please check my list. i would prefer plants or at least plantlets. i only have two right now, so i'm pretty open. also, please make it fair for everyone. cody

Eclipse, you should re-pot right away; delaying won't help matters because the peat it's in is bad stuff. Use a mix of 1 part peat or commercial Av mix, 1 part vermiculite, and 1 part perlite. A big tip I learned; don't pack the soil in the pot, just spoon it in and around the roots, tapping the side of the pot to help sift it through the roots. Does that make sense? Korina, off to get more tea

This has been a really iteresting discussion, and yes dchall, I can usually rescue a plant in any kind of shape too. Don't you think that healthy ones should be on the sales floor? I bought the rescues in November. I was extremely lucky to find them at a WM near the warm gulf coast. The really healthy ones were probably picked over by June and the rest were probably gone by September. These were really the dregs. Bless you for rescueing all of those Walmart half dead NOID's, but ...BIG but, I bet even the walmart staff thought you were nut's buying them. Umm, yes they did. Are you trying to prove that the plants are durable, or your growing skills are so honed that you can save anything and keep them alive? Plants in the condition I got them in are not at all durable. It was my superior knowledge of soil science that performed the successful rescue of 12 of them. (My knowledge is superior to the soil's knowledge) Actually like I said this is an experiment. I expect to learn something. I purchased two healthier plants at WM last May and June. I killed the June one in standing water. Oops! But the other one was standing in water, too, and I caught it before it rotted. It is alive and blooming today in the original soil. Actually it stopped blooming two weeks ago when what appears to be a seed pod formed on a flower, but I digress. The success I had with that one plant after 6 months prompted me to try the rescue project. I figure keeping one plant alive could be a fluke, but keeping 15 sick plants alive would not be. The point of the experiment is to take these sickies and see if I can recover them, nurse them back to a blooming condition, and sustain them in a blooming condition indefinitely in the original WM pot and soil. I don't want any stem rot or leaf spots to form, but I am not taking any of the care y'all do in keeping water off the leaves. They get fertilizer water splashed on them at every watering. In fact I think many of you would be absolutely grossed out to know how I care for them, so I am resisting the temptation to explain it. But they are doing well to survive this long. If the experiment bombs, I'll explain it and let y'all know what not to do. So far my regimen is working inasmuch as I have not lost more than 3 plants in 8 weeks. If the experiments works, that means I get flowers from them all while remaining in the same soil, I will also explain that, but I would prefer to explain it from a position of some credibility rather than as a newby crackpot (which many folks already think I am). Do you think the average walmart shopper has your unique know how? Not hardly. I am an organic grower and not even all organic growers have my unique knowledge. Even after I explain what I do, half the organic growers don't believe it. YOU USE WHAT TO FERTILIZE? Once I'm getting flowers I will explain the concept and the science behind it. There is nothing really mysterious but if your background is in chemistry, it will be mysterious. You will need to forget some chemistry and learn some microbiology. The average WM shopper is the average person. That person may be an expert in some things but the things they are expert in, they probably do not shop at WM to buy (did that make sense?). I have a mentor who is trying an experiment with WM potting mix. He is in the soil amendment business and has been for 35 years. He used to try to compete with WM potting mixes but has since decided to test their mixes. He grows some plants in standard WM potting soil, identical plants in WM soil with his amendments, and identical plants in WM soil + his amendments + other amendments he is experimenting with. This concept goes along the lines of, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Now he's promoting the use of WM potting soil, BUT now he has a small amendment package to make the WM soils act like his more expensive soils. This concept is the Genesis of my project. Do you think the average walmart shopper has the AV experience to know that those $25 everfloris violets are less than special, that they're inferior to most AV hybrids? This is probably much more to the point of this thread than anything I've already said. What makes one plant superior to another? In animals it is called 'conformation.' I know some plants are not considered 'conforming' if they have the wrong natural shape. What makes one African violet better than another?

Oh yes, I do I do... It was just pure luck that these turned out the way they did, I guess. I was just taking Barbara's advice of using a tripod. But I believe it definitely takes more than a tripod to have good results ALL THE TIME. So, please please, m3rma1d,... educate me! Thank you. Xuan