Brought my 1st AV 4 months ago. Beautiful blooms, healthy. Blooms IMMEDIATELY got slick and gooey and died back. The plant is thriving, new growth, healthy color. No blooms. Am I being too impaitent? SE light in a sun room. Using a VERY diluted Miracle Grow solution to water 1-2 a week. I am new to the DG site and very impressed. Any advice for a new AV mom out there? Thanks
My First AV
hi and welcome!
If the new growth is looking good, I think you're doing fine. The fertilizer sounds right - I would not increase it.
90% of the time, lack of blooms is due to not enough light. A SE window should be fine, but perhaps there are trees outside, or it is some distance from the window?
The time it takes from getting an AV into blooming mode until a flush of blooms takes about 10 weeks. About 4 weeks will go by until you even see any signs of buds.
So I would try to increase the light just a bit, and then wait a few weeks.
Another thing is, if it had lots of blooms when you got it, it might just need a bit of time to recuperate - it will benefit from being able to spend time growing leaves and roots.
oh, this sounds really dumb, but .....
people say to rap the side of the pot a few times (for luck).
no, seriously....
apparently some root disturbance helps them grow. This applies to most gesneriads and is one of the reasons why repotting seedlings ofter helps them grow faster. (Actually, people are reporting that they don't need to actually repot half the time - just stick a skewer in the pot and jostle the soil a bit! LOL)
And you may have seen this already - some good reading on culture. http://robsviolet.com/culture_corner.htm
Thanks for the advice! Actually, I do live on a wooded lot. I have lots of light but no real sun. Maybe a grow light?
Thanks for the link. Lots of my questions answered.
Welcome doghouse!! Keyring is one of the experts on this forum. Follow her advice and you'll do great. Also it seems to me like some AVs just tend to bloom more than others. A lot of people here use grow lights, and I'm looking into getting one now, too. You can look back on the AV forum to find information on that. I think you'll really like it here at DG!
--Dana
First she gets me hooked on orchids, and now she will get me all hooked up
on AVS. With Melody hooking me up with Dave's Garden and Molly/Doghouse
on orchids and AVS, I haven't a chance to come out with anything but the best
of both worlds. I wonder which AV I will get tomorrow when she comes to lunch?
I'M already searching for a nice place to showcase my AV collection! YOYO1
I feel you pain YoYo1. My house is getting pretty crowded these days. I may have to get rid of the couch to make more room for all my flowers. BUT thanks to my DC (dear cat) he ate the top out of my most beautiful AV. So that made a little more room. He knows better than to even LOOK at my orchids. We have already had that discussion. I can't understand his obsession with my AV's. Grrrrrrrrr. Right now he is in "Cat" timeout.
Janet930