what is wrong with the AV?

This plant started to have this problem a couple of weeks ago and now more than half of the leaves are like this. The leaves look very similar to Leave #29 on this link http://www.steverd.com/violets/leaves/leaf-id.htm. In my case, I don't think the cause is over fertilizing because I was out of town for two weeks recently and left no fertilizer to the person who watered my plants. When I fertilize it, the fertilizer strength is very low.

Is it water buildup? The potting mix is only about 2 - 3 months old. It is about 50% and 50% pearlite. The pot is a 3" plastic pot. The plant has never been left to sit in water.

Should I rinse the soil off the roots and re-pot the plant? Can anybody please advise? Many thanks!

Hi,
I will do my best to help.It does look like salt build-up (which could be caused by high water PH) or fertilizer burn.Problems like this can also be caused by too much heat and allowing the plant to dry out severely and then watering.The pot appears to be a little too large.I would remove the plant from the current pot,give it a bath and repot into fresh soil.Also,if it is in a hot window or under the center of the lights,I would move it.
Hope this is of some help.

Lynn

Hi Lynn,

Thank you very much for the advice.

The pot is only a decorative pot. The pot the plant is in is pretty small. The heat might have been the cause though. I didn't realize that the AC of the office building was actually turned off on weekends until I went into the office to pick up something last Saturday. It was like a toaster oven in there. The plant was in that environment for 4 weeks. I brought the plant home yesterday. I will give it a bath and repot it. Hopefully, it will recover. Keep my fingers crossed.

Donner

yes, it looks like heat shock. Repot and check out my link here "just sharing". showing you how to remove the outer leaves. Helene

Donner,
It should look better very soon in it's new home.Having to adjust from AC to extreme heat,back and forth,would be hard for any plant.It does not look like it's too severely damaged.

Lynn

Ladies, thanks for the advice. I washed the soil off the roots and put it in a 4oz cup with fresh soil (half peat moss and half pearlite). The sick leaves were removed and now the AV is a much smaller plant :-( It has 3 large leaves and 3 small leaves. I am still not sure if the 3 large leaves will recover. They have some brown spots around the edges...

The 3 large leaves will never lose the brown spots or edges,but as new leaves grow larger you can remove the old leaves.The plant looks like it will make a full recovery.When it is time to start fertilizing again,remember to never fertilize a totally dry plant.

WOW! Thank you for the tips on how to fertilize AVs. I never knew that! I will post an update when the plant has recovered.

The plant will laugh in no time with all the old stuff removed and repotted. Make note of the happier growth. Also keep it home and not in office environment until it blooms again.