annoying how everyone acts like an expert but gives totally different fixes. I just wanted a simple answer, not a dozen confusing steps. Now I'm scared to even look at another plant forum for help.
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aaron_foster202h ago
Ugh, I totally used to follow every piece of forum advice too. But then my fern got crispy after trying three fixes at once. Now I just pick one change and wait a full week before doing anything else.
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hart.sage3h ago
Wait, they told you to use ONLY distilled water? That's way too extreme. I use tap water for mine and it's fine. Sounds like some people just repeat whatever they read online without actually trying it. Forums can be a total mess of bad info. I feel your pain, my plant got worse after forum advice too. Now I just do one thing at a time and wait to see what happens.
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thompson.gavin2h ago
Seriously, the distilled water thing is just one example of how forum advice gets blown out of proportion. I bet @tylerg30's plant suffered from some well-meaning but wrong tip like that. People read one success story and treat it like a rule for everyone, when really, plants can adapt to different conditions. I've killed a few myself by changing too much at once, so now I stick to observing and making small tweaks. It's all about finding what works for your specific setup, not following some rigid online guide.
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