A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2003 African violet question

Hi all! I just acquired an African violet for rescue purposes. The poor thing was knocked into a sink full of dishwater. I pulled the plant out, washed away all the old soil from the roots, then washed out its pot completely. I planted it back into its pot with soil specifically for African violets. So far, the plant has shown no signs of shock whatsoever, but it appears leggy. It has a trailing stem, but not too many leaves. None of the leaves look bad, in fact, they look quite healthy. Would it be safe to try propagating this plant right now? I've never had an African violet before, and I'm not familiar with the do's and don'ts, especially considering this one's accident. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks, and happy gardening to everyone!

Hmmm, I have 3 AV....A pink one, white, and purple.....I'm not sure about propogating, but do you have it in a bottom watering container and do you feed it with AV food mixed in the water??? Those two things will help it out.....

If you look at the flowers on them they have an irredescence to them....they kind of sparkle...I just noticed that a week or so ago and I love to check them out now....funny how you can discover something so small like that, but it can bring such a smile to your face.... <img border="0" alt="[clappy]" title="" src="graemlins/clappy.gif" />

I'm sure someone will be along to help you out!! Glad you could rescue it!

Hi, Loz!
Everything is set up for the AF, but since I just put all new soil in the pot, I haven't fertilized it yet. It seems it was looking leggy before its accident, and I'm not sure if I should try fertilizing yet.

I have 2 AV a pink& a purple.Grew outdoors in a perfect lil spot.the purple bloomed a long time but not seen much on the pink.it has perked up growing since I moved them into a terraruim for the winter,but purple has now stopped blooming.

I doubt the dishsoap dive harmed it.if it had any bug problems you solved it when it dived in.maybe it was telling you something.LOL

There are two ways to deal with a "long-necked" AV. Cut off the stem so you have a short neck that can be potted in its own pot. Scraping the bare stem gently before potting it will encourage root development.

The other method is to slice off the bottom inch or so of the rootball, the place the shortened rootball back into the pot and you will now have room to add an inch of soil on top of the rootball and cover up the neck.

Okay, I think I might manage now, lol. Loz, Enjoynit, Bill, and Will, thank you much for the info. The poor thing just might survive! :p