Hey everyone!
I got the opportunity to chat with Pat Hancock last night on the internet. I found out how she started and got some great tips from her. For those who get the AVM, next month will have an article in it where she helped do an experiment with the Cincinnati Violet Club. It was about how to grow bigger A.V.s and they would bring in their project every two months and remove leaves or repot. She said when growing large standards, less is better and you have to remove leaves. You should begin with 3 to 6 leaves that form a perfect triangle in a 2 1/2 pot. Every 6 to 8 weeks you should remove 3 leaves that are the smallest. Don't let any bloom stems even start to come up after you have proven the bloom color to be true. At about 3 months, you should move to a 3 1/2 inch pot and use the mold pot method so as not to disturb the roots. In 4 months into a 4 inch pot and in another 4 months into a 5 or 6 inch pot. She said the bigger the leaves, the bigger the plant will be. This might be another good project for us to do. I am not a member so can someone please scan the article and post it? Anyway, I have more tips if anyone is interested but I did want to share this with you.
Connie
Just wanted to share with you...
wow, Connie thats great info. i will give it a try. I am sure she is right as my friend who is a av judge is alwyas telling me to take the small leaves off the plants.
mrsbonnie
That is also what one of the senior members of my local club advised to do. She demonstrated on one of her plants. It nearly killed me to watch her snatching those leaves off the plant! LOL
She is very interesting. She started growing in the 1950's and then hybridized the first A.V. in the 1990's after meeting Marie Burns and David Heath using David Heath's Peach Sundae and June Swift's Mermaid. All of the Buckeye A.V.'s that start with a B (Buckeye Blushing, Bouquet, Beauty, ect.) she started with that cross. She gave so much info and I wrote it ALL down. LOL 8 pages in my little notebook.
LOL, You were like me Monday night at the meeting. I wrote EVERYTHING down!
That's the only way I can remember anymore LOL!!!
You too? LOL
Yep. I guess a couple of people know it now LOL
Please forgive my ignorance but I cannot for a minute picture what she means by removing the 3 smallest leaves. From anywhere? Also, I don't have that much experience however the plants I have do not seem to be growing in a perfect triangle. While they are a triangle, the length of each side of the triangle is different on all three sides.
I don't have a clue how to explain what I don't understand and it's a bit frustrating. I hope someone else is making sense of what I am writing. With the plants I have I don't know how I'd remove 3 leaves without leaving gaps in the symmetry. I need a picture or example I think or I will never be able to grasp some of these concepts. I haven't felt this dumb since first grade and that is almost every time someone explains how to do something here. My goodness I feel like an absolute dunce!
Anna, when you find out please let me know cause I'm right along side of you!! LOL!!
I haven't managed it yet meag848! I keep thinking about it and thinking about it and just am blank. If you find out you have to let me know too!
Urr..let me know, too...I feel am 'way' back in the dark ages...trying to digest it all..
FYI.....Sears has a 50% off 4' grow lights. I am using one very similar with good results so far....and just purchased another setup from Sears....the special is supposedly just lasting until tomorrow..the 20th...hope this helps someone.
I paid more than double for my other setup.
I have a book called 'Growing To Show' by Pauline Bartholomew and The African Violet Society of America (revised in 2008).
There are diagrams, etc...............but one of the reasons I don't ever want to enter a show with avs is that I love foliage (not all of it)......but I saw a big show last year and thought those winning avs were the ugliest plants I had ever seen. They literally didn't have more than 7 or 9 leaves in total.
So, for those of you who want to learn to please the judges, this book is available at AVSA and is a paperback and very good.
The computer tech changed my scanner so that I have to scan (not on the printer but on the computer and I don't know how)..........to make it look right.
Surely someone else has this same book (the book to have on growing violets).......and can scan for everyone.
There are definite rules about judging violets when I still think beauty is all in the eye of the beholder...........I do know that the leaf below a leaf should be bigger than the row above it.........if the leaf is not bigger, remove it.......etc..........
Also, I like to grow whatever I like and there are certain genetic components to 'show plants' that win consistently. Varieties on the HOnor Roll for the years 1997-2007 (when this book was published ) are as follows:
Tomahawk by K. Stork
Irish Flirt by Sorano
Ode to Beauty by Cox/b/Johnson
Picasso by Tremblay
Ness ' Crinkle Blue'
Milky Way Trail' by Stahl
Ness' Satin Rose by D. Ness
Powwow by K. Stork
Rob's Sticky Wicket by Robinson
Windy Day by Stork/Boone
Rainbow's Quiet Riot' by Wasmund
Frozen in Time' by Sorano
Orchard's Bumble Magnet' by Wilson
Rebel's Splatter Kake by Bann
I have never been to a show and not seen these same plants because they perform so well.........that doesn't mean you won't see a lot of others, too.............
Thanks, Bbon.........I have had two gro light fixtures go out recently and need to replace..........