My New African Violet

Katie,
Some do grow naturally more upright,but usually it is because the plant is not receiving enough light.It may take a while to see a difference.As far as pinching off mature leaves goes,I would not remove any unless they were old,yellowed or limp.Also any old leaves that are smaller than the others can be removed and be sure to remove the suckers.

Do you know the name of the one that won't flatten out?

Lynn

here is a good way to groom your Violets into a nice shape. Using strips of paper, placing the paper from the center outward always under three leaves, then when you think you have all the healthy leaves add one more to make it nice and round looking... get rid of the rest. They only use extra energy.

This was disbudded about 3 weeks ago and is now setting flowers again , has a beautiful shape.

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you on this.. I've been busy, busy, busy trying to get my Veggie garden up and going staking and caging my Tomato plants, re-potting my sprouts and getting other seeds started and moved outside when old enough. We've also got a nesting pair of Carolina Wrens on our back porch now. They've found that the Microwave stand that we converted into a T.V. stand makes a very nice place to build a nest. They've got an egg laid so we're leaving them alone and letting them raise their little one before we complete the re-screening of our back porch that we had planned on re-screening this week...lol

Anyway, the one that will not lay her leaves down is my Rita Look alike. She's been under a grow light for the past 3 - 4 months so I seriously doubt it's an issue with not enough light. All the leaves are healthy not limp at all. The only reason I was thinking of pinching off some of the leaves is due to the crown looking crowded from how upright the leaves are right now. If for anything they are so stiff that they look and feel like they'd snap right off like taking a fresh crisp carrot and breaking it in half (not spongey/rubbery at all). .

Her leaves were upright like that before I replanted her into the pot she's in now and is part of the reason I repotted her in a bigger pot. I have sense found a shallower pot that I can move her to that is suppose to be the same diameter but think it's actually smaller (at least it looks smaller) but was listed as the same size in diameter as the pot she's currently placed in, just much shorter (2/3's shorter). Here is a picture that I took of her the day I repotted her. The plant in question is the one behind the smaller AV. I'll get an Updated picture to show you that there hasn't been any change in how the leaves are positioned. Also, I've thought about taking her out from under the grow light to see if maybe less light would help her to lay her leaves down.

Here's a picture of her right after I re-potted her (the one in the background with all the blooms).

I'll take a new picture of my "Rita" look alike to show what she looks like right now since that picture was taken a couple months ago now. Also, here is a picture of what her leaves looked like right after being purchased. So, yes her leaves have always been more upright than the others but have since become more upright.

Here are the current pictures of what my AV "Rita" look-a-like's leaves.

Before I forget, the way the picture is taken is to show the difference in size between the bigger $1 pots I got from Wal-Mart the worse place in the world to try to get a good pot from and the shallower 59 cent pots I got from Home Depot. As you can see the Shorter Home Depot pots are at least 1/2 the size in height as the $1 Wal-Mart Pots.

This message was edited Apr 16, 2010 10:24 AM

Here is another picture of her from viewed from the top

Well it certainly looks healthy enough.I do agree you need to figure out why the newer leaves aren't growing longer petioles.Maybe try the ends of the lights or natural light for a few weeks.

Thank you for the help Ibrabec, I'll give that a try. I've moved them outside so maybe that will make a difference. Like I said in my previous post my other 2 Violets even the one that I started this thread with haven't done what this some is doing. It's the craziest things I've seen. Maybe a having her out for about a week in the warmer weather (mid to upper 80s lately) along with the cooler nights (between 59 to 65 degrees) outside may make a difference. It just really has ben perplexed. I figure worse case scenario I could always take the 2 nice mature leaves on the outer edge and propagate them in case this one starts to die for whatever reason. Hopefully it won't come to that as she got done producing a ton of flowers and looks to have new flowering stocks that are trying to come up. Another thing I'm thinking of trying is to hold off on fertilizing her and just giving her a fresh drink of water for now to see if may it's from being over fertilized and being too healthy (kind of like the saying too much of a good thing can still be bad).

. Hopefully it's just a phase and is only due to being under the grow light. I did have a thought today while pondering my AV's Upright Leaf issues and realized that her leaves didn't stand up like that until after she had been placed under the grow light. I don't know if it was because she hadn't been getting the proper amount of light and fertilizer needed before my mom purchased her and brought her to me, or because of how many flowers she produced that caused her to need to produce and use more energy (kind of like a metabolic overdrive), is that something that could possibly cause this to happen ?

However, I did do some research tonight and found this post on a different forum:

[quote= Posted by dreichenpsych (My Page) on
Sat, Aug 2, 08 at 21:22 -http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/afrviolet/msg0620222431918.html]

Hi nwgatreasures,

I'm new to the forum but have AVs, Streptocarpus, and a Kohleria. My mother had a similar problem as you. I remember reading about the light AS WELL AS...an AV can only focus its energy to producing foliage OR blooms. IF your AV is producing leaves that quickly and vigorously, then I would recommend not letting any more leaves grow and maybe removing some. I do not want to ruin the symmetry, but the plant's energy needs to be redirected to blooming. I tried this, and my mom's plant now has over 30 blooms!
[/quote]

Any thoughts ? I know if I do decide to do any pinching I'll be waiting until after I have tried everything else I can think of doing. Such as moving her away from the grow light, giving her only natural light nothing else, and/or possibly even re-potting her into a smaller pot. I'd just REALLY hate to lose any leaves especially leaves that I won't be able to use since I already have some that are in the propagation process right now. They would definitely be great for a trade for anyone who would be interested in a frilly white glittery bloom with pink thumbprints on the bottom petals. Very pretty bloom as you can see from the one picture I posted of what she looked when I first purchased her.

I will give it some thought.In general short petioles are caused by too much light,but there are so many variables in AV care.

This has to be considered:
too close to the lights. too far from the lights. there is a certain rule about distance between leaves and lights. Do you have 2 light situation (shoplights) or do you have 4 lights (growlights). Also do you use grow lights or just flourecent bulbs.?need to use at least 2 grow lights if you have 4 bulb situation. helene

Helene,

It's only a 2 Florescent bulb set up but the bulbs are designed for growing plants, so I guess I would have to say it's more of a shoplight situation. The blubs are situated directly over the plants and sit a maximum of 6 inches away from the leaves themselves. They were also getting good natural light from 3 big windows in the room I had the table set up in. I have since moved the plants and so they are now getting even more light than what they were receiving prior to being moved. Where they are now, on my back porch, is very open and has direct sunlight that streams in from the west at sunset. I still have the grow light that I can turn on if needed, but am thinking of leaving it turned off for now as they are getting over 12 hours of bright indirect sunlight with about 2 hours or so of semi-direct sunlight at sunset on the porch.

I'll post some pictures of how the porch is set up so that you have a better idea of what I'm talking about.

Katie

Katie,
They should be getting plenty of light without the grow light.Be careful of that west sun!!
They are also pretty close to the lights.You might also consider 1 grow lite and 1 cool white.
Lynn

Thanks Lynn,

I've turned the grow light off for now, since they are outside on the porch. I've got most of the west sun blocked from hitting them directly with the TV stand we have set up so that we can watch TV while in the Spa/Hot Tub. So hopefully with them being outside with more than enough light out they should start to show some improvement in how they are growing. The light was mostly used on them while inside in the front room of my home with the 3 big windows (southern exposure). I'll post updates as to any changes when they happen :)

Update on my Upright AV, since being outside with the grow light off she has really started to lay her leaves down. Here is what she looked like today.

I also got a new addition to my AV collection that my mom rescued and gave to me. The plant was the best looking of the ones they had available at the store she got it from and since getting it I've been caring for it for the past week now. It was and is pretty beat up looking but has improved since I got it.

I don't know but to me it looks as if this one has 2 crowns

Here's the one crown I found on Maui (I think it's Maui anyway)

And here's a not so good view of possible second crown

If you look at the first picture you can see there are leaves growing in 2 different directions as better seen in this picture

As for the original Violet I started this thread with as of yesterday May 4th she was and is recovering very well now that she's back out in natural sunlight with plenty of humidity and sunshine coming in onto the backporch. Here is how she looked today, hopefully I'll be getting some blooms on her soon. :)

Katie,
They look like they are doing great.In a picture it's difficult to tell if there are 2 crowns or if there are suckers.Given the direction the leaves are growing it could be 2 crowns.If you take it out of the pot you should be able to see where the 2 crowns divide at root level.You can also remove and root large suckers.
Lynn

Thanks Lynn :)

I'm pretty sure there are 2 crowns, if not then a sucker may be producing leaves of it's own since there are 2 areas on the plant where there are baby leaves coming out. I'll take the plant out of the pot and see if I can see if there is a division at the root level as you've mentioned. I tried to get a good picture of the two areas where there looked to be a crown, but as you can see the area of the second possible crown is in a not so easy to photograph area...LOL Also there are baby leaves sprouting all along the outside of the plants as well. The one thing that clued me off was the two leaves "pointing" in different directions.

Katie

Sometimes soaking the plant in water will make the babies seperate from the main plant.Once you get each crown seperated remove all the suckers.

How long should I allow the plant to soak before I attempt to remove the babies ?

Just until the soil comes off and you can clearly see the division.

okay.. figured I'd ask before I started that way I didn't end up harming the plant by leaving it in water too long

I have left them as long as a half hour with no problems.I blot them dry afterwards,but some others don't.

Lynn,

Thank you for the information. I think I'll go and see what i and find out about my little AV :)

Katie

Well, I just got done separating my violet that had the possible 2 crowns. Turns out that the 2nd "Crown was fused to the main Crown itself but had created another center where new leaves would continue to develop and grow just like the main crown. I don't know if that is what you consider to be a sucker or not but I removed it and 2 other "suckers". Therefore, I now have 4 total pants with crowns. I don't know what to do with the suckers at the moment. I've placed them in damp soil and am hoping that they'll survive, even thought I do not know what I'd do with 4 of the same plant except trade them once they got a good rooting system established. I also lightly scraped the main crown of the original plant with a razor to get rid of the bump where the sucker was attached.

Any suggestions on what I could try to do to help them get their own root system starting and growing ?

I'll post pictures of what each looks like shortly

Katie

Katie,
Your plant did not look like a trailer in the picture.They naturally form more crowns.I was just wondering,because you said they were fused together.It could just be a violet that has been allowed to form multiple crowns because suckers were never removed.

As far as getting them started...if a section has it's own roots,just water it carefully,keeping it moist,not wet.If there are no roots,do the same but place them under a dome or in a tray or shoebox covered with plastic,being careful not to keep them too wet,until roots form.They should be potted in a very porous mix.You will know roots have formed when you see new growth or when there is resistance to a very gentle tug.

Lynn

Lynn,

They don't really have any roots as they were fused to the main crown. The only one that seems to have roots is the youngest of the bunch which I placed in a clean Crystal Light mix container (the containers the mix itself is stored in then placed in the big labeled containers for easy storage).

It's possible it could be a trailer but I really don't think it is, though as it came from a Grocery Store from a Nursery in Jacksonville, FL (Loops Nursery) so I'm wondering if it's possible that the Nursery that the Grocery Store bought the plants from mislabeled the Violet. either way, I've got the ones that have no roots in their own containers and will dome them since they don't really have any roots that I could see. As you can see here on the main "sucker" that looked like a 2nd crown the root source that came apart from the main crown are practically non-existent.

Katie

Here are what the tops of each individual look like now they are separated. Starting with the "Momma" plant who retained almost all her roots..LOL

Momma Violet Picture 2

Sucker #1

Sucker #2

Sucker #3 this is the one that retained some roots after being separated from momma

So, if this really is a trailer then I probably shouldn't have pulled the "suckers" off the plant. :

So, I guess if there is a next time where another "crown" forms on this violet I think I'll leave them alone and just place it in a bigger pot, but I really just do not know if it is a trailer since it didn't seem to look like a trailer, but looks can be deceiving.

I am new to violets and was wondering how you can tell the difference in a sucker and a second crown forming? Also how often do you feed yours?

Thanks,
Teresa the daylily diva :)

Welcome to the African Violet (AV) and Gessie forum Teresa,

I found an article and posted the contents below of what I believe sums up perfectly exactly what an Sucker on an African Violet is:

A Second Crown is a side shoot on the plant where new leaves and flowering stems are growing. The second crown can be the result of a sucker or an offspring of the parent plant growing the in same pot. If either is the case it should be removed and placed in it's own pot. If it doesn't have any roots of it's own you can place the sucker/Offspring plant in a 2 oz. Solo cup and then dome it (aka make a makeshift greenhouse for it) to give it the best chance at rooting.

The AV that I was talking about above with the possible Second crown turned out to have 3 individual crowns made up of 2 suckers and 1 semi separate baby with it's own root system. All of them have since been removed from the mother plant, as you can see and are now in their own separate pots.

Hope this helps. : )

Katie

Katie,
I am pretty sure after looking at your pictures that your violet is not a trailer. A trailer often grows leaves on the stems below the crown.It was just allowed to grow multiple crowns.If all goes well,you should have several new plants.

Teresa,
There is a great amount of info about growing AVs and other Gessies at the top of the AV forum on the sticky threads.
Lynn