Gardening > Houseplants
Starting African violets 101
barleychown:
Bad donor plants....
Now these are NOT good donor plants:
These are bad because the top one have small not-happy leaves, and the bottom one - look closely at the crown ( the very middle). See the misformed and the brown? Not good signs. These can be caused by a number of things such as a simple "culture break", over fertilization, or buggies! Buggies are bad. AVOID plants that are not healthy!!!
As you get more advanced, you may consider "rescuing" some violets, but please avoid it for now. While you are mastering starting a leaf, you need the odds in your favor!
barleychown:
Okay...now, on to the fun stuff!
First, assemble the following:
Use the permenant pen to label the pot with the date you started the leaf, and the name of the variety, if you know it.
Poke holes in the bottom of your pots with the knife...BE CAREFUL!
Using the knife, cut off a leaf, close to the crown of the plant so there is a lot of stem left with the leaf, like so:
Now, using the razor blade, cut the stem at about a 45* angle, leaving around a half and inch of stem:
So it looks like this when done:
Now...let it sit for around twenty minutes so it can sort of scab over the end a little, then stick it into the pot:
barleychown:
Keep 'em happy...
Now, to keep the leaves happy and firm while they are "laboring", I like to "dome" them...in essence, create a mini greenhouse for them to hang out in...
Either "dome" each pot seperately:
Or as a group:
The covered pan in the second pic was found at wal-mart in the bakeware section. They come as a set of two for around $3.
barleychown:
Now what???
Okay...now that we've started our leaves...here is what we have to look forward to in 4 to 10 weeks!
The "mouse ears":
A little bit older baby:
And a tray full of babies:
barleychown:
Where to go from here?
Look for another thread, titled "African violets 102".
http://www.southernspirithunters.com/smf/index.php/topic,1404.new.html#new
Any questions I can help you with?
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