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African Violets

Would you consider this a 'tight' crown?

18 years ago

I've been reading some posts about AVs having a tight crown and I am worried that is what I might be seeing on my Rob's Bed Bug. What do you think?

{{gwi:358930}}

Suggestions on how I could improve its growth? (If you would consider this a tight crown, I believe the remedy to be too much light. It is 10 inches under the fluorescents, but they are new bulbs.) Move it lower? Move to the end of the shelf? Place tissue on top of it? Thanks for any advice!

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Comments (9)

lainielady
18 years ago
Your violet looks good to me! If your bulbs are new and its growth is making you uneasy, move it to the end of the shelves or adjust the distance between violets and light. I see one little leaf which appears to be growing at an angle, but your violet looks very symmetrical and the foliage is laying flat nicely. Great pic!

Elaine
tjsangel
18 years ago
It's absolutely gorgeous and I wouldnt change a thing : )

Jen
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Are you sure it has been discontinued? I looked on the Fertilome site and the product is still listed. (See the link below: go to systemic insecticide). I bought mine at a local nursery several years ago. I've been growing AVs for at least 30 years, so I've had every pest and almost every environmental situation there is. Since I went to the systemic about 10 years ago, I haven't had pest issues, meaning that any problem is environmental. It helps a lot. If you have mites already, you will likely have to destroy the plant or maybe all of your plants. They spread rapidly and will infest your whole collection. If you want to save those that are not that infested, you will have to bring out the big guns to get rid of the mites. This means chemicals and spraying all of your plants several times, weeks apart. Even then, you may not save them, or if they make it, they may not look like they should. It will take a long time to get them back. Once you have things back under control, you can use the systemic to prevent any other infestations. Prevention is much easier than dealing with big problems. As far as using MiteX you probably could, however, by the time you see mites and realize you have them, they are destroying the crown of your plant. That creates all kinds of problems, making it difficult to bring the plant back so that it looks like anything. If Fertilome has discontinued the product it still may be around on some nursery shelves. It would be worth looking. If not, I will be looking for other systemic brands with the active ingredient for mites. Carla in Texas Here is a link that might be useful: fertilome list of products
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robitaillenancy1
18 years ago
Try giving it less light by moving it to the edge of the stand. It could be the new bulb or the intensity that is affecting slightly the plant.

I don't think there are mites, but check weekly for awhile. This crown variegated plant looks very nice.

Nancy
Mayflyon
18 years ago
This plant looks great but I'd move it as Nancy said. It's just verging on being too tight.
tmac96
Original Author
18 years ago
Ok -- just as I suspected. It didn't look TOO tight to me, but could use SOME loosening up. I will move it to the end of my stand and keep watch on it. Thanks very much!

PS: This is my first variegated AV and I LOVE it -- especially the pink variegation. Any other varieties you can recommend with pink variegation?
farmerSK
18 years ago
If you like pink in crown variegation you might try Rob's Slap Happy and Rob's Squeeze Toy. Rob's Denim Demon is a gorgeous tan crown variegated one. Sunny Salmon is a small standard that has wonderful yellow crown variegation. I have an image of this one in the gallery.

Joan in SK
korina
18 years ago
Tmac, the best way I've found to test for tight crowns, is to actually touch it. If the leaves feel hard and brittle, it's a 'tight' crown. As the others have said, move it to the end of the light fixture. It should start to loosen up in 2-3 weeks. If it's been over a month and it's still tight, try flushing the pot and not feeding it for a month or so. Someone said tight crowns are often caused by too much fertilizer; some experimentation of my own is proving that correct.

Good luck.

Korina
myviolets
18 years ago
It looks gorgeous to me!!!

Hi, I haven't been on here for along time.
If it's convenient, try peter's 202020 fertilizer at the rate of 1/8 tsp. per gallon of water, this is plenty of fertilizer. Also, sometimes if the plant has to many rows of leaves it will cause the center to be tight because there isn't room for the new leaves to grow. It sort of squishes them. I have experiented this growth in my own plants. After I have taken off a bottom row it fixes the problem.
Nancy in California
irina_co
18 years ago
If you look at Peter's 20x20x20 - I think there is urea N - which is no-no. Otherwise - 1/8 teaspoon of Peters's AV - that's what I use. And - yes - I agree with flushing it with warm water once a month and repotting every 4 months.

Could it be that this specific AV always grows this way?
Some of them have waay too long petioles - could it be that this one is just naturally tight?

Cheers

irina

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