A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 weird white stuff on my african violets

Hello all! Does anybody know what causes a white powdery substance to grow on the stems of my african violets? It's been there for a while now (quite a few months maybe) and I couldn't stand it anymore yesterday so I took them out of the dirt and I washed them all off. While I was at it, I repotted the babies into small pots. From two medium sized pots, I produced thirteen baby african violets. Never felt so overwhelmed before. Anyway, my real concern was the weird white substance growing. I wonder what caused it and how would I prevent it from attacking my baby av's. Thanks for reading this. A.

wondering if it is growth or just minerals from the water? as i remember guam (lived in finegayan for 2 years) the water was very heavy mineral wise.

Whenever you get a new plant, isolate it for a mo. from other plants. Mealy bugs are white fuzzy stuff also. You get them from a contaminated plant. They are nasty, reproduce fast, and kill plants by sucking the juice out of them.
Darlene

It may have been powdery mildew, a type of fungus. Root washing is an extreme procedure that often does more harm than good.