Well my babies have grown up and I am wondering what are some of your suggestions to move them up to the next size pot. I have them all in solo cups right now and they are getting really crowded. What are the creative ways I can now move them up to?
Movin On Up...
When I separate babies I just give them their own solo pot (3oz) and put them on a capillary mat or a piece of acrylic blanket with a dome. Here is a picture of some right now that i started separating last night. Some are wicked and I need to go back and use size 18 poly string on two that I forgot.
The bigger ones you see will probably come out this week and wick on a grid.............
It just dawned on me that you may have already taken this step???????
I took this just to show you that the new baby african violets will need to be domed for a while
Dome off and babies getting started.(the dome has already gone back on after picture)
Maybe someone else will share a different way..........
I have been watching all the propagation threads with great interest. Gail, is that material you are using fleece? I have tons of it from wanna be sewing projects. Is the blanket used after the heating mat does its work or is it an alternative heat source? Thanks for starting this thread Begoniadude.
Cindy
It doesn't have anything to do with heat.
After I pot up a baby in a solo cup, I put them on a dry acrylic piece of blanket material I bought from Walmart and cut in small pieces. Than I put a dome on them . When they need water, I pour water on the material and they can soak up the water as they need it.(They have been watered thoroughly before I put them under a dome on the material)
I also put perlite in the bottom of the solo cup and then my mix.
I was potting up babies last night. The reason these babies look so funny is that it is Merlot Senk with the double leaf that bustles on a mature plant.
I only have a minute here but I'll tell you how I did mine this weekend. They had outgrown their 3 oz solo cups and were of a good size. I used the 9 oz solo cups, the short squatty ones. I burned drainage holes in the bottom with a soldering iron and I filled them 1/3 to 1/2 half full with perlite. I know that the baby violets and streps can't be potted up drastically, but I don't own all sizes of pots. These are inexpensive and easy and by starting out with them halfway full of perlite your not getting too much soil for the roots to have to grow into. Then when they need the next potting up I will use the same cups (with name stickers already attached!) but only fill them 1/4 of the way up with perlite. I learned about the 9 oz squatty cups from Raingazer and they work so well for a large variety of gessies!!
~Brenda
Thanks Brenda. I was thinking of doing just that but didn't know about filling the bottom of the cups with perlite. Do you bottom water them then? Or do you go ahead and wick them?
Warren
That's a good idea.......the size I like best made by Dart aren't available anywhere except violetshowcase (31/2 see through cups) but they cost 4.95 for a 100 which is more than the 9 oz in the grocery store.
I haven't gotten into the wicking yet and I do mostly bottom watering and it works real well with the perlite in the bottom as you don't get the roots soggy at all. If the tops are looking dry I'll top water to get everything going again.
An additional note is that for "saucers" underneath I went to a restaurant supply and bought a large bag of plastic deli containers, the 1/4 or 1/2 pound size.....and the solo cups fit nicely into them and they were very inexpesive. Like $3.95 for 50 of them!
I also bought lids for them and I'm trying them out as seed starting incubators too!
Pictures to come soon....
~Brenda