Learning thread...successes and failures

Without Snowrose around we really have to help one another. My failures teach me more than my successes.

Let me show you both success and failure in simply potting up a new baby from the mama av leaf.

I don't know why I don't stick to a sure method rather than trying something new and having it fail.

Here is a picture of a baby plant potted up the right way in a solo cup with perlite on the bottom and wicked also. Then I could keep the babies under a dome on a matting for a while. This Optimara plant has so many good roots that I can go from a solo cup to a 3" pot immediately. (the right way)

This one is also a success as the baby was separated from the mama leaf and potted up in only a 1" pot with no perlite. Now she is ready for a 3" pot because she has such good roots.

And here is a big failure on my part. This is one of Brenda's leaves called Silverglade Oyster and I want these babies so badly.

What happened was that I used a 31/2 oz pot for the new babies with no perlite on the bottom. That meant i couldn't put them under a dome on a mat where the wick could draw only the water needed.

Here is a picture of her and she has been in this oversized pot for more than two weeks. I still don't have but one new leaf. The smaller the pot the easier it is for the roots to be motivated to fill up the pot. She is having a hard slow time.

Here is a newly potted av up into a 3" pot because I started the little baby the right way. That would be a 3 oz. solo cup with perlite on the bottom 1/3 of the pot. Look at how big she is and I just planted her up last night from the solo cup with perlite on the bottom. The 3" pot doesn't have anything but my own soil-less mix I make.

Here is my biggest failure to date. I got all these wonderful strep leaves and remember how i told you I hydrated them in sugar water? Well, just because it works on other leaves doesn't mean it works on strep leaves!

AND..once again, I don't know why I used a soil-less mix instead of 1/2 perlite an 1/2 vermiculite. It always works that way. This was a full tray and most have completely rotted. i also cut a petiole but i don't think that has anything to do with the failure. I believe it was a failure for two reasons. First, i should not have soaked them overnight in sugar water and secondly, I should have used my standard 1/2 perlite and 1/2 vermiculite.

Fortunately I did put the King of Kings in the sugar water for only 20 minutes and all her cuttings are going to make it.

This is a Kohleria where I had killed the plant and Keyring suggested putting the rhizome in a baggie in perlite. This is a great success and thank you, Keyring. Now she is ready to be potted up on her own in a soil-less mix.

*****Please share with all of us your failure and your successes. We need help.

I learned the hard way also Gail, to never take a baby from a solo cup and pot it up straight into a 4" pot. They almost never succeed this way. Now I always go bigger gradually.

Susan

I think if everyone will share their failures and successes, we can all learn a lot. I just didn't realize how important it is to pot that baby (when separated from its' mother) in the smallest amount of soil=less mix. Then the root system doesn't go into so much shock...........

****edited to say if anyone knows how to find old tutorials, please share with the rest of us. If you know of a good old tutorial would you hyperlink it here and then we will have it when we need it.

This message was edited Nov 30, 2007 1:25 PM

Now I don't know if this is a success or failure because it's something that I just thought of last night. I was in the process of potting all the datura seedlings into their own solo cups and was thinking about the gessie seeds that I have coming. In looking at the perlite I thought "wow, that is going to be too big for the size of the baby seeds coming". I mixed together a little bit of african violet soil, LOTS of perlite and some vermiculite. Then I took it and put all of it on a trash bag. I put another trash bag on top of the soil and got my wooden rolling pin and started rolling. When I was done, I had a nice seed starting mix that had TINY particals instead of bigger chunks made for mature roots. I then hand picked out anything that the rolling pin couldn't crush to a smaller size. Next I poured 1/2 water 1/2 hydrogen peroxide into the tray and let the seed cells which I filled with the crushed soil absorb the water. This will sterilize the soil. Now I have the cells on the light stand to dry. Once the seed arrive, I will sow them and then water with 1/2 water and 1/2 hydrogen peroxide and then dome and put on a heat mat.

For those that have started gessie seeds.........does this sound like a good plan? I have never done this before so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I don't know, Kim
I did what Snowrose told me to do with all seeds. I used my regular soil-less mix with perlite and vermiculite. Then, after I had spread the seeds I used that tiny tiny vermiculite and spread over the seeds. I didn't sterilize and I didn't use hydrogen peroxide.

I am quite sure there are many ways to do it. I just wish we knew how to find the old threads where the pros like Snow have shown how to do it.

Maybe we just have to go through all the threads someone has posted to find them?

**edited to say I watered from the bottom so i wouldn't displace seeds.

This message was edited Nov 30, 2007 2:21 PM

I just answered my own question to Critter. Go to the forums and look at the right hand upper side. There you can search the forums. I just put African Violets and threads only by Snowrose. It appeared several times. This is awesome. Next time I will just put in the subject under African Violets by anyone and see what appears.

Yep, that's it! Clicking the "search the forums" button without putting anything in the search field brings up some additional options that make things easier.

I do sterilize the soil for leaf cuttings just as I do for starting seeds... in the microwave! I put it in a tupperware container (a big one). Be sure to add at least 1 cup of water for every quart of soil mix (if it's not moist, it really will catch on fire, believe me). Put the lid loosely on the container and microwave on high for 8 to 12 minutes, until you see steam condensing on the underside of the lid. Seal the lid down tightly, and let the steam continue to work on the potting mix for at least 10 minutes longer. This seems to "open up" the peat in the mix so it absorbs water really well, too.

Gee, thanks Critter, as I just learned something new! I wouldn't have known how to do this.

Some folks bake potting mix in the oven to sterilize it, but I think that makes quite an odor. It has a little bit of smell doing it in the microwave, but not bad if you seal it up. But don't try it with dry mix! LOL, oh yes, it's funny now... :-)

Gail Or anybody here is a question.
I just read about your Rhizome and how you put it in perlite In one of the trades I got a Achimenes called purple King I have been trying to grow it and nothing has happen do you think if I put each one in a baggie with just perlite that it will grow or should I just keep in soil with wrap over it?
I just pulled one out and not a thing is going on with them What do you guys think I should do maybe half in perlit the other in dirt
Dimmer/Kim

LOL Critter! I got the funniest scene in my head reading about microwaving the mix and not burning it. Neighbors talking- What was it she caught on fire? Oh, didn't you hear? SHe burned DIRT!- LOL (you know how non-plant people are & call potting mix dirt)

Dimmer, I have only tried two ways with a rhizome and they both worked. You saw one and here is the other. I just put in a pot with no cover ....just 1" of soil-less mix over the top of the rhizome (mix of soil less AV, perlite and vermiculite) The rhizome in the pot has taken longer than the one I just put in perlite in a zip lock bag and closed the bag until she started growing. Now the zip lock has been unlocked for a while and I need to pot her up.

Let me take a quick pic of 'Laura', a small grower anyway.

Dimmer, Snow told me how to do the Laura one in the pot with an inch of soil on top of the rhizomes....see the second little one coming up

Back to soil-less mix igniting and burning. I never even thought of a fire being a possibility when I lived in an apartment in New Braunfels. The concrete deck on the second floor wrapped around on 2 sides of the apartment. I had so many flowers growing you couldn't even see in the apartment.

One night i was sitting out on the balcony smoking a cigarette and put it out (I thought) in a clay container that had a soil less mix in it. About an hour later I saw flames leaping from the balcony. When the fire department extinguished the fire, they were in agreement that it started in the clay pot!!!!!! (I was so ashamed that I didn't know any better)

The apartment complex didn't even ask me to pay for all the damage and there was a lot of damage to the wood trim on the balcony and windows, too.

Oh Gail, I'm glad that fire stayed on your balcony! Yikes!

OK, here's the old thread. "Fire in the Hole!" http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/485684/ Go ahead, laugh. I was on the phone at the time -- at least it wasn't with a neighbor! LOL

One more question do you put anywater in the baggie when you use the perlite
Gail that firer must have scared you pretty bad .you no isn't there some chat on Kim site about soil-less mix . that would be a good story to put on that theard The thead where she is trying to quite smokimg
thanks for the infor
Dimmer

Yes, I did get the perlite real wet before I buried the rhizome. I kept the top on the zip lock closed and then once the plant got about an inch high I gradually opened the zip lock . Then it needed watering about once a week . I just used one of the squirt bottles with water and a little fertilizer in it.

I will have read about Critter's fire..........

******edited to say we no longer have enough people posting to start new threads with pics, etc. We miss you jannich, SusanGa, dispatcher1, Cedarnest, begoniadude, Snowrose, Keyring, RainGazer.
I may take a break with you all......................it's lonely here on the AV forum.

This message was edited Dec 1, 2007 12:37 PM

Here I am..Sorry I've been busy puttering around outside these days.The weather is great for cleaning up the garden beds and picking up some kind of picky balls that fall from a tree I have here..Don't know the name of it but they hurt when you step on them barefoot.lol.

I think I have a failure maybe someone can tell me what wrong.I have two episcia and some of the leaves are getting brown on the leaves.Anyone know why??

E.Ronnie

And heres E.Dixie Dynamite doing the same thing.The other episcia's are doing fine.

Good Morning Jannich :)

I am SO new to episcia it isn't even funny so I'm not sure my advice will even be helpful but I'll give it a shot *lol*

I looked both of those episcia up and mature leaves on both of them are supposed to be chocolate colored. Sometimes newer leaves can be a nice light color or even pink etc. but as they mature they change to the brown. It's hard to tell in your picture if this is just coloring or something going wrong.

If you think it may be something going wrong, maybe they are not getting enough humidity and are "drying". If you mist them, it's important to mist first thing in the morning with very warm water and not cold water. Those would be my guesses but maybe one of the experts will pop in and help :)

Kim

Good morning, girls! I don't grow episcias as they don't like me! (LOL)
I just have to think that brown edges means not enough humidity..............do yu have them in domes of some kind, jannich?

I just learned something new. I always have trouble with new strep seed grown plantlets. The new leaves sometimes wither away, so i read all the instructions on all my bottles and containers of 'chemical'. I have a container of marathon 1%..........it said to sprinkle 1/4 tsp or 1/8tsp to the soil surface of newly planted streps as they tend to get mealy bugs in the soil.

i will let you know what happens!

Good morning ladies!
I do mist them in the morning.One is growing in a window with morning sun and the other is growing a stand under the lights.I only grow the pink episcia in glass.I have others under the same conditions and there fine.Its not the coloring,the edge is brown and crisy.Maybe I need to mist more often in the winter time? Thanks for your help ladies.
Had to post the flower of Ronnie.Its cute!

Good morning Gail et al,
Thought I'd get out of my closet and stop in and say hello too. Here is a pretty pic of my Strawberry Festival I have up in my living room. She does well as long as I remember to water and fertilize her. I have so many babies in the basement I sometimes forget to water the ones I have upstairs. It's cold in IL this morning. Had freezing rain yesterday but got out to check on Dad after his toe surgery on Friday (long day)! Couldn't drive over 30 mph on one road. Scares me but had to check on him and took him some food too so he wouldn't get out. He loves to go and I'm afraid a little surgery won't stop him.
You ladies have a nice day. Check in here often just don't always post.
Blessings,
Laura

I found this thread this morning and have thoroughly enjoyed it Gail.....I too miss Snow and Rain and Key!!!

Well here is one that I "thought" was going to be a total flop. I had mentioned on another thread that I cut the bigger streps in half. I look really closely at dirt level and then do my best to cut them apart into the separate plants or crowns that come up. I have done this several times and have had nice blooming size plants to share.

At the end of October I cut Maassen's White yet again as she is a big fast grower and a week later this is what the newly separated plant looked like.....the mama was fine......

~Brenda

Just a question here. Instead of assuming you put holes in the bottom of those Solo cups, thought I might shoud ASK if you do? Going to try to buy some today to start some leaves.

Jannich- Is it maybe water collected on or under the leaf in that area that caused the browning? Seems a strange place for a leaf to turn brown for it to be natural and it's right there where it curls. Just a guess...

So with that poor strep looking so ugly I figured I had waited too late in the season to cut it apart.......my aunt came by and she is a good grower and she told me to cut all the leaves back on it. I was going to do that........ but I just didn't have time and I was not into playing plants (can you imagine??) so I just ignored it on the shelf.

And here it is 20 days later............... I was moving some plants around and could not believe my eyes....here is that Maassen's White that I ended up just flat out ignoring for nearly a month......LOL

~Brenda

Brenda- I had faith in you! The new growth in first pic looked good. 20 days was a quick turn around to a nice plant. Good job!

Hi Diane, yep, you put holes in the solo cups for leaves or little plants....

Jannich my bigger episcias do that same thing, brown crunchy edges on the newer leaves and I blame it on not enough humidity. My smaller ones that are in self watering pots do well just on the shelves but once they start getting some size to them this is what the bottom leaves do to me. I'm not willing to put them in a green house or under domes so I end up starting new ones. The small ones like me the big ones just put up with me! LOL They both still bloom though....

Sempervi that is a real pretty bloom picture!!

So this is really off topic but are you all familiar with the teacher that just went up in space in August??? Barbara Morgan? Well my town here in Idaho is her hometown and this is where she taught school until becoming the "teacher in space" back up behind Christa MacCullif (spelling??) Barbara Morgan was my middle DD teacher in the early 90's. So I dug out this picture that came out in a science magazine article in 1990. My daughter is on the far left in the picture....she's 9 years old then with her teacher, Barbara Morgan and two other classmates. I had not thought of this article in years but my DIL (who also had her as a teacher) is in charge of one of the welcome home events for her next week and she was gathering old memorabilia from when Barbara taught here....just wanted to share while it was going through my head........LOL

~Brenda

Ok, I've got another "learning" experience to share. I bought one of those mini greenhouses on clearance this fall. The ones with the plastic zippered covers over them.

I had run out of domed containers to pot up new AV and Strep leaves so I just slid a whole cookie sheet of potted up leaves onto one of the mini greenhouse shelves, no cover on it because it was going in the greenhouse, right? I have lights set up for each of the shelves.

BUT.....what I have found is that it is just overall too dry in that big of an environment without a direct cover or dome over the leaves. At least it is for me....I'm used to putting the leaves in the domes and not even thinking about them again for a week or two at a time and they stay plenty moist but these in the greenhouse dry out every few days and I didn't find that out until I had lost several of the leaves..........so back to small enclosed domes for me to start leaves in.

Here is some new growth, look closely!! I just found from one of my enclosed domes......the mini trailing violet leaves were so tiny I never thought that I would be able to grow them.....but looky...that's my pinky finger in the picture.....

~Brenda

This message was edited Dec 2, 2007 9:33 AM

Here is another mini trailer leaf putting out growth, this is my index finger so the leaves are a bit bigger than the last ones!

~Brenda

Brenda, thanks. Still figuring out things on my new digital, and having fun doing it.
Love the Barbara Morgan pic. How cool! One neat lady, after all of these years to accomplish what she is these days. I follow all of the Shuttle launches with awe. Every single lift off still gives me goose bumps. How special that you know her.
Have a great day,
Laura

AWWWW Bren, your babies are BEAUTIFUL!
I simply LOVE babies!
I have been just puttering and playing with babies too.
Still trying to learn how to do things from all the experts here. Growing under lights is all new to me so I'm quite obsessed on a daily basis making sure I'm being a good mommy.
You are such an inspiration to me my friend :)

Another question since this is a learning thread.....When you cut the stolons off episcias, how long should the stem be,what do you do with the stem left on the plant(cut off the main stem?), and how big do the stolon leaf babies need to be before you cut them off? Did I cram enough into that sentence? LOL

Hi,Its sprinkling outside so I get to take a break LOL.

Dianesjungle,Thats a good thought.Maybe misted them alittle to heavy and the water sat on the leaves?

brenda,Is that only happening to your big ones?? The plants I have are still only little and there wicked.

Ok another question for you folks.I grew a 2 leaves from E.Unpredictable Valley.Both put up babies,onehas a lot of pink like the mom plant and one is green/silver in the leaves.I thought leaves was supposed to come true to the parent.

I don't know the answer to your question just wanted to say-OOOO I LOVE that pink one!