Hope you guys will pardon another question from a novice; I've been lurking and envying all of your gorgeous plants, but haven't seen this question addressed per se. I have a NOID that is doing beautifully; has had three simultaneous bloom clusters for some time, and just started a fourth in its double (self-watering AV) pot. The poor thing needs to be split up and repotted, but I haven't a clue how to do so, and don't want to trash such a healthy plant. If someone could point me toward an article or website for instructions on how to divide, I'd be really grateful. Thanks!
How to divide?
If you go into the Sticky and go into www.avsa.org There are Questions abd Answers They have one on how to divide your AV there may be more as I just did a quick look the site is close to the bottom of the page and I think it said how to begin
How this will help and maybe someone else has better information for you but it is a start
Kim
Hello and welcome, spartacusaby. Your violet sounds as if it is doing well for you and blooming. How nice. If you want to groom your plant to a single crown, this link will guide you. Please let us know if you find this article helpful.
http://www.rachelsreflections.com/suckers.htm
Thanks, folks! Both sites are very helpful, especially the photos on the Rachel's Reflections site. My concern is that, in the case of all but the newest sucker, the other three are full-size; how do I know the right place to make the division? The plant is so "full" in its pot that some of the inner leaves stand nearly vertical. It was repotted just a few months ago, and since then has added the third and fourth bloom clusters which, I presume, are new suckers. Would a photo help this to make sense? I really appreciate the help; the plant has done beautifully despite my novice ignorance, and I don't want to trash it.
I have one noid that has several crowns............because she is a noid, i decided to let her get as big as she wants with as many crowns as she wants.........actually I have two noids doing this..................it is hard to separate when they are grown plants...........unless you just take a few leaves around each crown and start one to a pot......................now I have you very confused..............let me take a couple of pictures of the two noids I let get this way on purpose...
Usually if I see the suckering on a plant while it is real small, i will divide.............
It is fun, also, to let them get real big with multiple crowns.................
Great, gessiegail; the photos are super helpful, and your beautiful plant's inner leaves are standing vertical just like mine are. With your assurance that this isn't smothering the poor thing, I'm happy to leave them together and just move to a larger pot. I quite like the way it looks with multiple flower clusters, but didn't want it to be crowding itself to death.
I think it is so much fun to let them do that................................I separate when they first start suckering or I just pull those suckers off every day until the main plant can grow.............I am doing this just to see how big they can get (LOL)
Sounds good to me! I'll try to keep a closer eye on the plant, to pull off any new suckers as they first start.
African Violets I have been told can sucker badly that first year...........I just reach in and pinch them off...............and I check my new avs regularly just looking for suckers..............
This baby is probably four or five years old; has three mature crowns, and a new one mature enough to flower. Dividing it frankly scares me, so I'm happy to let it fill out to it's heart's content; will just keep enlarging its home as needed. If I can catch the suckers while small, will do so; the larger two-part AV pots aren't easy to find!
They are impossible to find for me..............I just used plastic pots and let them sit in a bowl from the kitchen when they get past a 5".............you can get the white plastic 2 part with a 5" pot..................I have been told though that we still have to keep the 3x rule........until the plant is 12" or more in diameter it stays in a 4" pot....................
I found a source online that has the double pots up to 17" (!): www.marylandchina.com, search for violet pots. But boy the big one are pricey!
thanks for the heads up on the site........
Welcome to the AV forum, sparticusaby! Nothing wrong with lurking, but posting is better. :-)
Home Depot here often carries the larger 2-piece ceramic pots in the houseplants department. They're good for ferns, also. I have one huge AV that has become multi-crowned over the years, but I decided I like it just fine that way. (It's in a 6 inch pot, and is generally between 12 and 15 inches across.)
If you like the look of the plant, there's no reason to grow it with only a single crown unless you are planning to enter it in a show.
Thanks, critterologist, and thanks for confirming that multi-crowned is okay. I truly am a total novice with nothing worth contributing to this forum beyond a desire to learn. I've lucked into a lighting solution where the AVs just seem to thrive in their double pots. Now if I just had more windows that got the exact same light...
Do I understand correctly that you have a multi-crowned AV measuring 12 - 15" across in a 6" double pot (I'm assuming the inner pot is 6")? If so, I'm thrilled; my baby is probably 11 - 12" across in a 6" pot, so perhaps I don't need to panic about moving her to a bigger pot just yet. See how much I'm learning from you experienced folks? Thanks!
Yes, the plant I mentioned is in a 6 inch pot (inner pot diameter).
It's unlikely you'll ever have to move a standard AV to anything larger than a 6 inch pot, and most of them lead happy lives in 4 inch pots. Excess soil around the rootball can get soggy and lead to problems, so it's a good idea to not put your AV into a larger pot than it needs at the time. Most experts seem to think that a good rule of thumb is to have the diameter of the plant equal to three times the diameter of the pot (so a 12 inch plant would need only a 4 inch pot), but my plants are generally more like only twice the diameter of their pots.
Here's "Big Blue" (a noid), a photo from a while back when it still had a single crown...
Awesome: thanks again. And Big Blue is a beauty!