IMMMM BAAACK!!!

I am so glad to be back on Dave's Garden! On September 8th I lost my Mother to cancer, so I had to travel to Florida. During that time my subscription ended so I had to "reup".
I sure missed reading everyone's posts. I have learned so many new things since coming here! My violet collection is GROWING! At this time I now have 10 violets that are on the most wanted list!! Once I learn to propagate by leaves well I will start babies and I would love to trade with y'all.
Glad to be back!
Linda

Hi Linda,
First of all, so sorry about your Mom. Sounds like you've got a great collection of violets going on. What varieties do you have?

Here is a link that might be helpful to you as you start new violets from leaves.


http://www.rachelsreflections.com/violets3.htm#basket

Thank You Snowrose!
The violets I have that are on the most wanted list are:
Houdini(Gehr)
Navy Girl
Optimara Hawaii
Optimara Yellowstone
Purple Star
Rob's Double Whammy
Rob's Pal Paul
Satellite
Spangles
Skagit Toy Wonder
Tipt
Most of them are plantlets or bigger,but I have 2 possibly 3 that I can take leaves from soon. I bought some optimara leaves online to try them as I havent been too successful with the leaves. I want to be able to propagate them well before I try with my most wanted leaves. I would hate to waste/lose them! I have tried 4 leaves with my older other plants and have had no success. I will study the link you gave me and try again.

Good idea violet_ grower. I guess the old adage holds true....practice makes perfect. With your determination, you will succeed :0)

What have you tried so far? I just stick mine in AV mix and cover to hold in the humidity. I put down a bunch of trailer leaves this evening and used one of my most favorite containers....the shoe box size salad containers from Costco. I first poke holes in the bottom for drainage using a phillips screwdriver heated on the stove. I just use a cheap one from the dollar store strictly for this purpose. I cut my leaf stems (petioles) fairly short and insert in to the mix. After sticking the leaves and watering using my trusty hair coloring squeeze bottle, I cover the top and seal with clear plastic wrap. I use the salad container top for the saucer underneath.

I love these salad containers and find so many plant related uses for them. My sister saves me hers also. These work well if you are doing a bunch like I did, but if you have just a couple, you can start your leaves in individual pots and cover with a bagge or use smaller deli containers.

The old fashioned way to grow from leaves was simply to root in water like my Grandmother did.

I'm sure the other violet growers on this forum have their favorite ways of propagating that works well for them and could add much to what was said here.

You have so many nice varieties. Happy growing!

That is an impressive list of most wanteds.

I started with that method but when it came time to seperate the babies, I got them all confused and didn't know which was which. I started using solo cups. One leaf per cup. Sometime I keep only the strongest and best shaped baby and let it continue growing in the same cup.

I too use my potting mix for leafing. I put the solo cups in the trays you get gardening stores and place a lid over them. When the babies start to come I replace the lid with a dome so the extra humidity stays longer.

I have found that early spring is the best time to set leaves. It's important to start with damp soil and now let it get too wet.

Sometimes olders leaves have a harder time. Good luck. Would love to see pictures of all your babies.

Nice to see you back Linda. Sorry about your Mom.
I have started leaves everyway you can imagine. One fun way was in a large zip-lock bag I placed a damp paper towel and placed a leaf with short stem. It was Optimara Little Diamond. I was so proud of it. I placed it on top of the TV box which kept it warm. Before long I had a plantlet with luch roots and lots of leaves it grew into a stunning blooming plant !
When I joined my local group and started growing and having leaf pots down by the hundreds I used 3 oz. solo cups and the plastic type shoe boxes. My first meeting I was given a couple of them. A bag of solo cups with holes already in them and bags of named leaves and great instruction that always worked and gave me wonderful babies ! We traded for some Plumeria cuttings I brought Plumeria cutting and got the above ! Before you know it I had 35 of these 6 quart boxes and then I started buying larger ones . There is nothing like growing Av's by leaf and sharing ! Have fun and experiment what's best for you.
The link Snow gave you is great ! If you do a search in this forum you'll find many threads on growing by leaf. And our stickys the two threads when you first come into the are full of links and information !
Have fun glad you back !

Keeping the mix the leaves are in moist is the best advice I can give. I even let a small amount of water sit in the bottom of the boxes my leaves are in, before the babies pop up - maybe 1/8 of an inch of water. It evaporates pretty quickly in my house, so they don't stay soppy, but it keeps them moist. Once babies pop up, I don't let water stand, but do keep them evenly moist, even if I have to put a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the box.
Good luck! Once you figure it out, it's a piece of cake!

After reading about propagating leaves I can see where I went wrong. I think one thing was my soil mixture. I need to use more perlite and wick. I thought that if the leaves were in a domed sealed thingie they would get the moisture they needed. Poor things had no drink! I also didnt vent my dome. When I took the leaf from the plant I cut it on an angle like they say to do,and I also cut the leaf across. Do you have to do that? I'd rather keep the whole leaf without cutting it across. I also think I put the stem down too far into the soil (about an inch and a half)and had the bottom of the leaf kinda resting on the soil.I used real damp soil when I first inserted the leaf then didnt water anymore. I tried 6 leaves and all but 2 died. Most of them kinda got a funky brown look after a couple of weeks(rot?) Funny thing is.... I went to throw away another one that was brownish and it had roots! So I know I'm getting close to success!! I am not going to give up! I am going to purchase some of those 3oz cups to use and some wicking string. I'm going to use only perlite with a tad of peat moss soil.I want to use some of my Wrangler's Pink Patches leaves so I can have some to trade with y'all in the spring. I want to collect all of Optimara's state named violets,so I really want to get this "leaf thing" right. I am hoping I dont murder the Optimara Louisiana and Tennessee leaves I bought. They should be arriving soon so I am really studying so I get babies from them. When I am successful I will start leaf babies with my most wanted violets so I can share and trade with y'all. THANK YOU everyone for helping me out with your wonderful information! I dont think I could do it without y'alls help ;0)

Sounds like you're on the right track! Lots of people wick their leaves, and some (like me) don't. Whatever works best for you is the right way to go! :o) I cut the leaf off the plant, then lay it down on the table and with a filet knife, I cut the stem between 1/2 and 1 inch long and cut it at a very sharp angle, 45 degrees or so. Then I stick it down in the soil and I do let the bottom of the leaf touch the soil, but not everyone does. Keeping them good and moist will be the thing that will help you the most, I think.

I have an Optimara Georgia that I could add to your collection, if you don't have it. I don't have any plantlets of it, and I'm not sure if I even have leaves down (I've been slacking in that area), but I'll check and if I don't, I'll put some down right away so you can have a lovely baby in the spring!

I am so sorry to hear about your loss, but glad you are able to get back to a hobby you enjoy. For some reason, taking care of my plants really helped after my grandmother passed away. Glad you are back!

I was taught to wick my leaves but got lazy and stopped but either way is ok.
I read this article way back when in an AV journal. It talked about this Business needing to grow hundreds of thousands of named AV's for an AV group Sale/Show. All the leaves were cut on a slant but with in-experince some of the help the slant was too much and the babies did not grow in time for a show. This long time growerer sugested to cut the leaf stem short about once inch or less. and straight across.
The more stems ..thousands of stems later mine got shorted and shorter and always straight across. I like to do about 1/2 inch or less.
And It also said to push gently the leaf right into the middle of the cup of soil until the leaf touches the soil. This does not pormote rot. The leaves always gave me each a few to several 2-10 babies . I keep Mom leaf with babies until babies are big. I very rarely lost a leaf and my leaves not only rooted fast but I had babies even faster. You want babies don't worry about roots they will come. try each way on a few leaves mark them and have fun ! See which works best for you.

I think I'll put down a couple leaves each of a few varieties and cut one straight across and one at a slant like I usually do. I'll mark them and see which produces more babies. I love experiments! I read somewhere that the more inner tissue that was exposed, the more babies would result, even to the point of "peeling" a strip up the stem to expose more tissue. I sure wish I could remember where I read that, but I've read so much in so many places I can't. If I run across it again, I'll note where it was and exactly what it said.

Yes I've read both too ! And done both. Just thinking of the easiest and safest . And when I read this article I went for it ! As I bought a lot of exspensive leaves. Like the Green and White Wasp by Senk's 2 lvs. for $20.00 and so on .... some got worst$$$ and I did not want to lose them.
Just about all ways will work though so have fun !
I use to keep 500 plus leaves down all the time ! And set thousand and thousands of leaves in just the past few years I think I did them in my sleep . lol In a tiny one bedroom trailer lol . I loved growing by leaf so much ! It's the best ! I always knew if I put a leaf down I could count on it giving me babies !