African violets grown by people who care, mail order

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General african violet growing tips

I hope there is something here that will help you! This is a really, really long page of information.

Basic Soil-less mix

African Violet soil-less mix (I now use Sunshine mix which is comparable to Pro Mix BX) and just as good, if you can't find this just use any African Violet mix from your hardware store.

Try to find a mix that has brown peat moss not black.

Ad to the mix

Equal parts perlite and vermiculite to equal parts soil mix (if wicking use less and increase perlite)

Water and how much!

Keep plants moist, not soaking wet and after you water them don't let them sit in the water that comes out the bottom (they will stay to wet and rot)

Use a turkey baster or drain off the excess water.

I have wicking instructions down at the bottom of the page if you want to wick your plants.

Fertilizer

Sparingly is best!

I fertilize every time I water. I use 1/4 - 1/2 tsp. per gallon of water, alternating every month or so.

Don't fertilize if your plant is real dry.

And last, it's best to rotate your fertilizer's every other month or so.

Light

Your plants will need good light, either artificial light, or place them in the North window, no direct sun or it will burn the leaves.

Fluorescent lighting works great on African violets ( the cheap fixtures that cost about $8.00) plus the tubes (40 watts) you will need two bulbs in each fixture, use one cool and one warm or use the all cool.

It's a good idea to keep the lights on anywhere from 8-13 hours a day.

If you are showing your plants they will need 10-13 hours of light.

In order for your plants to bloom they need at least seven or eight hours of darkness.

WHAT TO GROW YOUR VIOLETS IN

Miniature violets need to grow in a 2 inch pot. Semiminiatures in a 2 1/4" to 2 1/2 pot, grow standards and large varieties in 3",4" and 5" pots.

Make sure you wash and sterilize your pots with soap and CLOROX bleach everytime you repot your plants.

We must practice cleanliness always!! I like to soak my pots (and and utensils) for about an hour then I don't have to scub as much.

Soak pots in vinegar and water to release dryed soil.

I have pictures, Illustrations, And growing tips too!

Putting down a leaf

We are going to learn how to plant a leaf, you may have heard it called something different, like, put down a leaf, or propagate, so we can have even more African violets!!! These can be given away to friends and family member's for special occasions.

This is a leaf from my Vintage Violet plant Blue Boy.

Trimming a big leaf

The reason we trim some leaves is because some varieties are large and have big leaves that will over shadow the new baby plantlets when they emerge from under the soil, like an umbrella.

I like to trim the leaf all around, and it does very well most of the time. The only time I wouldn't do this is possibly if I have ordered leaves from someone else, I would wait to trim them after three weeks or so because I have had them rot on me real fast after trimming them, you'll need to be very careful, and use sharp, sterilized little scissors.

I like to trim off any fringed leaf part that extends out a little bit. I would suggest to you, if you haven't tried this before to only experiment on two or three leaves first.

LEAF THAT HAS BEEN CUT FROM MY PLANT "BLUE BOY"

These are my thoughts and techniques on propagating African violets that I have learned from my own experiences and experiments, and I have learned from others who grow Violets, (many thanks) while growing and caring for my collection, and I'm still learning today!

LEAF IS GETTING A FRESH ANGLE CUT

BEFORE AND AFTER TRIMMING

LEAF IS CUT ON AN ANGLE AND TRIMMED

YOUR LEAF IS DOWN AND SET

How to propagate African violets

FIRST OF ALL! If you have received leaves in the mail, look at your leaves, open up one or two baggies, please don't mix them up! do they feel limp? If they are, spray some luke warm water (important) (you don't want to shock your leaves with freezing water) into each bag, getting leaf and stem wet, close the bag up and let them sit that way for an one hour or until leaves are crisp again.

Then proceed, they should be fine now. Read directions before you start.

1. Soil materials

Equal parts, Vermiculite, African violet soil, or brown peat moss or an African violet mix. and dolomite lime if you can find it in a nursery, it's a good idea to add it in to help the ph.

Your soil must be very light, African Violets have very fine roots that can be damaged easily, mix all ingredients together and moisten, but not soaking wet (this is very important).

2. Containers

You can use 2" and 2 1/2" pots, but you can use the plastic 3oz. solo bathroom cups from the market or Walmart. Put three or four holes in the bottom for drainage, big enough that you could put a pencil through the hole (almost). A soldering iron works well. Or you can plant two or three leaves (if they are small) of the same variety in a regular pot like the green one in my picture, or use one large container if you prefer, but you'll need to have a label to put the varieties name on (or write it on the pot), to put behind your leaf plus it helps support larger leaves.

Large leaves: Fill the pot 3/4 full of soilless material, push your leaf in the soil 1/4 in. you can just let it lean back onto the rim of the pot.

If you are putting down 10 or 20 leaves, for example, you can save those clear plastic containers with hinged top that salads come in. Put in your soil moistened ( lightly) plain water works fine (no fertilizer yet)

3. NEXT

Take out your leaves, don't get them mixed up, work on one bag at a time. Make a fresh slanted/angle cut. The purpose of this slant cut will give you more area or space to produce more babies (your going to leave 1 1/2 inches of stem) on the leaf. gently push the leaf into the soil about 1/2" and firm soil "gently" around the leaf so it doesn't fall over.

Make sure you have marked the cup or labels with the leafs name, plus, put the date you planted it so you can keep track of how long it is taking.

Your leaf should have roots by three or four weeks. You can use a hair coloring applicator bottle to water with or something similar.

I use a gallon sprayer with a hose on it this works well also.

4. Covering with plastic

After you have planted your leaves, you can put pot and all in a plastic bag, If you use zip lock leave the top unzipped half way, leave the top open a little so the moisture won't build up (for the first week after you have planted) and rot the leaf, keep an eye on them to see that they don't dry out, you can add a few drops of PLAIN water if the soil starts to dry out, if you keep your leaves in a bag or plastic container your leaves will do great!

Just to Warn You! Some leaves will rot no matter what you do for them, you just don't know.

I have noticed that the thinner type of leaves like some of the mini's are a little more difficult to propagate sometimes, that's why it's so important to keep the leaves on the dry side for one to two weeks I keep them in my clear containers (a greenhouse effect) the leaves themselves give off moisture to each other, then as they get roots and babies appear you can start to feed them more moisture.

The best containers I use for tiny miniatures, are the crystal clear plastic containers that cookies or cakes come in.

5. Fertilizers

Your leaves won't need any until about four weeks after they have been planted. You can start with 1/8 of a teaspoon in a gallon of luke warm water, water them with it every other time. Violets like luke warm water. You can use fish emulsion, optimara's, my favorite that I have been using is fertilizer special for African violets by Peter's 12-36-14 (it doesn't have urea in it) at the rate of 1/4 tsp. per warm water but It's been my experience not to use only one brand for long periods of time. If your leaves aren't green you need to feed them more nitrogen.

I think it's better to rotate your fertilizer's, if you start to see a reddish brown crusty film on the new growth of your plants like it's hanging onto the hairs you better leach out your leaves or plants with plain luke water and switch to a different fertilizer for awhile, and water with plain water for a week.

IMPORTANT! HELPFUL HINT NO, NO'S Never use rooting powder on you leaves, some people might disagree with me and that's okay too, but I have used rooting powder and I didn't like it. They will produce to many roots and no babies, or the leaf will rot.

There is no need to soak your new leaves in a bleach solution or alcohol, you can wash them off in tepid water.

By putting your leaves in baggies they will be isolated from your other leaves or violets you might have, I ALWAY'S encourage people to isolate there new plant materials, no matter where you get them! Isolate! Isolate! Isolate!

Last of all: And the most important! Have fun! Lots of fun, watching your leaves grow babies, how thrilling this is!! very rewarding too. If you have any questions please email me.

WICK WATERING YOUR PLANTS

Wicking is very helpful when you go on vacation or just out of town for a few days or a week you could also put your plants in clear ziplock baggies (don't zip up all the way) if you would rather.

You can purchase the white Plastic Broadcloth with the white squares at any Hardware Store, then cut to the size you need, it will cut with wire cutters.

You can use 4 ply knitting yarn. Separate the strands into two strands for 2 to 3" pots, use the 4 strands for 4" or 5" pots. This is where you will have to experiment a little bit, you may only need one strand for mini's. Cut each strand about 6" Now this part is very Imprortant: Make sure the wick is touching the bottom of your resevoir that you will be using about 2" or it won't drink up properly.

Insert the yarn from the bottom of your pot up through any hole, let about two or three inches come through and just let it flop over inside the pot.

IMPORTANT: You must keep the yarn wet at all times or it won't draw up the water. Here is what I do:

Prepare your container, put a hole in the top about the size of a quarter using scissors. Yarn will drop down into the water.

Cut your yarn or whatever you are using.

Put the cut pieces (you can cut several to use later) put them in a small pan of water, heat about 3 minutes, simmer. This is to make sure all strands are totally wet, or put your yarn into a coffee cup with half full of water into the Microwave for 1 minute then take out and let sit until cool.

Drain off water, leave yarn wet and place all into a zip lock baggy until you are ready to use them.

There are several containers you could use for wicking your plants. You can use any type of a container, the clear ones you can see how much the water is going down.

Keep Everything Clean!! I wash down my shelves with physan often. I keep my containers clean, they get soaked with bleach too. I never leave old dirt on the floor. I alway's clean up after I'm finished potting. I keep all of my tools organized and sterile.

STREPTOCARPUS GROWING

Use the same soil as for African Violets only use two cups more of Perlite per gallon of mix. Plus use 2 Tablespoons of Dolomite Lime per gallon of mix.

Don't keep your plants soil wet, wet all the time or it will rot and turn brown and soft and die, it's best to give them a little moisture daily keeping the soil (slightly) moist.

STREPTOCARPUS PROPOGATION

This is a mature leaf not a baby leaf.

Back of the leaf showing the rib and veins.

Make sure you have sterilized your knife with alcohol or bleach, then cut....

You could use this tip if you wanted to, but it's best to use the mature pieces.

Cut down the center of each side of the middle rib. The two sections are what you will plant, throw away the center rib. Cut edge goes down in the soil, of course. That's where your little plants will grow from, is from those vein looking material.

This container is full of moist soilless soil.

Do not make it to wet, just moist to the touch. I like to leave the container open for 1 hour a day the first week. Then leave it closed most of the time after that.

This is the hole for the plant section to go into. Just use a rounded knife or rounded object to make a slit as long and the leaf, and shape to fit the leaf your going to plant.

Gently set your plant material in the hole, your going to have the leaf sitting in there with the soil almost to the center of the leaf.

Pinch soil with leaf in middle gently. I like these plastic containers, I have used a lot of things but always come back to these take out salad food plastic containers, they have the hinged top and they are clear.

You can us a pot if you would rather.

Please note: If you plant leaf sections in pots keep the soil soaking wet for two to three weeks, then after that keep soil just moist.

As you can see these plants are way

overdue to be planted up, they are really to BIG. I couldn't even get the top closed anymore.

Ready to separate!

These plantlets are separated

and ready to be planted

in there individual pots. Just carefully hold near the root area and pull the separate plants apart. Don't be afraid to do this, it won't hurt the plants.

Cut off light colored, smoother,

leaves around the bottom, these

were the first leaves to emerge

and need to come off to make the

plant look nicer.

Make a hole in the center of

the pot with your finger, so

the roots will fit down in there. Don't cover new growth with soil.

NOTE: After you have planted your leaf section/s close the lid of your clear container or put your pot in a zip lock bag (leave the bag open) for a day or two then zip it up. Open your container and or bag and leave it open for 1-2 hours a day the first week, water if they get dry with an eyedropper (do not drench) only 5-8 drops, after that you can leave it shut most of the time until you get babies, but still let them air out for 1-2 hours a day. Please don't water to much, they will grow well with very little water, just moist to the touch.

Here is Texas Hot Chili all potted up in it's new home. Just give it some water, and good light, don't overwater it, wait until it drys out just a little bit before you water again. Fertilize each time you water.

I also highly recommend foliar feeding with A good Fish Emulsion, I use Alaska 5-1-1 from Home Depot or some place like that. It's organic and does not contain any Urea in it. Warning: It does stink! just a little bit, Fishy. Mixing directions are on the bottle. Mix it in a spray bottle then mist your plants two-four times a Month with it.

You can alternate with your regular Fertilizers. I have found that the plants like it better when I rotate Fertilizer's for them, and not use the same thing all of the time.

Planting up new plantlets from the Mother leaf

This is a leaf pot that is ready for the baby plantlets to be separated from the Mother leaf and be planted into their own individual pots.

Here I have taken the Mother leaf along with the babies out of the pot and set them on a piece of typing paper or you can us newspaper (is what I usually use) so I can work with them.

To make it easier to find each plantlet, look for the crowns of each plantlet. Look down into the plants and use a knife to gently separate them. This is done eaiser if the clump is not real wet. Plan ahead when you are ready to separate them. Babies should be anywhere from 1 to 2 inches tall as long as you can work with them comfortably.

Congratulations!! You did it. Now look at all the beautiful little babies you have to pot up.

Now, fill your pots all the way to the top, you can tap the pot on the counter a bit to settle the soil a little but don't press the soil into the pot to much because you want the soilless material to be airy so the roots can breath.

Now, poke your index finger into the center of the pot and make a hole about half way down, this is where you will place the baby plantlet. The plantlet will not have a lot of roots at this point so just set the little guy in the hole, you will have to hold it up while you put some soil around it.

I like to use a small plastic spoon from 31 Flavor's but any spoon will work. Fill in the hole and around the plant but don't press and pack the soil to much, a little is fine because when you water it the soil will pack down automatically.

Don't cover up the crown (where the new leaves are growing from) the soil should come just below were the new leaves are growing. Make sure you label your newly planted plantlet. Either write the name on a piece of Masking tape and stick it on the front of the pot or use a plastic label of some sort.

Be carefull and watch your labels to see if the name is waring off, sometimes with age this can happen, you'll want to rewrite it then.

I like to use those clear plastic hinged small deli container's to plant my seed in (a greenhouse effect) But you can use a 4 inch pot and sprinkle the seed on top of your moist (not soaking wet) equal parts (AV mix, vermiculite, perlite) soilless soil (tap the container with the soil in it on the table to fill in spaces a little bit (before you sprinkle the seeds on top of the soil) and place the whole thing in a clear plastic zip lock bag and place in a lighted area.

If your seeds start to dry out spray them with a fine mist of plain warm water then close the container back up. DO NOT COVER THE SEEDS WITH SOIL! Or they will not sprout. I have tried using regular seed starting soil but I think our regular AV soil works better, I feel the other is to fine. It's pretty easy.

Keep plantlets in this container until they are about 1/2 inch tall then start opening the lid for two hours at a time to harden off the plants and get them accustomed to your environment (plantlets need fresh air too sometimes). When they are big enough to handle you can plant each plantlet in it's own 2 inch pot. (Don't keep plants soaking wet.

Congratulations! You did it!

Growing Problems

Do the leaves on your plant stand straight up in the air?

Your plant needs more light, it's reaching for light. My plants grow under my lights about 6 (for Miniature growing plants) to 12 inches (for Standard growing plants)

Why can I see the veins in my leaves with a little yellowing?

I have seen this happen, your plant needs more fertilizer of the right kind. I recommend one that does not have any UREA in it, I use and sell Peter's African violet fertilizer, I think it's the best!! I have tried all other brands and this is the best.