Hello I am new here. I am wondering if any of you grow your african violets by grow light? How about the seeds? If you could share what watts you used and how far you put the light? I am a little new at this though I have grown cuttings from african violets before. Also does heat grow them faster? I am concerned that it maybe a little cool in the house to get the cuttings to grow and florish...Thank you for answering a head of time.
Tish :o)
info needed please?
Hi Tish;
Welcome to the group, you will find many wonderful people here, always willing to help. we all grow so many things, so you came to the right place. I do grow violets & other gessies to. I have 3 lighted stands. they all have shop lights & t8 bulbs.they stay on 14 hours a day & my violets seem to love it. I do not grow violets from seed as i believe it takes to long, cuttings are much faster.they do like warmth & so having the lights on that long keeps it pretty warm.Also when i take cuttings i always dome them until they are established. So tell us which violets you are growing, small, med. or large lol
mrsbonnie
Hello tishrh,
Welcome to the AV/Gessie forum ^_^
Hi Tish,
I was new last spring and I have learned a lot from this group:) Basically I buy my fixtures and lights at Lowes and I get the cheapest 4 foot set up. I don't know if they are hot or cool lights, but they are T somethings. I get the stands at Costco but you can also get them at other places such as Target. It is easy to hook up the light fixtures to the stands. I leave mine on about 14 hours also.
My plants bloom a lot so I take that as a sign that I am doing it right:) I haven't grown any AVs from seed but I have started a bunch of leaves and I dome also using any plastic containers with clear tops that I can find. I also buy roasting pans with clear lids at the dollar stores.
The only problem you will have is that once you start putting down leaves you will need to find a place for all those babies!!
Pat
Thanks for the welcome! I am excited to be here and have someone to talk with about plants. :o)
Right now I am doing standard size african violets. My hands are itching to try minature and trailing but I know to start "small" and my small WAS 10 plants and have grown to 20.(this is why i need the room) I started out with the common varities you fine in greenhouses, stores and now have progressed to more "speciality" colored plants. I know i will learn the names and varities along the way. Lol. I always love a challenge and so this is why I thought about starting from seed. I am thinking of turning an extra room that was a bathroom into a plant room; complete with growing lights,shelves and I will probably need heat as it does have a heat register in it.
I have some babies of AV though they are doing well, from what i read they are growing more slowly than they said. This is why I think I need more heat. The sun seems fine as my big AV do bloom.
Thanks for the info on the lights, I need to take a trip to the store! Lol
Hi Tish--Welcome!! I have grown AV's from seed--got them from Park Seed for a lark. They are easy. I would suggest joining the Gesneriad society--they will send you a book that covers all the basics on growing--plus you get access to their seed bank and a great magazine.( I also belong to the AV society--but my passion is the other gesneriads;)
Tommie
welcome,,tish
Welcome Tish ...there aren't many people I come across that have MY name!
Most people lose their violets because they over water...Violets will rot quite fast . But violets can survive dry out from under watering and recover. If you are keeping yours alive, you are doing great already. And only 20 plants, why you don't even have our violet obsession yet, but you look to be well on your way! I have so many plants I'm embarrased to say a number! So welcome, here you will find out lots of things you didn't know about violets. We all started out new even those of us that grew violets for many years found lots new information to grow better plants.
Also something fun. You should go to the avsa.org website (thats the national african violet society) and check the affiliates to see if there is an african violet club meeting locally near you. You learn a lot, have a source to share plants, and its usually very inexpensive. You don't need to be a member of the avsa to join a local club (at least you don't with our club, maybe other clubs are different...they are all independent of one another but clubs themselves are member of the avsa). Our club would love new members, but its hard getting people interested in plants..they are so busy, no time. You can choose to join the AVSA too, they send a nice magazine 6 ? times a year which is included in the membership.
I have some under lights and some growing in windows. You can make a stand with those shelves you get at home depot and attach the shop lights to them. I have mine on a timer so I don't have to remember to turn them on and off. The electricity goes off a lot here this summer and I keep having to reset the time...now that we dropped back an hour they are off again : (. But it doesn't matter to me really, mine are on about 12 hrs and 6 - 8 - 10 inches away from the lights as I have different sized and types of plants. Some like being under the bulb and others toward the edge of the shelf They also dry out faster with the lights.
Are you repotting your store plants out of the peat moss you purchase them in? Most of us like to add extra perlite to a potting soil for repotting so it doesn't hold too much water.
So, glad you found us! Any questions, just ask!
tish (aka Letitia)
oops, sorry double post, it didn't send the first time I clicked, message just sat there! Thought I must have clicked preview by mistake! tish
Hey Tish!
Welcome!!! I am new at this also. I have been growing episcias for quite a while now and I am adding A.V.s and other gessies to my collection. Be very careful on here...the members will post beautiful pics of their blooming plants and you will want them all!
Connie
Hi Tish,
Welcome to the group.You will find many friends here ^_^.
Lynn
I have two large IGS stands. I love them. My violets can all have lots of room and they hold so many plants.
This message was edited Nov 7, 2009 4:13 PM
Sally,
Looks like you are feeling a little better ^_^.
What is IGS?
Lynn
Sally! A fellow stacker like myself. I had my lights that distance from my plants and they didn't bloom for me!...I had to move them closer to the light, but yours look great! tish
Wow! Thanks for the welcome Everyone and hello back to all!
Sallyblooms-wow those shelves are neat! I am going to have to look into those. Wonder if you could make them out of wood?
Lilypad22-always nice to meet someone with the same name. And yes it is far and few that you see the name. Mine isn't short for anything just plain , Tish. I always get asked it I was named from the gal on the Munsters. Lol. But no I wasn't. At least what my mom says. lol. Thanks for the info on the AV society. I will be sure to check it out. Yes, I take all my plants out of the soil they come in. Lol. I know enough that the ones that come from stores usually have cheap soil in them. I did have them in a good potting soil but it seems too heavy so I switched to an AV soil and i like it better. Though the soil is more expensive...
What do you all put your cuttings in? What type of soil?
Also, what do you all fertilize your AV's with? I am wondering if any of you go with natural fertilizers such as seaweed and fish or do you go with commercial fertilizers?
HilbillyGran- (tommie)-thanks for the info on the group, I will check them out. I got some seed coming so I am trying to get ready. I am really concerned about the heat.
This message was edited Nov 8, 2009 6:38 AM
Hi There;
I use a few different fertlizers, 1 is tomato fertl. & orchid fertl.& jack's classic, thats the one i use the most. Also alot of us mix our own soil, i do as i wick all my plants, so it has to be very light soil mix.
mrsbonnie
Tish-- the heat from a flourescent fixture on the shelf below the seedlings is perfect for them to germinate. I tried a heat cable with my first ones and don't know if it got too hot--but I have since started all my seedlings (with better germination)on a shelf in my (homemade) lightstand with great results.
IGS is Indoor Gardening Supplies. I have two of the BA3 stands. They are great. They bloom just great at this height. Most are in bloom most of the time. The stands are so well lit. The trays are huge and the stands are pretty in my violet room. The leaves grow great and my pink episcias like the Ember Lace and Cleopatra's love it there. http://indoorgardensupplies.com/large-stands-floracarts-c-106_144_103.html
I had to add that the episcias are HUGE now! I will take more photos when I feel better. This are from last spring, before I got ill.
This message was edited Nov 8, 2009 10:04 AM
Gorgeous as always, Sally! LOL The container that the episcia is setting on looks like what I am using right now. It had a sheet cake in it. It works great for me! Do you keep the Cleo and Ember Lace domed? I would like to try without doming in a glass container but I know these love more humidity.
Thanks!
Connie
That glass container is not on the cake pan, it does look like it, ha. It is on a base, a foot. That and the other container are VERY large and FULL now. The plants LOVE that humidity. The lid of of the Cleopatra's was left off overnight and it was AWFUL. Almost died. The lids are the key for them I think.
I can't wait to start taking photos again. We STILL have to unpack! With my illness, the wedding and now since I have been at my parent's home again this week, it has not been done!
I can't wait for you to start taking pics again too! But...you have to feel better first!!! There are always things to do and if you had everything upacked you would have another "to do list". LOL You will get there :)
I was wondering on those. I have had ember in a container since I bought her. I was given a Cleo and a pink smoke which are in containers and I am guarding them with my life. Two VERY SPECIAL ladies gave them to me and I didn't want to try anything different without it being confirmed. They will stay domed :) Thanks for the advice.
Yes, gotta be careful, they are MOODY, ha. So worth it!
My gym teacher used to call me Martisha after the (Adams family), and I hated that...she knew my name, just liked to tease I guess. I didn't like that teacher!
I'm fussing over my pinks too...hopefully this time I'll have better luck...mine are so small!
For fertilizers I use anything. I have Jacks Classic, Dyna grow, Schultz AV I use mostly but now and then I use , tomato fertilizer, bloom buster, etc. I rotate every month or two to a different one. I use less than 1/4 tea per gallon and use water now and then with no fertilizer. I also now and then add super thrive, seaweed fert, and mega grow. Every type has different elements, minerals, vitamins, etc. There is no rhyme or reason to my method. Except for the bloom buster...mine were not blooming and so I wanted to kick boost them...some it worked and they bloomed and others still nothing. My problem was a lighting issue, not enough hours and not close enough to lights. Seaweed is just 0 0 1 and I think you would need higher numbers of the elements to have a blooming plant. Oh...and urea...you read some say don't use fertilizer with it and other say it doesn't matter. I'm a doesn't matter person, some of mine do and some of them don't have urea. I think with any fertilizer, its the build up in the soil that is a problem. flush the pot with water now and then or repot will take care of that.
For soil, I usually use any av soil or potting mix and add some additional perlite into it. Sometimes I put a little vermiculite because I read it helps hold in the nutriments, but I don't always mix it in. I grow a lot of gesneriads, and they like more perlite. But I adjust the mix whatever I'm potting up.
You can make a stand out of wood. I have one a member of my violet club gave me another members husband made. When I wanted a second shelf, my husband said it would be cheaper to buy one of those adjustable shelf metal units at Sams club...I think he just didn't have the time to want to make me another shelf but its true if I wanted plywood shelves, that is getting expensive now for the nicer sheets. tish
Thanks so much for all the information, everyone! I am sure you will hear from me again. lol.
Tish:o)