Hello all. This is my first and only African Violet. I have had it probably going on 10 years now. I know basically nothing about them, but it has seemed happy, so I have kept doing what I have always done, which is: watering every 3 to 4 days, plant food maybe every other month (probably the wrong stuff, and probably not often enough), and trimming dead leaves and dried out flowers.
Looking at other posts, I think it's likely I have more than one plant in there and a separation and repotting is probably required.
What prompted me to ask for help is that my plant very much does not look like any of yours or the ones in google image search. Your advice is much appreciated.
by Spazzword
4 Comments
What a lovely old plant! You’re right, serious pruning is in order. So, nearly every African violet on the market is grown in the Beidermeier style, a single crown per plant with the flowers grown in a bouquet over the crown. This is why your violet doesn’t look quite like the others you see in this sub; its suckers have been allowed to grow and flower unchecked over the years, which creates the messier look of the Saintpaulia ionantha. Rest assured though, your plant is indeed African violet, just one that desperately needs some TLC!
I will say, your plant does look healthy, just crowded. If it were me, I would carefully extract the plant and clean the potting medium off the roots (I use my kitchen sink’s sprayer and just blast them, some people are more careful). Once it’s all cleaned up, I can get a good look at just how many plants I’m dealing with. When I am cleaning up a plant that has many suckers, I only keep suckers that already have roots growing. I carefully wiggle them off and set them aside. Then, I remove all the leaves on the main plant except for 1-2 rows. Assuming the crown and roots are healthy, I just plant the neck and it grows roots. If they’re not, then I’ll decapitate. I do the same for the suckers…I bet you have some decently mature suckers.
For repotting, I like to use wick watering/self watering planters. I use a 70% perlite to 30% AV potting medium ratio. It works well for me. I forget the exact recommendation for pot size, I think it’s something like 1/3 the size of the rosette? I dunno, I mostly use 3″ once mine have roots and tell them to deal with it if it’s too big or small and usually they do! I do the same for all the suckers I wanna keep.
Everyone’s got different methods, though, it’s up to you! A lot of people like to bag/put a humidity dome on their main plant and suckers for a couple weeks after doing a big clean up like your plant needs. I don’t…mostly because I’ve been out of freezer bags for months (going on a year, I amaze myself) and keep forgetting to buy more. It’s a good idea to, though.
I would listen to what others have to say and do whatever sounds like the best method for YOU is! Good luck!
If this is a trailer it’s meant to have multiple crowns
Yours looks different cause this plant has character! I love how it has been allowed to naturally grow over the years. I might pinch a few sad leaves that were easy to get to and be done unless roots are growing out the bottom. Then I’d set the whole thing in a bigger pot. Well done!
Honestly if you’re happy with how it currently looks, I’d just leave it be. Separating the crowns would be too risky at this point – I’m zooming in and it looks like it’s going to be nearly impossible to do.
I’d just trim off the yellow leaves and maybe fertilize a little more regularly but that would be it. The violet is blooming, so you’re definitely doing something right!
If you want, you can try propagating some leaves if you want to try growing one in the more typical “Beidermeier style”. But I’d definitely leave this one alone