African Violet flowers and flower stems turn brown and mushy

One of my African violets suddenly began having problems where the flower stems started turning brown and mushy which spread and rotted most other flowers on the plant. It seemed to be flower specific as the plants leaves are healthy and green. What could cause such bizzarre health issues? I had thought plant rot but shouldn''t that cause the leaves to rot also?

It sounds like it could be Botrytis.It could just be excessive heat though.

My other African violet right next to it is fine, healthy leaves and blooms. If it was heat that should be affected. As far as Botrytis, are certain cultivars immune to it? I've had this same plant cultivar twice and both times this happened though this plant isn't doing as bad my past one rotted entirely. The soil isn't too moist or too dry either.

This sick plant was recently bought and was around many other plants, so if its sick mabye it took a while to show signs from shipping stress? Once they establish African violets are usually very hardy.

This message was edited Jun 18, 2013 11:32 AM

Some cultivars are more susceptible to heat and probably disease too.It could have had some damage or disguise present when you bought it.I hope you kept it isolated from your plants when you bought it.

I would suggest looking at droptimara.com and the question and answer section by Joyce Stork on the AVSA site.
Lynn