Stop watching the pot boil and you'll get roots. (I think)

Well a week away and my AV's did play! Look at the roots that took off while on vacation. I guess all I had to do was stop watching them and they took off.

These were laid down on the 2nd or 8th of Feb. Others that I didn't photograph had roots and I put them down on 2/26. So that's pretty quick.

Most of you know that the method that I've found that works for now is the perlite in the tray until they root method. Then I pot the leaves up in their own little dixie cups.

Lots of these already have babies started at the root level.

Lillian Sparkler

Green Dragon

That's about 4 to 5 weeks. That's just about on schedule. I believe 6 weeks in the average.

Just a few more, I promise.

This is Little Clown (girl leaves) look at those babies. This variety is very vigorous.

That's what I was thinking Nanna, but I have some leaves that have a January date on the (like 1/3/06) and not a single root in sight. Not dead, but no roots. Weird thing is, the bottom of the stems have taken on a shape like a camel hoof. Swollen and mushroomed out. It's weird. No babies either. Could it just be that the leaves were not healthy to begin with or old or what?

Here's Spring Dancer, this one I laid down on the 23rd so thats only 18 days. Dont see babies, but good roots started.

So I guess I just had to stop trying to watch the pot boil and let them do what they do best!

Any roots are enough to get me excited! I think I potted up about 40 of these leaves today.

A side note. I only have the one heat mat under my leaves, and I had three trays sharing the mat. The middle tray had full warmth but the tray on the right and left of it only had about half of the tray sitting on the heat. The leaves that were directly over the heat rooted and those that were not directly over the heat either didn't root or only had one or two little roots. I think I can conclude that bottom heat is the trick to quick roots. Not that the others wont root, but not nearly as fast.

Just thought I'd share that little bit of non-scientific experiment I did (inadvertently)

so cute. See the little babies growing on the plant stem ! You know with African violets you don't so much want to grow roots but babies and thats what your doing there are babies on the leaf stems ! Wish I had the link and article to a leaf had no roots but the stem had large babies. One reason root hirmone is not good or needed for Av's. We want to grow babies.
I also beleive your heat , and VF-11 helps a lot.
Violet barn says they feed everything leaves, babies everything is fed from the begining.
Your doing a great growing job Laurie ! I love seeing your little babies. Thanks for sharing.

I think not obsessively checking them every day helped!

Still waiting for the day I can seperate babies from the mom leaves. None are really ready yet. But have lots of ears.

I feed the leaves every time I water with VF11, and since I have to water every 3rd or 4th day, they are basically getting fed twice a week. So far so good. They're happy.


You know here's a real conundrum to me. AV's don't like being over watered or too wet, yet they can be rooted in water where they live with babies for the first part of their life. What gives! Do they or don't they like water? And why does one way love water and the other not.

you make my brain hurt.....

on the other hand -we live in water for the first 9 months...

yea, that's another head scratcher isn't it!

So Begonia.... just perlite?? I'm like you, I watch these things like crazy, 3-4-10 times a day.... a tug here and there to see how they are rooting.... I put some leaves down on January 21 that Allison sent me, and I am finally getting some babies. I know, that's not all that long, but I feel like I've been watching them forever!!! And one noid I put down (don't remember when, didn't really care, leave just broke off from mom.....) It's going like crazy! So go figure. I'm still experimenting.

So after you get the roots from the perlite, how long does it take in the dixie cups to get leaves/babies?

Way to go... they look great.

Sanna

Hi Sanna ! Nice to see you !
I think cutting stem short, light , warth , feeding /food,
light mix/perilte give breathing room , all enhance baby growth !

Yes to all that Ali said. I see pups in a few weeks after I repot to longer. Some have big ears popping up and others aren't so fast. But the little cups I use aren't deep, maybe one inch so they dont have far to travel to get above the soil line.

And yes, just perlite to start, then I go to 2 oz dixie portion cups with a 70% perlite/30% soil-less AV mix (Peters? or Schultz I think)

Great growing !

lovely babies, Begonia!

Laurie...I have a question. I know you pot up in pure perlite. Do you put them in soile when roots form or do you wait until there are babies? I am thinking of giving it a whirl

Both Lorry, I pot up to the dixies when I see roots. It's kind of a 'peace of mind' thing. I know that they are 'rooted' when i see them in their cups. Otherwise I obsessively check for roots all the time. I found it's easier to check them in the perlite as a whole group than dig in the soil. I use a bamboo shish kabob skewer to dig holes to burry them back in once I lift them. I also find that I can lay down a lot more leaves in a smaller space with the perlite trays. Of course once I pot each leaf up, I quickly run out of room LOL. I also use plastic tooth pick (party picks) to hold any leaves up that want to lay down. (you can see a few orange and green ones in the photo)

It just happened that while I was in FL. these guys took off and developed babies. If you look up at 'Spring Dancer' above, that's about how many roots I see before I go to the dixies. That one is more typical.

The exception to this rule is Little Clown, the most vigorous AV I've rooted so far. One developed babies in about 2.5 weeks from the time I laid down the leaf. That was the first batch of Little Clown. This is the second. And I have something like 6 or 8 leaves down (everyone gets one even if you dont want it! LOL)

I don't let my perlite go dry. BUT the good thing too is that I can't overwater. Drain holes in the trays let off excess water. So far this works great for me. But may not for you - all depends on your environment.

I had a similar thread in Hoyas, others didn't have as good luck as me. ALSO bottom heat is the trick too.

Cool..I am thinking of trying the perlite thing :)

My Little Clown leaf died :( I hope you can grow me one please Laurie :))

I Have the mom and about 4 leaves down. I lost one too, pulled it today =(

Oh glad you have more. Mine was with all other leaves doing great and it decided to mush on me :(( I really think this just happens sometimes even if you give it the same care as leaves that grow you many babies.

Hmm, so you mean that I am not supposed to just stare at them?

April I think your supose to go on a fun vacation !

Allison that is the encouragement that I need! Have you listed that on any of the AV stickies? LOL. You are so funny.

I'll get right on adding 'To get your leaves to Root, take a vacation' into the sticky!

Hey begonia.... okay, so I started a tray of perlite with some leaves. I'm in the Easter Bunny Swap and noticed I don't have enough leaves started for the requirements! Uh-oh! So, the perlite always "looks" dry, but is it really wet enough? I put a few holes in the bottom of a styrofoam tray, perlite and leaves. But dang, it looks so dry! I can hardly wait. I took them to the office so I can watch them (okay, so I know I'm supposed to go on vacation in order for them to root.) But I'm at the office more than I am at home, so at least I get some pleasure out of them!

So, should I not worry about the moisture level? Just keep checking?

Thanks all.....

Sanna

Hi Sanna
I think we only need 2 good size plantlets and five sets of leaves. If you need I have plenty of plants I can shoot you some more !
I'm sure Laurie will be back later she had to go feed her hungery family their a few hours different than us.
Nice to see you:))

Nice to see you too Allison ~ I think I'm okay on leaves.... I wanted to try to get the five sets at least started with babies. I have some from the leaves you sent me, but, geez, I might want to keep one of those pairs!! :o) Most of the leaves you sent are doing pretty well. I lost a couple, but I do have lots of babies right now. They've been down about 8 weeks now. But I wanted to try a few more before the swap, so thought I'd try the perlite method. The ones you sent I used the potting soil/vermiculte/perlite mixture ~ I used a little bit of warmth and sunshine. Hubby hasn't quite finished the plant stand he said he'd build, but oh well, they're doing okay. Also doing some other seedlings for transplanting outside. I need more room, more light, and more heat!!!

I have a very nice noid I am trying to get going for you. It is from a friend of mine, and a very vigorous, deep purple flower. She got it from a friend and shares the babies, but doesn't know if it's named, so I named it Laurie's Baby Violet. When I get one going, it has your name on it.

I'm glad the swap is waiting until May ~ gives me just a tad more time to be able to send some strong plants and leaves.

Take care Allison!!! And thanks for sharing all you did with me!

Sanna

Wow Sanna Thanks !
Yes Laurie's way is great ! She's growing babies really fast :)) It's good and fun to try different ways.
I'm glad your plants and leaves are doing well. If you ever want more I have a lot :))
Allison

I have to water every third day or so (for my home environment). I don't know if this makes sense, but if they perlite looks chalky, it's dry, if it has a translucent look it is wet. you can always use a moisture meter to check. or pinch a piece between your fingers to see if it feels wet or not. You almost can't over water if you have good drain holes.

Need some advice please.
I have 3 AF pots. They are in a SW window and are doing really well. One of the pots have 3 plants in it. They were so small when I purchased them that I planted them together. All the same type. Now they have gotten so big that the center of each of the the plants looks so tight that it doesn't look like the flower can get through. Also, if you look down in the por under the plant you can that there is like a "stem" going in the dirt and then there is the plant on top of that. Make sense? It is not flowering. My other 2 pots are full of blooms so I am guessing that it's roots need some space.
#1 How big do they get?
#2 Can the 3 plants be separated without losing them?
#4 Is leaf cuttings the only way to propagate them?

Any info would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Patricia

I love seeing your babies in the perlite Laurie ! How are your babies . Have any updates ! Do you have an extra Toy Clown baby still please ?
Patricia sorry how did we miss helping you ? do you still need help.

All the babies are doing great! I do have Little Clown babies, weird thing though, the mom went into decline but has perked back up and the leaves are not easy to propogate. I have about 3 little babies from one leaf, then one leaf died, and one died but left a single leaf baby behind before it did, they're pretty tiny still.

I'm just starting to pot up some rooted leaves today, just mixed the soil. I have to make room in my tray for the Newtown leaf order I just received.

As the weather warms up, I'm finding that keeping the perlite moist is a real task, daily watering, so I have to revise the rooting for the warm weather I think. I'm going to try these two methods. One, adding vermiculite to the perlite (as that's what we do at the arboretum greenhouse) and/or put domes on the trays. I have found that domes with lots of holes pokes with the soldering iron is working well with a big lot of episcia cuttings I got. So far so good. Not too moist and yet still humid.

We have such LOW humidity here in the spring through fall that stuff just dries out and crisps fast. I have the humidifyer to help, but not sure that will be enough. The little domed bowl I got for the episcias works great but it's limited in size and at $15 each, it's not cost effective to use it for cuttings.

The little indoor greenhouse is great for humidity but since I'm using it for 'isolation', again, it has limited use. So I'll just have to keep experimenting until I find a system that works. I think I'll just have to change systems with the seasons. Straight perlite in the winter and a blend or domes in the dry season (we have no rain from May to October)

Still having a pretty good rooting rate with the perlite. Close to 95% give or take. I find that I lose minis most often so what I did was use a plastic spinach container from the store - about the size of a shoe box, poked holes all over it, filled it with perlite and then put the mini leaves in it. So far nearly 100% take using this mini-greenhouse plastic box method. I found that in the uncovered trays, if it dried out even just a bit, the big leaves could take it, but the mini's and micro (like Little Pro) just croaked. Again, so far so good, but I watch them like a hawk to make sure they don't dry out.

Mine have been drying super fast too. The 2 oz cups dry to fast watering everyday, 3 and 5 oz. so better. But I am still forever watering too.Maybe adding vemiculite to your perlite will help ! You will have zillios ofbab!
I keep finding too sry too. I've haoo many dry cup and had to throw them away :((.
Just keep trying !