I am getting my first blooms on my plants from Allison. : ) Milky Way trailer and Raspberry Queen. Allison, I have noticed that I have to water the plants you sent more often than the ones I had. Is that because you have more perlite? I don't have very many supplies and need to get some more potting soil (or whatever the term is).
oh so pretty,I love the trailer.Thanks for posting.
Looks nice! love that little cutie pie on the right!
Nice job. I have some baby ears coming up from a Milky Way Trailer leaf I started.
So pretty ! I do you a lot of Perilite keeps it light give them lot's of air to grow fast healthy roots. They grow fast for me and sure look Happy for you. They are also on wickes which the soil should be lighter. I water a lot. but everyone is happy and growing too fast :))
Your plants are beautiful ! Thanks ever so much for sharing :)) You a great Mom !!
Hi Hp
I wanted to mention;
The amount of water is determined by the size and type of the pot ( porours, glazd, plastic and so on) the weather, ( bright or dull , damp, or dry...) the nature of the soil, even by the variety of the African violet. If the soil surface is dry to the touch within 24 hours after being watered, you have not given enough water, orit could be that the plant has out grown it's conatiner and needs re-potting.
Small pots / Miniatures - Semis may need watering everyday or two. And big pots every 2-3 days . Of course all depending on your enviroment, conditions, method of watering. I use hot to warm water. Soil should never get dry , but kept barely moist aat all times. Never let your African violets sit in water.
I have fount alos with wick watering the top can stay dry but the middle of the pot can be way too wet. It also depends on the root system working properly and beeing able to drink what's needed. If a plant is in a large pot and root system is too small for the large pot the water will just sit there plants needing less watering and can casue problems.
The qqulity of water needs also to be considered -hard, soft or full chemicals.
A large thread could be written up on thsi alone :))
It's good to water wicked plants from the top every so often to flush out the fertilizer salts.
Pot size is extremly important. I follow the best I can to the 1/3 rule. The pot should be 1/3 the size of the plant. When I joined local Av group I had to repot all my plants to smaller pots. lol
Pot size I use the smallest pots as my plants will take without developing a matted earth ball. The " tight shoe" promoted bloom . At least it an opinion I share with some !
Humidity blooms depend on also and plant growth along with air circulation and here in Florida we have lots of this. You can do different things like misting your plants, Some people use pebbles or sande filled saucers and trays or a humidifier. Cups of water by plants will help also ! pan or vase of water set by the radiators. My sister keep a pan of wtaer of kettle of some sort on top of her wood buring stove.
The lighter the soil for growing Av's, progating leaves the better and happy your plants will be ! I know people that grow just in Perilite, or just Preilite and vermiculite.
When buy soil-less mixture in a bag always a good idea even if it is for Av's is to add 1/3 to half perilite. Some people do 1-1-1-. One part soil, one part {reilite, one part vermiculite. I also add bat poop.. Also mix with water until slighly moist mix well !
Hope this helps a little :)) Allison
Where does hubby find bats? : )
Thanks for the info. I am convinced that the reason my Bluebird avs' (3) are not growing or blooming is that they were shipped in 4 inch pots. I need to redo them
Bluebirds and nursery plants are grown in a control enviroment and heavy soil. you will be surprised when you take them apart I pull off all old foliafe good idea to take any damge leaves off. I take as much of their heavy soil off as I can sometimes cutting some of the roots, lots of time finding they don't have much of a root system. I then re-pot them in new pots in the proper size with extremly light soil-less mix. Many I have had to take down to the crown.
I find the lighter the mix the healtheir the plants grow :))
I grow a lot of my plants in natural light but it's good to give them as much light possible that is not hot glare. a lace curtian can help protect them.
Ali's advise is spot on, mine were sogged out bad! Nice plants, but very peaty soil so I repotted as many as I could, but hardly have to water as the roots still had a fair abount of peat and it just holds the moisture. And since we all know that I over water violets to death, I'm being VERY careful!
Yes it not good for Av's too hold soggy water like this. They don't like their feet cold and wet. Can cause prolbems down the road.as light as you . Helps for good healthy growing of plants !
HP I have alway made my soil-less mixture light. But still people would lift my pots and say lift their and theirs were lighter. The more I learned from others and saw how much better my plants were growing the lighter my soil-less mix became :))
I was just throwing papers away too many on my bedside table. lol Came across a grow info paper from Fredricks I think from when I got my bargin D&P plants. . I threw it alway . lol By accident. But it said they recomend soil to be as light as possible. This I have learned from many books and many people :))
Here are a few more growing tips.
http://www.african-violets.com/tips.htm
Thanks! I have to order more. I am going to increase the perlite, I think, when I mix it up this time, and add a little diatemateous (have no idea how to spell it) earth I got .
Just caught my chihuahua licking one of the plants you sent me. : ) I told her not to do that.
: )
Congratulations on your beautiful blooms.
Patti
i've been thinking (dangerous)....what if i did what i do with my plumeria seeds....i put in very fine vermiculite...water that...than put sever wet paper towels..(i wring them out to get excess water out)...and lay them on top of the vermiculite....what if i than put my gessies on top of that and let them soak the moisture that way...would that creat capillary action?
??? When we were kids we'd take a pan like round medal cake pan ad put rung out paper towels and seeds and watch them Sprout. We had so much fun !
I'm off to package some plants for some of DG African violet Lovers :))
Talk to you all later Aligators !
Bob, are you talking about seeds or cuttings?
I think it's the Rob's site where I read about a grower using ordinary terrycloth towels for capillary matting.... just fold them into the flat, put pots on top, and add water.
Make sure they are not cotton-based. It will rot! (Just imagine clever me when I made fish tank filters. Floating about the tank in rotting brown whisps...) Polyester/ acrylic will do it.
Hmmm. I used white cotton bar mops in windowbox trays once (they fit nicely on my shelf), and they were OK... maybe because they dried out pretty regularly. Oh, they didn't stay white -- a little brown here, a little green (from algae) there, but they worked OK. I watered the tray once a week, and I think the towels basically continued to supply water for the first few days, and then the pots had a chance to dry out a little, which was also good. I'll bet an old acryllic blanket piece would work well too.
Oh very pretty :) Thanks for sharing!
Allison always sends such wonderful lovelies!
