A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 watering African Violets

Good evening, all!

SO I followed Tonya's advice and replanted my two AVs into the special AV planters. I put in regular Schultz houseplant soil, but I bought the AV food. Now my next questions are:

1. How often should pour water in the planter? As soon as it has all been soaked in by the plant?

2. How much water should I pour? just an inch or so, half the pot, almost to the brim?

3. How often should I add the food (it is liquid, schultz brand). Also, on the bottle it gives food/water ratio for the gallon of water. But I only have two AVs, I am not using a gallon of water each time I water. Does anyone have any idea how many drops of food for two 4 or 5 inch AV pots? Or maybe I could make a solution for the gallon of water, and use it for more than one watering? will the solution keep? if yes, for how long?


sorry for so many questions. But it's all your own fault guys! you are being so helpful that it would be a sin not to take advantage of you

Thank you for your help,
t.

First of all the house plant soil may not allow good drainage for the av's, does it have perlite in it? You can use the fertilizer every time you add water. And if you mix up a gallon, it will keep for several weeks, just be sure to shake up the jug before you use it...Also it is suggested by many who grow av's that you should not use the recommended amount of drops per gallon like the package says...use half that amount for healthier and happier violets. I assume you are using self watering pots??? If that is the case, then make sure that the unglazed part of the pot (the part that has the plant in it) is in the water, in a self watering pot..usually half full is about the right amount when the top part of the pot is added, be sure to check it every few days until you figure out how many days it takes for the water level to get down to far. Also with these type of pots, dump the old water and rinse out the water pot good before added new water.

Thank you, Comfrey!
I guess I'd have to dig them out again because I did not add perlite, and the original amount in the soil does not appear to be sufficient.

I also did a search on the Internet and found the AV Society of America site. It is an amazing source. I guess I should have read it before potting my violets but I hope it is never too late to learn and that my AVs will appreciate the proper care (granted they survive the initial abuse born of my ignorance).
The one thing they keep on repeating is that if using self watering pots (double ceramic pot), you must add perlite to it: 2part soil 1 part perlite. So I will do that immediately.


I am also curious about the procedure they recommend on following when repotting AVs in self watering couple ceramic pots:
1. cut off all the existing blooms,
2. pot the plant,
3. Not put the first pot in the second, INSTEAD cover it with a clear plastic bag, and keep the plant thus for a month, always making sure that there condensed moisture on the inside of the bag.
4. After one month take the pot from the bag, put it in the outside pot and proceed with regular care.

What do you think about that? Any ideas?

thank you everybody,
t.

i've just plopped the av's into the interior holder and put it in the water of the outer pot...never did that 'bag' thing.

i've never had a problem. taking off the spent blooms isn't a bad idea...doing so promotes new blooms, so, the sooner you remove the old ones, the sooner new ones appear.

since i've been using the av pots, i've not added the food...they've done so well that i've just never gotten to it. i was looking at the bottle over the weekend tho...i'd recommend putting a drop in the water resevoir every other time you add water. two drops if it's a big planter (none of mine are bigger than 4 inches tho, so one drop would be sufficient for that size).

One of the reasons for the plastic bag method...is in case your plants has any pest on it, they won't spread to other plants...Anytime you bring a new av in you should isolate it no matter who you got it from just in case, pest can spread very quickly and wipe out all your av's before you know what is happening. Also with the two piece pots, it is a good ideal to soak the part the plant is going to go into, so that the unglazed part can become moisten to be able to draw the water properly.

You might also find useful information by reading previous thread's about growing AV's and alot of questions and answers African Violets 101 and it is continued 101b And then it is continued on to African Violets 102