Calathea White Fusion Care InfographicCalathea white fusion is a pretty plant with leaf patterns that will surely stun you and your visitors.

You can grow this plant without problems so long as you supply its care requirements. Continue reading to learn about the peacock plant and how you can grow it.

What Is Calathea White Fusion?

Calathea lietzei, calathea white fusion or peacock plant is a tropical houseplant that is native to central Mexico and other tropical areas of South America.

Other names for this plant include zebra, peacock, or rattlesnake plant. This is a natural beauty with variegated leaves that can have a mixture of green, white, pink, and purple.

Calathea White Fusion Care

Even though this is a low-maintenance plant, you still have some work to do if you want it to be very beautiful as you see in shops and photos. Here are the general requirements and care guide for calathea white fusion plants:

– Soil Requirements

Leaf of Exotic 'Calathea White Fusion' Prayer Plant HouseplantAfter selecting the best plant to start your calathea white fusion journey with, it is very important that you consider the type of substrate to grow it in.

First of all, you must know that as a potted plant, your peacock plant cannot grow in regular garden soil. Its roots can quickly become bound in garden soil, so you must use something lighter like a potting mix.

The suitable potting mix for peacock or zebra plants can retain moisture yet be well-drained. The mix should have a below-neutral pH as this plant prefers a slightly-acidic substrate.

If you can find a calathea-specific substrate, it is best. You, however, can still use a mix of African violets combined with perlite and orchard bark to grow your calathea white fusion.

The potting mix should not be as airy as mixes for succulents because you want a substrate that can retain some amount of moisture so that your peacock plant does not lack water. Also, if you do not have time to regularly fertilize your peacock plant, you should consider adding compost to the mix.

– Water Requirements

Water is more like the source of life for your peacock plant. If you want your plants to stay alive and have firm and beautiful leaves, you need to give them water when they need it. A peacock plant without proper watering will have bad-looking leaves. How much water do peacock plants need?

You should make sure that the substrate of your calathea white fusion is consistently moist. To achieve this, you should water your peacock plants two or three times per week.

Also, it would help to mix some vermiculite with the substrate. Never wait until the substrate is dry, though you can wait for the top two or three inches of the substrate to become dry before you water again.

To help prevent overwatering, make sure that the container or pot in which your peacock plant is growing has multiple drainage holes. The pot needs two or three drainage holes so that every excess water in the substrate can easily drain off.

If you are growing your peacock plant indoors, try to place its pot on a pan or saucer to prevent the excess water from destroying your home or office furniture.

– Light Requirements

Calathea white fusion plants love dappled or filtered bright light. This means that you should place them in shaded parts of the room that receives sunlight. As a shade-loving plant, make sure that the room in which you are growing your peacock plant has six hours of daily sunlight. 

If you expose your calathea white fusion plants to too much sunlight, their leaves will look burnt, and start curling from their edges and they might wither.

If the plant does not have enough daily light, you will notice etiolation of the petioles and stem, general weakness of the plant and the plant might die. Make sure that you give your peacock plant just the right amount of light.

One reason why your plant may or may not be growing as quickly as you expected is the light availability. Just like every other plant, peacock plants need light for energy as well as growth. Therefore, you need access to sunlight if you are to grow your peacock plant without problems.

– Humidity Requirements

One very important factor that people tend to forget when growing plants is humidity. Humidity helps regulate the water and nutrient absorption and transpiration rates of every plant. Plants cannot collect water from their substrate if the environment is too humid for them. Luckily for you, peacock plants love a humid room.

As plants that originate from tropical regions, peacock plants love high humidity. You should grow your calathea white fusion plants in a room with humidity levels higher than the average.

For optimal growth, however, the room should have humidity levels around 75 percent. High humidity levels can damage furniture quickly, so make sure that the room has good ventilation.

If the room should be well-ventilated, how can you achieve high humidity for your peacock plants? Well, consider buying portable humidifiers for your plants. Additionally, you only need above-average humidity for your plants to grow. If the peacock plants need more humidity, you can tell by their very quick rate of water consumption.

– Temperature Requirements

Always remember to first consider the temperature requirement of a plant before you decide to bring it home. You cannot grow a plant that cannot grow in the temperature of your home, so the temperature requirement of every plant is very important.

Temperature helps to regulate every process in plants. The ideal temperature for calathea white fusion is 60 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit. 

You do not need to always check the temperature with a thermometer to know if it is right for your plant or not. What is an option is to check you USDA hardiness zone. Note that peacock plants grow best without problems in USDA hardiness zones 11b-12b. So long as you live in any of those zones, you have nothing to fear. 

Remember that calathea white fusion plants are tropical plants, so you can kill them if you expose them to winter. These are not frost-hardy plants, so never leave them outside when winter is approaching. You can take them inside and grow them in any window. You can also support the light by installing a grow light for your plants.

– Fertilizer Requirements

Just like you, peacock plants need food to grow. These plants may not be heavy feeders but they surely do not grow well in nutrient-depleted substrate. You can tell that your plant is well-fed according to the variegation of its leaves as plants with quality fertilizer are usually more beautiful than those lacking nutrients.

In the growing period of your peacock plants, you want to fertilize them once or twice monthly. The growing period starts in early spring and stops in mid-autumn.

You should use a liquid or water-soluble fertilizer for your peacock plants. If you don’t seem to have time to frequently fertilize your calathea white fusion, you can use a slow-release fertilizer.

If your peacock plants are lacking in nutrients, you will see them losing their green pigmentation, their leaves will become weak and they can start to die.

If the peacock plants are overfed, you will see that their leaf edges will start turning brown and the leaves will start to curl up. To prevent overfeeding your peacock plants, consider using compost.

– Pruning

The zebra or peacock plant is one with a lot of foliage, hence if you do not prune it regularly, it will grow a lot of leaves and you may not see its beauty anymore.

To help maintain your calathea white fusion plant’s beautiful appearance, you will need to prune it regularly. You can prune it once or twice annually according to your schedule.

To prune your calathea white fusion plants, all you need is disinfected scissors or a knife. Use the tool to cut off excess leaves and petioles. You can give your peacock plant any shape that you want. You can also prune the plant based on the color. Do this by keeping leaves with a specific color and removing leaves with colors that you do not want.

Note that the color of your plant’s leaves directly affects how your plant can photosynthesize. If you are retaining leaves with more white than green parts, you may need to give the plant access to more sunlight because white leaves photosynthesize poorly when compared to green leaves.

 

Propagation

It is so easy to propagate peacock plants. So long as you have a healthy mother calathea white fusion, you can propagate the plant. Here are the different methods through which you can propagate your peacock plants.

– Root Division

This method is a bit technical, but you can easily do it without problems so long as your peacock plant is healthy. Only use matured healthy plants if you want to propagate by root division. To propagate your peacock plant, carefully remove the plant from its substrate to reveal the entire root system.

Use a sterilized knife to divide the plant so that each part of the plant will have an equal amount of roots. After you have divided the plant, keep both parts exposed to the air and wait for a day until the wound is dry then plant them in new pots. Please use a new potting mix or bake the old one before you reuse it.

– Leaf Node Cutting

This is by far an easier way to propagate your calathea white fusion plants. You do not need to remove the plant from its substrate in this method. All you need to do is to use a disinfected tool to cut off a healthy part of the stem that has some leaves. Remove the lower leaves of this cutting afterward.

When the cutting wound is dry, you can plant it in a new substrate or potting mix. After watering the cutting and waiting for two or more weeks, you should see new beautiful leaves growing. Even though the cutting does not grow quickly, do not lose hope as it might still be developing roots.

– Seed Planting

Well, you can only use this method if you live in a tropical region or you are ready to mimic the natural habitat of your plant. It is rare for calathea white fusion plants to produce flowers, but if they do, they can produce seeds after successful pollination. You can get new plants by planting the seeds.

When you get your peacock plant seeds, wait until mid-spring and then plant them in a new potting mix and cover them with sand, just a thin layer. Water the peacock plant seeds by misting them until they germinate. When the seedlings’ roots have anchored, you can water them the normal way.

Common Problems to Watch Out 

Now you know how to grow and propagate your peacock plants. Here are some avoidable challenges you can encounter when growing these plants:

– Pests

Some common pests that can attack your peacock plants are fungus gnats, spider mites, and aphids. You can easily repel spider mites and aphids by applying neem seed oil or insecticidal soap on the plant leaves regularly. Cure your peacock plant of root rot and water the plant regularly to prevent fungus gnats from attacking the roots. 

Make sure you watch out for the pests growing in your calathea white fusion because they might leave different consequences for your plant, which might be harmful or even fatal. 

– Leaves Turning Brown

You may sometimes notice that the beautiful leaves of your zebra plant are turning brown. Here are some reasons:

  • Watering problems: Overwatering and not watering the plant enough can make the leaves turn brown.
  • Overfeeding: If you give your peacock plant too many inorganic nutrients, the leaves will start to burn.
  • Water drops on the leaf: Do not allow water drops to stay on the peacock plant leaves for long because they can encourage bacterial growth on the leaves.

You can easily prevent the leaves from turning brown if you use the tips listed in this article so that it wouldn’t leave your pant in danger.

– Leaves Drooping or Wilting 

This is a clear sign that your peacock plants either need more water or you are overfeeding them. In this case, give them clean water. Remember that the peacock plant container should have a lot of drainage holes.

– Leaf Patterns Disappearing

The light conditions of your calathea white fusion can affect the leaf variegation and pattern. White leaves cannot photosynthesize like green leaves, so your plant may want to produce more green leaves when the light is not enough.

This in turn can reduce the size of white patches on the leaves. Every problem listed here is avoidable so long as you properly care for your plant.

FAQ

– How to Plant the Peacock Plant

To plant the peacock plant is fairly easy, because it doesn’t require so much work, and you can keep on planting it so that your house will be filled of this beautiful plant. Here are the easy steps to follow, plant, and grow your peacock plant:

  1. Carefully remove the peacock calathea from its previous substrate. Please carefully handle the roots so that you do not damage them.
  2. If you’d love to use the substrate that it came with, bake it and then pour it into the container or pot in which you will grow your peacock plant.
  3. Place your calathea peacock plant on the substrate and then pour in more substrate to cover the fragile roots.
  4. Gently water the plant and keep it in a cool place without direct sunlight.
  5. When you see that the peacock plant is well-anchored (does not take up to four hours), you can move its container to its new or permanent home.
  6. Make sure that the humidity and temperature are just right in your plant’s new home.

Now that you have successfully planted your calathea white fusion, it is time to consider its care requirements.

– How Do I Identify Calathea White Fusion?

This beautiful calathea white fusion can grow up to two feet tall, but most plant owners do not want it to grow that tall. It is characterized by bold variegation on its abundant foliage.

The leaves are green and have contrasting white or light-cream markings while the underside of each lead has a pink, purple, or magenta hue that runs through the petiole to the stems.

– What Are the Uses of Calathea White Fusion?

Calathea white fusion is a popular indoor plant, but some people still grow it outdoors because of some of its qualities. Here are some uses of the peacock plant:

  • Ornamental plant: Of course, the peacock plant has a radiating beauty that instantly draws the attention of your visitors and everyone else in the room. The full variegated foliage of this plant is truly attractive.
  • Air-purifier: This plant doubles as an effective air-purifier in your home. If you love the air inside your home or office to be as fresh as that outside, you can employ the free services of this beautiful plant.
  • Garden edge plant: As a plant with heavy foliage and one that can grow up to two feet tall, some people use this peacock plant as their garden edge to prevent people and large animals from entering their garden.

– Is a Cage Needed for Calathea White Fusion?

Calathea white fusion plants are not climbers and they have a bushy appearance. This means that they do not need a stake or cage to support their growth. You, however, can grow them in a plant cage if you want.

A plant cage will simply boost the aesthetics of your plant. If you’d love to use a cage, go for white or light-cream cages and only use cages for matured plants.

Aside from aesthetics, a cage can also help you to determine the size and shape of your plant. All you need to do is prune off the excess leaves, petioles, and stems and grow out of the cage. Continue reading to learn how you can prune your calathea white fusion plants.

– How Do I Select a Calathea White Fusion?

There are so many things to consider before you start growing your peacock plants. For example, after considering the temperature and humidity requirements of the plant, you need to bring a very healthy plant home if you want an error-free experience when growing the plant. What should you consider when selecting your calathea white fusion plants?

First of all, check the leaves because the leaf variegation only affects the color and not the texture of the leaf. If the white or light-cream parts of the plant leaves feel weak or too fragile, the plant is not so healthy.

Also, check if the peacock plant leaves have visible spots in them. Do not collect any peacock plant with spots on its leaves because that could be a sign of pest attack.

You should also consider the height of the plant. Ask the gardener or shop owner if every plant was planted at the same time.

If they were all planted at the same time, you should not select the smallest ones because those ones have a slow growth rate. Select the medium-sized or slightly tall plants as they will give you fewer or no problems while you grow them.

– How Do I Repot the Calathea white fusion?

You need to repot your calathea white fusion plants every year or two according to their age and size. Here are some reasons why you should repot the plant occasionally:

  • Their roots: The roots of zebra plants can quickly become bound in the pot when the plant has grown to a particular size. To help your plant to continue growing, you need to transfer it into a larger pot so that the roots can spread.
  • Substrate structure: You might have started your zebra plant in the best potting mix, but this mix can deteriorate and become unsuitable for the plant after a few years. To help retain the quality of the substrate, you need to change it while repotting the peacock plant.
  • Plant health: While repotting your peacock plant, you can check its roots for parasites and infections. After observing the roots, you can prune off any dead or weird-looking roots. Remember to use disinfected tools.

– What Is the Most Suitable Mulch for Calathea White Fusion?

Mulch is important for indoor plants, especially for aesthetics. Mulch helps to add beauty to your plant, cage and pot. Mulch also helps to prevent weeds and pests from growing in your peacock plant substrate. Well, peacock plants can grow with or without mulch, but it is advisable to add mulch for optimal beauty.

There are different types of mulch for peacock plants. Organic types of mulch such as wood shavings and tree barks can act as a slow-release fertilizer for the plant as they decompose though they are not so pretty. Inorganic mulch such as pebbles are the best for aesthetics, but they do not add any extra nutrients to the substrate.

Please pay close attention to your watering rate when you add mulch. Mulch prevents evaporation, so there is likely more water in a substrate with mulch than in another without mulch. To prevent overwatering your peacock plants, slightly reduce the watering rate if you use mulch.

Conclusion

Exotic 'Calathea White Fusion' Prayer Plant Houseplant in BasketIf you are looking for a beautiful but simple-looking plant, this one here is right for you. Remember all the requirements of your calathea white fusion if you want to grow the plant without problems.

Here are some necessary reminders that we covered throughout this guided article:

  • You need to be living in or mimic the temperature and humidity of USDA hardiness zones 11b-12b to grow this plant with ease.
  • The peacock plant substrate should be consistently moist. Water the plant twice or three times weekly.
  • Remember to wipe your plant leaves regularly to remove dust.
  • You should prune your calathea white fusion once or twice yearly and repot it once yearly.
  • You do not need to use mulch for your calathea white fusion, but mulch adds extra beauty.

If you are a fan of calathea plants, you will be greatly in love with this plant as it is the rarest variety. It is prized for its variegated leaf patterns and even though it improves the look of your home or office, it is very easy to care for.

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