White Foliage?

I have never seen this before. I put three leaves down from Pacific Pearl in mid July and all three leaves had babies by the end of August. But the leaves came up and continue to be, WHITE! I asked in another AV website about this and the only feedback I received was that it probably wasn't getting enough light; and another recommendation was, "give it a shot of fish emulsion and that should green them up". Well the pot does get lots of light. It is in with the rest of my healthy and robust AV plants in a Garden Window in my kitchen. I did feed with fish emulsion, and while these little plants are all healthy and growing bigger, they still have White leaves. Two of the mama leaves turned brown and I was able to snip them away, and the third remains, but slowly dying as well. Any advice? What could have caused this? Prognosis?

Thanks for any help or insight you can offer. :)

I have never seen anything like that! An Albino African Violet! They sure are beautiful but look like they totally lack chlorophyll. I have no clue what would cause that and I wonder if the plant will survive.

I found this: http://www.steverd.com/violets/leaves/leaf-id.htm that talks about leaves becoming albino from being too cold, which obviously is not what happened with your plant that's located in a warm window. Check out the very last one talking about leaves having too much white from lack of magnesium or too much light!

I don't find anything about a totally albino plant. Hope someone who has maybe experienced this will pop in with input.

You know, my Rob's Chilly Willy is doing the same thing . . . the leaves are not completely white, 'cause there is a bit of green up the middle vein . . . but I've tried moving it further away from lights, etc. Nada. I'm all out of fish emulsion, so I haven't tried that yet . . .

I wish Goldleaf were here as she seems to know the most. It seems to me that nitrogen would be a better bet if you wanted green leaves. How about Schultz 20-20-20- or the African violet food from Selective Gardener which I use that is a 20-0-0 . Someone told me that it is still sold but is now 20-5-5 I think.

I don't know if feeding it would stimulate chlorphyll production or not, it might help it stay alive tho as it does not have the mechanism to convert light into food without chlorophyll. It is probably some sort of damage to or mutation of the cells causing them not to manufacture the chlorophyll. I grew a variegated Gasteria cutting one time and was told that damage to the cells at the callus where it rooted most likely caused it. The new growth could also be coming from a recessive trait already inherent (but not previously expressed) in the plant, the stress of rooting may have caused it to revert. I have never had an albino gessie--but did have some hybrid daylily seedling that was albino--they lived only a short time and then died. I think too that sometimes the genetic crosses that "design" these hybrids are not very stable. I am not any kind of expert and am just guessing here. I really hope you can keep it going--wouldn't it be gorgeous in bloom?

This message was edited Oct 24, 2008 7:40 AM

It is interesting, alright. Funny, now that I think of it, the Mama plant was one that I had previously owned and had to give away too my daughter when I had to drastically downsize a year and a half ago. The plant had florished in my care, but my daughter was never able to get it to bloom for her, and even mentioned that it would go through periods of droop before coming back again. I got the leaves from her. Maybe the plant was damaged somehow. She had it in a North window, which is why I figured it had never done well for her.

I wondered too, if it was from TOO MUCH light in my East facing Garden window, so changed it to another location for a few weks, but it never changed at all. Who knows??? I would really hate to lose the babies, because Pacific Pearl is such a gorgeous plant. :(

Edited to say...Maybe I'll try some Epsom Salts when watering....

This message was edited Oct 23, 2008 4:45 PM

It happens. Without green, they are slow growers. They need the green and hopefully when they get older they will green up some. I've had several start out white and then turned varigated. Also, I had a large green, white and pink varigated plant for about 3 years, one day the new growth in the crown started coming in only pink and white. Nothing changed, it was repotted and kept on the same place on the plant shelf, fertiziled like always with all the other plants. Then as the plant got older and varigated leaves with green got old and were removed leaving only pink/white leaves, they started dying because it needs green to process food.

Once the mama leaves start dying, take them off, let the energy go into the baby plants, a rotting leaf can rot baby plants too.

Yes, it's a pretty plant. I have Pacific Pearl in bloom now and it's very pretty. I don't remember when it was little if it started out white or not. tish

Thanks to everyone. Tish, you have given me some hope. Just hearing that you have had a similar situation helps. I will pray that eventually it will green up (if you notice, one of the tiny leaves at the bottom is green, and one in the middle has a green stripe). So...hopefully...

Interesting...Keep us updated!

I wonder what would happen if you got the liquid chlorophyll from a health food store and put some in the water???
If it got absorbed through the roots it might help...
Sharon

I could try that...

I had no idea there was such a thing as liquid chlorophyll so I just had to go google it and found this: http://www.greatestherbsonearth.com/nsp/chlorophyll_liquid.htm If it's safe enough for human consumption I would think it could be diluted to water the plants! Very interesting! Thanks 2manyplants for mentioning the liquid chlorophyll!

wow, i had no idea about that either, how intresting.
mrsbonnie

I would love to have a white foliage plant.................you will have so much fun trying to green it up a bit...................survival mode.......^_^

I certainly don't have white foliage like you do but I do have a trailer called Champagne Pink...........for some reason the leaves coming in on the right side of the plant are white and then I have to pinch them off and throw away. It is making the plant lopsided as you can see. ( i don't pinch and throw away until they turn brown)

Gosh, I hope mine don't all turn brown. :( Pacific Pearl has a variegated foliage, so hopefully they will eventually turn more green. I'll definitely do all that I can to help them do that. Fingers crossed here...

gessiegail - You might want to pinch off those bigger leaves. BUT - Leave a stub of the leaf stem where it grows from the main stem. This is where new growth will grow out creating more trailer crowns. Removing the bigger leaves will let light in and room for new growth to grow. I used to take the leaves right off at the stem where they grew out but I found out that damages the growth area and it is why my trailers just got long necks....so now I always leave a "stub" and my trailers are looking much better!

thanks...........now tell me again...........I am confused...........sorry.........what do you mean by leave a stub of the leaf stem..............can you take a picture and show us?

I don't know if this will help anyone out,but I thought it was interesting.
http://steverd.com/violets/leaves/leaf-id.htm

Lynn

Thanks so much Lynn. It is an excellent link. plantladylin also provided the link earlier in the thread. I am definitely going to try the epsom salts which was suggested there. I have also added the link to my favorites list.

wow that is a great hyperlink, i putit in my favorites,good to have. thanks
mrsbonnie

Sorry,Lin. I didn't realize I had posted the same link as you already had.I quess I was just intrigued by it.

Lynn

Double the pleasure!!! :D