Hi everyone, I hope you're having a lovely Tuesday!

Back in early May I bought my first very large houseplant from IKEA, my calathea orbifolia (named Peppermint)!
I don't have a lot of experience with larger plants or calatheas in general - I own lots of mini cacti, succulents + a snake plant. Upon doing lots of research after I bought it, I realised that calatheas can be quite fussy! So over the last month and a half I've been keeping a close eye on her. I live in Scotland and it's normally quite chilly and dry here, so I mist her throughout the week, have a humidifier on most of the day and never let it get too cold in my bedroom (the windows are never open!)

She's been growing new leaves and looks generally healthy except from a few brown spots due to using tap water when watering - I now use distilled and there haven't been any more brown patches! I keep her in my bedroom beside my desk on the back wall facing my North facing window where she gets a good few hours of sunlight. I was worried she might not be getting enough light being so from the window, so I use one of the prongs of my LED grow lamp (the other is used for some mini cacti on the top shelf of my desk) to shine on her from above for about 9 hours a day on the lowest setting. Due to this I've been keeping a close eye on her incase the direct light from the lamp is too much but so far it's been just fine!

However, my problem is I've been noticing some strange marks on some leaves that I can't find any info about online. She definitely doesn't have any pests/bugs, none of my other plants do either and I do thorough checks and research regularly. They were only on one leaf before but now they've appeared on one of her newest leaves so I'm a bit worried!

If anyone could give me any advice on what might be the cause of these marks I'm all ears! Thank you so much.

- Luna

Those spots look like normal blemishes. Few plants are perfect.

Distilled water is only necessary if your tap water is on the hard side.

The grow light may not be adequate. I suggest you move it as close to the north window as possible. Light intensity dissipates dramatically with every foot of distance from the window.

WillC said:Those spots look like normal blemishes. Few plants are perfect.

Distilled water is only necessary if your tap water is on the hard side.

The grow light may not be adequate. I suggest you move it as close to the north window as possible. Light intensity dissipates dramatically with every foot of distance from the window.

That's a relief, I was worried they might be little bite marks!

I can't move her any closer to the window unfortunately because my bed sits directly underneath, this spot is the sunniest spot a plant of this size can fit in. I'll definitely keep an eye on how she's doing to see if she shows any signs of not having enough light! Thank you so much!