African Violets and Gesneriads: Isabelle, 1 by nannanavarro

nannanavarro wrote:
Here is an example of what disbudding can do. The plant is Frozen in time. On the left is the mother plant on the right is the baby from a leaf I put down sometime last year. I let the baby bloom once to make sure the bloom was true. I did not let the bloom mature but cut it as soom as I knew it was true. Since then I have disbudded every week. The mother has bloomed constantly. I just began disbudding her this month.

Notice that the baby is larger than the mother even though the mother has more rows of leaves.

The spacing of the leaves on the mother has gaps. The gaps are where the bloom stalks took up space.

The leaves on the baby are larger than the mother and overlap nicely.

The variegation is nicer on the mother but that is because they are mature leaves. The baby plant is beginning to produce nice variegation.

In a nutshell that is all I know. I am sure there are much more experienced growers that can let us know many more tricks that will help our plant not only bloom but look like the pictures in the avsa magazine.

One last thing. Notice the mother leaves don't lay flat some are turning sideways. This is also because of bloom stalks pushing the leaves out of the way.

This message was edited Jan 23, 2007 11:53 AM spelling

This message was edited Jan 23, 2007 11:55 AM

This message was edited Jan 23, 2007 11:57 AM