African Violets and Gesneriads: AV 911! Rescue needed. Identify problem?, 1 by Allison_FL

Allison_FL wrote:
HI T
Nice to met you . I just join DG in Oct. 2005 . I fount it by accident and love growing and sharing African violets !
Sorry there were not many people to chat with you last year. As always Jill is a big helper :))
But now you'll find a bunch of friends here to chat and help and share our African violets with you :))
Do you still have the same plants ? They look to me like they might have had a virus. Hard to say.
I don't use MG fertilizer as it has Urea and this can burn African violets tender roots. Also good idea to use 1/4 recomended amount what ever kind you use.
I use warm/hot water. Cold can hurt them but one short period of time I don't feel would harm them ?
Plants bought from Nurseries, Home depot, lowes and so on are grown under contril enviroments to grow and bloom fast. The soil is really heavy. Many do come along with pest, virus ..
When you get them home they look pretty for a couple weeks, month blooming then the trouble starts.
Being in your home now, they need a light -soil-less mixture , new pots. I like to take 99 percent of the heavy soil off , if the plant is in bad condition I even take roots off and dump soil and start new with crown, removing any flowers and dull or damaged foliage. If you leaves unhealthy foliage , bruised on your plants they will spend their time trying to heal. Then I re-pot it in a new bleach proper size pot in light soil-less mix. The lightest the best. I add 50-60 percent Perilite to what ever mix I use.
I like to wick. But what ever method of watering you like it great.
You may have to take the stressed plant and put it into a large gallon zip-lock bag blow it up and try not to touch leaves to bag. Keeping it in the bag for a few weeks will help and opening a little more each day to get it use coming out or if you see too much humditiy take it out and dry bag you don't want it to get to wet.
I don't bag anything but a lot of people do .
It's nice to meet you ! Were all happy here to share leaves and plants and answer any questions . Please post your pictures and share your knowledge and how you've been growing with us ! And we love pictures. We also now have two great stickys the first two threads on our African violet forum thanks to Laurie and others who helped her :))
Please post your smile too ! And hang out with us often.
Welcome ! Welcome !
Allison