How to Separate African Violet Suckers Do you find yourself wanting more African violets? Copyright © 2020 African Violet Resource Center, 5 Tips to Keep Your African Violet Alive for Years to Come, Everything You Need to Know About African Violet Leaves. Never use cold water, always lukewarm or room-temperature water. Once you have chosen which leaves to harvest for propagation, proceed to snap off the tender leaf stem from the African Violet plant or use a sharp clean knife to cut the tender leaf stem off of the African Violet ⦠Once your mother plant is thriving, follow these simple steps to grow infinite new plant pals. If you’re wondering. Choose leaves that are almost full size and remove from the plant with the stalk attached. Most standard African violets, grown as a houseplant, will require a 4-5â³ pot at maturity. Once the roots appear, the cut stem will begin to produce a new plant; this may take at least a month. Within 4-6 weeks, the mother leaf will start growing plantlets. The ease with which African violet can be rooted and acclimatized facilitates its commercialization, making it a popular flowering pot plant (Teixeira da Silva et al., 2016). Step 1: Remove and trim leaf. Overheating can cause the delicate leaf to burn or rot. (The mother leaf may have died by this point, that’s okay!) Propagating African Violets from Seed. There are several methods of African violet propagation, from cuttings to division. Propagating African violets is a great pastime for people who love them. African violet propagation—. (Our. If your African violet appears to be struggling, nurse it back to health before attempting to propagate. If the water evaporates, add more. Fill a wide-mouthed container with lukewarm water. Skip to the end of this guide for a start-to-finish checklist! Propagation of African violets to gain more plants of the same variety is normally done by leaf propagation. Share your tips and tricks in the comments below! Poke a hole in the plastic wrap with a chopstick or skewer. Your seeds should germinate in 8 to 14 days. First and foremost, you can’t grow a healthy violet baby without a healthy violet mother. A rosette type would have leaves growing outwards from a central stem and flowers blooming at the center. Propagating your houseplants is an easy, inexpensive way to multiply your collection and grow thoughtful gifts for others. Sign up for our newsletter. A healthy leaf will usually take about a month to develop roots. Shoot for moist, not damp. African violets are one of the many species of houseplants that easily propagate. African violet leaf cuttings can successfully produce roots in water or soil. You can propagate African violets from seed, but it does require a couple of specific conditions. They always lend a soft touch of bright color and coziness to any room. Miniature has a diameter of 6-8 inches or less, semi-mini is 6-8 inches, standard is 8-16 inches, and large is 16+ inches. ! Remove these and pot up independently. Once you see three or four leaves growing from a single plant, you’re good to go. As a child, I remember going over to the homes of many of my relatives in St. Louis, and while there I would always admire the rows upon rows of African Violets lining the insides of windowsills, or sitting in little rolley carts in sunny areas of the house. First and foremost, you canât grow a healthy violet baby without a healthy violet mother. Fill pots with free draining compost such as seed and cutting compost or mix equal quantities of multipurpose compost and sharp sand or ⦠In a few more months (around 6-7 from the original propagation), your plant is ready to move to a traditional African violet pot and start producing beautiful blooms. We recommend selecting a few more leaves than you’re hoping to multiply to boost your chances of success. I put a small amount of rooting powder into a small bowl to avoid contaminating all of my rooting powder with moisture. Pro tip: Don’t let the cover or bag touch your cutting; trim the leaf or prop up the bag if necessary. Avoid exposing the cutting to excessive heat or cool air. Change the water every 7-10 days to keep it fresh. The answer is propagation as it allows for the acquisition of your own African violet without going to the nearest store. A. drop of liquid fertilizer can be added to the water at this point, but it is not necessary. Itâs best to use a mature leaf, but not one thatâs old and tough. Plan to do this project in the spring. This should also be the temperature of your soil for optimal sprouting. You can propagate African violets from seed, but it does require a couple of specific conditions. Our guide to, selecting and home-mixing African violet potting mix, giving your cutting an extra boost with a. . Potting. Propagating African violets from leaf cuttings is the most popular method because it’s so easy and successful. For minis and semiminis, us a ⦠Now that we have our mix and our pot ready, lightly moisten the mix and fill the pot. The plastic will allow light to permeate and capture the moisture in the soil to create a mini-greenhouse effect. Overly dry soil can give you a hard time creating “greenhouse-like” conditions in Step 4. This method is difficult because itâs nearly impossible to avoid wetting the violets. , cut the stem at a 45-degree angle down to about 1½ inch. This is great if your African violets have grown too large for their pots. (Our Beginner’s Guide to African Violet Care can help!) Sign up for new African Violet articles, free growing tips and much more! You can reuse the old pot for one of your repotted plants, if you want. No need to go buy new plants…they’re easy and fun to propagate. Removing them also encourages better blooms on the parent plant. The media should be moistened vermiculate or 50% bagged African violet mix and 50% perlite. Once you select your leaf, pinch it off the parent plant. Use plant tags or another small, firm item to prop the leaf upright. Most African violets look best with no more than 5 rows of leaves. It may sound intimidating to propagate an African Violet in the first place, but it is actually really simple â even beginning gardeners can do it. Whether you’re a green or seasoned grower, African Violet Resource Center has everything you need to help your plant (and plant babies!) If you’re a houseplant lover, chances are you’ve propagated plant babies in water. A bit of Epsom salt can help to lighten the soil even more. Tiny plantlets will start to make their way to the surface within four weeks. Removing suckers is a good way to propagate a new plant, but it also keeps the mother plant healthy, as suckers can rob the plant of nutrients and energy, thus reducing flowering and shortening the life of the plant. You may want to dip the tip of the stem into some rooting hormone. Growing African violets from leaves or cuttings is a simple propagation method for new plants. Characteristics of a typical African violet are that it is a tropical, herbaceous perennial. You can propagate this plant from a healthy leaf cutting. Otherwise, make sure you have 2 appropriately-sized pots. Leaf cuttings. Based on the growth habit, an African violet can either be rosette (single-crowned) type or trailing (multi-crowned) type. You have probably seen this done in water but you can also root them directly in potting mix. Removing the top half of the leaf can force the cutting to put more energy into sprouting roots, reducing grow time. Don’t be alarmed if your plantlets don’t have many roots yet; they’ll grow more vigorously once repotted. (Our Beginnerâs Guide to African Violet Care can help!) Propagation . A Beginner’s Guide to African Violet Care, Bottoms Up! If the inside of your mini greenhouse appears dry, check the soil. Wait until the baby plant is about half-an-inch big and move to a small pot, following the directions in Step 5 above. Even inexperienced growers can quickly produce additional plants and expand their collection. Interested in African violet propagation in water? African Violet Care â Keeping Them Healthy. Make sure you place the stem in water immediately after cutting; African violet leaves will start to harden up within a few minutes of exposure to air. Top half of the same variety is normally done by leaf propagation enough will... Wet soil can cause the leaf can force the cutting in a plastic (... A Chimera African violet propagation ; trim the leaf can force the cutting in a location! 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