Why Is My Peacock Plant Dying? (Reasons and Solutions)

The Peacock Plant, also known as the Calathea plant, is a tropical plant with magnificent foliage striped in different colors. It requires a high humidity environment, adequate sunlight, and a little wet soil for optimal growth. In this article, we will discuss all the possible reasons why your peacock plant is not flourishing.

Peacock plants thrive on soil that is usually damp but not wet. The best way to hydrate them is to use room temperature rainfall or filtered water. To keep it hydrated, make sure the soil is moist around the plant.

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Why Is My Peacock Plant Dying?

Several things could prevent your peacock plant from flourishing, but the one that has been observed most frequently so far is a lack of humidity.

The Calathea peacock plant requires a humidity level of at least 60 percent and preferably higher to achieve the greatest results.

There are several peacock houseplants, each with its unique combination of leaves, colors, and textures. It does not matter what type of peacock houseplant you choose to grow; maintaining an appropriate humidity level is the most important factor in achieving optimal performance.

Let’s look at the factors that might be contributing to the demise of your peacock plant so that you can take steps to remedy the situation and bring your plant back to life.

Read: Is Peacock Plant Toxic to Dogs?

Is Your Peacock Plant in the Right Environment?

A peacock plant will die if the air is too dry. For this tropical plant to survive in the winter, the humidity should be at least 60%.

This may not be easy to do if you live in a dry climate or keep your house at a constant temperature throughout winter thanks to a central heating system.

Insufficient humidity is often to blame when a plant’s leaves start to brown. Try some of these tips if your peacock plant seems to be withering away this winter.

Since operating heaters dries the air out, low humidity might be to blame. Here are several ways to increase moisture content:

Apply a little misting to the plant daily with a spray bottle containing warm rainwater, filtered water, or bottled water.
If the air is dehydrated, you should mist your plants daily; otherwise, mist them several times a week.
Put a houseplant humidifier of good quality somewhere in the place where your plant is located.
Shallow humidity and watertight trays filled with pebbles and water should be placed under the plant.
Another option is to grow the plant near other plants that thrive in damp environments.

Can Excessive Use or Build-Up of Fertilizer Kill Peacock Plants?

The fact that your peacock plant is sensitive to an accumulation of salts present in the soil is yet another factor that can contribute to the death of your peacock plant.

Salts can accumulate with time and become an issue even if there isn’t an excessive amount of fertilizer being applied. Leaching your pots at regular intervals is a sound practice.

If the leaf ends are turning brown, it may indicate an excessive quantity of fertilizer or salts in the soil.

If you are unclear whether leaching the pot in which your peacock plant is growing is harmful to anything, you should go ahead and do it anyway. It would be helpful if you were not afraid to try it since this would assist. This is what you should do:

Move your plant to a location where you can clear it out.
Rinse it completely with some clean, lukewarm water.
When caring for peacock plants, you should avoid using fluoride-containing tap water. Only rainwater, filtered water, or bottled water should be used.
After allowing the surplus water to drain for at least half an hour through the holes, you should thoroughly water the plant once more.
It needs repeating three times at least. Once all the water has been drained completely, return the plant to its original point.
If the pot is sitting on a flat surface or a tray, remember to remove any accumulated water from the tray before using the pot again.

Can Using Hard or Tap Water to Water Your Peacock Plants Kill them?

The peacock plant is susceptible to hard water and contaminants present in tap water, particularly fluoride and chlorine, much as it is to fertilizer salts.

The chemicals contained in hard water are equally harmful to the peacock plant. Watering your plant with hard or tap water might result in your plant receiving chemical burns, which appear as yellowing or browning of the leaves if the water is extremely hard or alkaline.

Replace tap water with distilled, filtered, spring, or even rainwater for your peacock plant. During a thunderstorm, a bowl or bucket outside the home may be used to fetch water if there is no water purifying system. Then, you can use this water as your plant’s main hydration source.

Can Over-Watering Your Peacock Plant Enough be Damaging?

The possibility for the peacock plant’s growth to flourish will be stunted if you let the soil dry out. The soil should always be kept slightly wet.

Keeping the soil moist is not easy to do without over-watering, but to properly develop your plant, you must learn to find the sweet spot between under and over-watering.

To ensure the best growth, water the plant anytime the top half an inch of the soil is dry. A precise measurement of soil moisture requires a finger probing it up to an inch and a half deep.

You must water the plant if it appears dry immediately. If moisture is still present, waiting until the next day is preferable.

Check: Tips to Make Your Peacock Plant Flourish With Just Water

Direct Sunlight is Bad for Peacock Plants

Exposing a peacock plant to excessive sunlight is one of many ways to kill it. This tropical plant’s natural habitat is the understory of rain forests, where the strong, indirect light is ideal for it to thrive.

The pinstripe plant’s delicate leaves should not be exposed to direct sunlight. The plant frequently receives too much sunshine if its leaves begin to yellow.

Direct sunlight “bleaches” and “burns” the leaves, which results in the leaves turning yellow and falling off eventually. Moving your plant as quickly as possible to a point where it won’t be exposed to direct sunlight keeps it from dying.

This plant should be put in a window that faces east with silk curtains to soften the light because it prefers indirect sunshine.

Alternatively, you might place it a foot or two away from a window facing west or a few feet away from a window facing south. Moreover, peacock plants flourish in settings with artificial plant lighting.

Infestation Of Spider Mites in Peacock Plants Can Kill Them

And finally, it’s possible that spider mites are to blame for the death of your peacock plant. This plant could become infested if the appropriate humidity level is not preserved.

Leaves with yellow spots and sticky undersides are telltale signs. There is also the possibility of observing a thin web around the leaves.

It is of the utmost importance to diagnose and solve the spider-mite infestation problem as early in the process as is humanly possible.

If you observe webs on the plant’s leaves, the invasion is already in a very advanced stage, and the plant cannot be saved. You will have no choice except to throw it out in its whole. You might be able to treat it with a miticide or pesticide if you catch it in time.

Helping Your Dying Peacock Plant

First, it is vital to determine what factors are contributing to the plant’s deterioration before making any necessary improvements.

Raise the relative humidity, cut down on the quantity of fertilizer you are giving the peacock plant, leach the plant’s pot to remove any accumulated salts from the fertilizer, replace the plant’s tap water with filtered or distilled water, and position the plant so that it is not in the path of direct sunlight.

Depending on the specifics of your situation, any or all these procedures might not be necessary for you to complete.

Explore: A Guide on Peacock Plant Brown Spots

Should You Cut Off the Dead Leaves of Your Peacock Plant?

You should remove any leaves at the end of the stem that is dead or wilting. It is completely okay to remove any leaves that are brown or yellow.

If the browning of the leaf is just present on the leaf’s tips or edges, you do not need to remove the whole leaf.

If it concerns you, you may use sharp pruning shears to clip off just the damaged edges of the leaf, leaving the remainder of the leaf on the plant where it is healthy and green. However, if it doesn’t bother you, you can leave the leaf alone.

Our Final Thoughts

Taking care of a Peacock Plant could be challenging, but only if you are unaware of the conditions that might be harmful to it.

Now that you know this information, you can provide your peacock plant with the atmosphere in which it will most flourish.