I had purchased an unknown variety of an African Violet....in fact I had three of them....a lovely shade of deep violet with medium sized leaves...probably miniature....two died when I went away for a few months and the person who did the watering for me, overwated them..
I tried to save them, but to no avail...................the third was kept by a neighbor and did well with her...
Now....she gave me a leaf so I could propogate other plants...(.I have had wonderful success doing this. in the past) in fact she gave me three leaves...I have tried all three..
This leaf will not propogate thru the leaf!! it send out roots, but no 'leaves'...no babies start growing...no baby leaves..
What kind of violet is this? The store is out o ftown so I can't ask them plus it was two years ago now...
What kind of violet will not propogate thru a leaf cutting?
HELP...am at my wit's end with this..
Thanks for any help....I loved this violet!
Bb *Bonnie 2)
I would like some help identifying this violet...etc..
Hey bbon aka Bonnie 2!
I am still learning about a.v.s also but here are a few things that I have learned through info., trial and error. Every a.v. is different. I ordered some leaves and put them down. About a month later, a very sweet lady sent me a few leaves. Hers have already rooted and mouse ears are up. The ones that I ordered are rooted but only one so far is showing ears. As long as it has roots, it is trying to do something. Also, a lot of people cut off the top 1/3 of the leaf so that it will concentrate more on producing the babies. I have also learned that the best leaves come from the third row of leaves on the plant. If you got leaves on the outer row they are older and don't respond as well. One more thing would be how deep you planted the petiole. The deeper you plant it, the longer it takes for them to appear. Those are just a few things to consider.
I am sure someone will come along and give you their knowledge on this.
Connie
I once waited for over 4 months for an av leaf to sprout leaves. As long as there are roots, I'd let it do it's thing. One thing you could do (if you haven't already), is cut the top 1/3 of the leaf off - like Connie said. It could be that most of the 'growing' energy is going to keep the mama leaf alive, and not towards making babies.
These violets grow by their own drummer. I've had leaves root and send up babies in less than three weeks, and others take months, just to root. I had one leaf in the solo cup for months and I thought nothing would come of it. I set it in a baggie and put it on the top shelf of the stand. It didn't get much light, but it eventually sent up babies. So------ never give up on a leaf. You just never know what's on its mind.
All of the above is so true!! Another thing that will hinder a plant from making babies is excess rooting hormone,if you happen to use that.Sometimes a food high in nitrogen will also delay babies,because the mother leaf will use it to grow larger rather than reproduce.
I tried an experiment with leaves earlier in the summer for my violet club. See which medium would root quickly and produce babies first. In the same deli container I put in a plastic divider and each section had 1)perlite 2) vermiculite 3) mix of perlite & vermiculite 4) potting soil mix 5) volkmans mix (which is my personal favorite for rooting leaves, but I can't grow plants in it, as it just holds too much water even with extra perlite added). So the leaves were moasic - Raspberry Sizzle. Only one, the perlite one has sent up the beginnings of plantlets...and only just recently...so thats a lot of months to wait. It was a very failed experiment I think.....
If it has roots, just keep waiting, but I'd cut off at least half the leaf and don't fertilize..you would just be feeding the leaf to grow larger instead of putting its energy into growing plantlets.
Patience! If it has roots, it should grow plantlets.
tish
I appreciate all your thoughts and ideas about my "leaf"............this is the third leaf I am trying. The first two I ended up throwing away as after months, and cutting the leaf, etc...nothing...all my other leaves have certainly produced more than adequate
:"plants"....................it's the ONE plant I wanted to reproduce as it was purchased originally to put on the tables for a brunch that I had in my son's honor...he passed away (it will be three years in Feb.)...so I had particular wanted this to perpetuate..
I will leave this one alone for a year!! just water it...it has some light...
Thank you for trying to help me..
bbon (Bonnie2)
So why don't you find a spectacular violet plant and offer to trade your neighbor? If she knew how much it meant to you, she might give it back to you. You can work on trying to propagate to give her one back?
My friend who gave me a no name plant, it looks like one on the avsa website, but it could really be anything...well she gave up all her plants is why I have it. It had belonged to her mother who moved to another state. Now as much as I love this violet, if she asked for it back, I would gladly give it to her. Its the one I keep trying to start another plant and the leaf keeps rotting. Which is strange, because like you, I usually have good luck with leaves, have rooted many many leaves, and this one I really wanted to propagate just won't go. I've done several different things and still I keep losing the leaf. Its really esaparating (sp).
Is it planted too deeply in the soil (or whatever you are using to root it)? I doubt posting a picture would help, but you could try. Maybe someone will see something to suggest.
tish
tish
The only other thing I can think of is to try and get more than 1 leaf and try one in water,one in perlite/vermiculite.It's too bad we don't know it's name.We would all be willing to help you out!!
Which one does yours look like Tish?
Lynn