African Violets

I seem to have really good luck with any african violet that I bring home to revive. Many friends want babies from them. Is there any way to force them to send out there little stringers with the babies on them? Any info would be greatly appreciated as I am very unknowledgeable, just extremely fortunate. Once I get them to propagate I will gladly send out the babies to as many people as I can.
Thanks Sandy
Sdoglover1512@aol.com

I have had great results rooting the leaves themselves. They are one of the easiest plants that I ever have done.

Frank,

Can you be more specific? I've had some leaves in water for almost a month, and they are _just now_ starting to root. I figure at this rate, it'll be next year before I have a good sized plant from my one leaf. (?) Is this how you do it? If so, how long does it take? And this one leaf will produce a nice bushy plant?

Trish

Hello to everyone at this thread. I am President of the Rochester, NY African Violet society (in addition to being an avid gardner), and would be happy to send information regarding all aspects of African Violets, their care, propogation, varieties, etc. I am also a grower of AV's and currently have over 200 varieties, and would be willing to share leaves with anyone who is interested. To Trish: It is fine to use the "leaves-in-water-to-root" method, however, it is much easier to pot the leaves in a little Dixie Solo cup with a soil mix of equal parts of perlite, vermiculite and potting soil. Punch a hole in the bottom of the cup to allow for water drainage. Cut off about 1/4" of the top of the leaf and slice the stem of the leaf at a slant. Poke a hole in the soil in the cup, put leaf with the slant at the stem away from the edge of the cup into the hole. Put a plastic bag over the top of the cup and seal with a rubber band. Check occasionally-it no moisture is apparent in the bag, add a slight amount of water, then re-cover until baby plants are present. The African Violet soil that is sold in stores is too heavy for any violet plant, much less for rooting leaves. The leaf (or plant) must be able to breathe and the heavy soils prevent this and when wet becomes a solid mass of soil that water-logs and suffocates the roots. To SDoglover1512: I am guessing that the "stringers with babies on them" are really "crowns" which is a characteristic of "Trailers", a type of violet. There are Standard, Miniature, Semi-Miniature, Trailer, etc. forms of violets, and trailers put out crowns that look like baby plants attached to the mother plant. This is my favorite type of violet, as soon all the crowns fill the pot, fall over the edge of the pot, and as each crown will produce many blooms, the potential for a plant with massive amounts of bloom is quite possible. To Frank: Sounds like you have it under control. To Everyone: If you have any questions I may be able to answer, or if you wish printed material on African Violets, or if you are interested in obtaining some leaves or plantlets, please send me an email.

I am no where near as knowledgeable as barbaratoo, on the AV. In fact,it was almost by accident that I found out how easily I could root them. The method I use, is; fill a sixpack with promix BX, soiless potting mix, put the leave cutting, dipped in rooting hormome,into a hole made with a pencil, water, and put the sixpack in a ziplock bag(seal all but the corner, inflate the bag by mouth and seal totally), then put the bag on the greenhouse shelf.I also fill a flat with these sixpacks and put a seedling cover over the flat and put the flat on my propagation mat, under the florescent lights. I will leave them there for a couple weeks, and then move them to the greenhouse and leave them uncovered. In about three or four weeks, I repot them.

I've used this method successfully, too, Frank. Do you belong to any AV society? If you are growing under lights, you must be very enthused and serious about AV's, and belonging to an AV society would allow you to have your plants entered into their annual show and judged (awards given). It's a great experience! How many varieties do you have? To any newcomers to AV's, the monthly meetings held by AV societies and the annual show is so informative, and so much knowledge is shared among members---violets are like eating potato chips---you can't have just one!

Knowing Frank like do, I'll bet he's got about 100 of them! LOL

Terri

Barbaratoo,
Thanks so much..I had it almost right from Frank's suggestion, but I hadn't snipped a bit of the top off, or sealed them in baggies. Glad yoy straightened me out because I'm fiddling around with 40-50 leaves and really hoping for good results.Thanks again

No Terri, you're wrong. I only have eighty two!LOL Seriously, I have about ten parent plants, each raising a few children.

LOL, Frank! What colors of AF's do you have?

Frank, 5:46 AM??? I can't even think straight until after I've had a few cups of coffee and that's usually about 7 AM. :)

Terri

I have whites, violets, white w/ violet fringe, blue, and I think one that is white with mauve speckles.
5:46....I know, I got up late that day, sorry.LOL You know what they say, 'the early bird gets the worm'. The only thing is, I really have not aquired a taste for worms!

This message was edited Friday, Mar 23rd 5:37 AM

Hi all. I really love the African Violots also. I got one for my desk at work and I groom it everyday while I am holding on the telephone. I am waiting for Wal-Mart to start killing their violets off like they always do and mark them down to a quarter and I was going to buy bunches of them to play with and see if I can revive them.

BTW, does anyone know how all Wal-marts everywhere seem to kill all their plants? I just don't get it.

I would love to get some leves from someone. I can't handle the load for a couple of weeks yet but would love to make arrangements to get some from someone.

I would also love some information on keeping them groomed. I've just deen doing the obvious removal of spent blooms and leaves. The flowers seem very slow to pop up even though their are plenty of little buds.

I'm really glad I found this forum. I see several plants I've been wondering of the propagation on.

I'm a grower of AV also - love it. I currently have several leaves in dixie cups, but have never cut off the top 1/4 of the leaf. Why is this necessary? Mine have been rooting for 6 wks. Should I now cut the top part of the leaf off? I only have 57 different violets, and would love to get more. Red (not pink) with white fringes seems especially hard to find in this area.

By cutting off 1/4 of the topy of your AV leaf, more of the energy from the leaf will be directed into forming the new plantlet, rather than maintaining a leaf that will be disposed of after the new plantlet(s) emerge.

Again, anyone who is interested in leaves, and AV information, please email me you address.