If it were me I would wait until they are much bigger, with leaves about the size of a dime, or until the plantlets can be easily handled and separated, and then pot the plantlets into their own individual 3 oz. solo cups. Then I would let them outgrow the solo cups before I put them in anything bigger. I definitely would not put them into a 4 inch pot until the crowns were much bigger. A 4 inch pot will hold a plant with a crown theat is 12 inches in diameter. Over potting can lead to a lot of problems, of which, too much water is one.

As a general rule for standards, the diameter of the pot should be 1/3 the width of the plants crown. Generally it is best to increase the pot size in 1/2 inch increments.

Curtis

Hey Frank,
It looks like you have a good handle on things. As Curtis said, wait until the leaves are about the size of a dime before you attempt to repot them, and then when you do pot them up in small pots. I have used solo bathroom cups for years now. I cut small corners off the bottom of the cup with a scissor for drainage and then put a hole in the center to use for a wick.
Keep up the good work.
Fred in NJ

NJ Fred,
Great to know an alternative to the holes in the little solo cups.
I just spent over an hour using my saudering iron burning tiny holes in my cups. Sometimes I just dont want to take the time to do that and the scissors will work quickly in a pinch.

Dora

Coming back to this topic....

I don't know what to expect when I dig up these babies. For these leaves that have multiple plants coming up (which is basically all of them now) is there any special way to separate them all from each other? Or are they already separate, more or less, under the soil? Am I going to have to cut them to separate them? I don't know how it'll work when I have to do it, and I don't want to do anything wrong.

If I had to take a stab at it, I'd say I dig them up, carefully remove the soil from them, maybe pull or cut them apart from each other, then repot them all separately in a new mix.

Frank,

You pretty much have the right idea. Take the leaf out of the pot, romove as much soil as you can so you can see the babies, and it will become fairly apparent how separate they really are. They are usually not attached to each other, just attached to "MOM". You may have some that really aren't large enough to separate, and you can always replant the leaf with them attached. Good luck!

Barbara

Okay I'm back to this thread again. I separate 2 babies from one of the leaves so far. When I did so, I got a little worried. There were LOTS of roots that appeared to be coming out of the parent leaf. When I separated the babies, they did not have a lot of roots, just a little bit. Is this right? Is a bulk of the root just from the parent leaf, and the babies only have a small root system so far?

Hi Frank,

In my short experience this is normal. In fact, I accidentally separated some that had NO roots (oops!). If that happens to you, just plant the babies and roots will grow!

What did you do with the mother leaf after you removed the babies from it? Did you replant it again hoping for more or ... ? Any pictures of your new babies now? Thanks.

Yeah... about the mother leaf.... uhhh... she's not with us anymore. I didn't replant, I'm only looking to grow some babies ("some" being the keyword!). I'm already going to have at least a dozen if these all make it. That's more than I know what to do with.

Here is an updated picture of the litter, and the two I have separated so far.

{{gwi:374816}}

{{gwi:374817}}

Hey Frank,
Nice going!!! Keep up the good work. I am sure you can find someone in your area who would love to give an AV a home.
Fred in NJ

Wow, very nice!! Thanks for posting the photos and the update!

Oh I'm sure I'll make my mom and sister-in-law be foster parents to a couple. When do you think these guys or girls will look like a full grown plant that you see in a store?

The sooner you learn to toss some, the better. There was a time I always put the mama back down to get more plants. Too many plants are just too many plants. You can only give so many away. I use one of those awl (like a screwdriver only with a sharp point instead of a tip), and push holes in my solo cups two or three cups at a time. it's quick and I haven't impaled myself yet. The cutting off the cup corner sounds easier though, one for drainage and one for the yarn. Some plants grow fast and others more slowly..I think 9 months to a year you should have a good sized blooming plant. One of our violet club members has young plants blooming and I have year old plants with nothing. I did have fun trail baby plantlets on the mama leaf yet, so they were too small to separate, and they were blooming..that was neat. tish

Hello all. I recently bought two African Violets and my grandmother gave me hers. I had to repot hers because it was completely root bound in a tiny 2-3 in cup and the plant was the size of three larger ones, had three large stems, it is an old plant. After re potting, 2 of the 3 bunches died. I was wondering after seeing this post how did you root and get new ones like that? I want to try and get another one going for her from her original. And another question... how do you get images to post? I tried in my other one with my Peace Lily question but it wouldn't work. Thanks.

Running late for work, so this will be quick. For pictures, here is what I do (copied from another post)

"go to tinypic.com and upload photos to that site (you don't need an account). This is the method I use.

Choose the HTML tag, not the IMG.

Whichever method you use, you just post the HTML tag in your message."

For the babies, you can find info about propagating all over here and the internet. In a nutshell, I took leaf cuttings and rooted them in water for about a month. Once I had some little roots visible, I put them in my soiless mix (equal parts peat, perlite and vermiculite). Then I kept them moist and covered them with plastic. After another month little plants started to make their way up.

Lillypad 22 mentioned a hole for yarn....

Im new to all of this and am enjoying the pictures and learning about it all.

I was wondering what the yarn is for how its used and so on. Also the soiless mix that Frank mentioned... can you get those ingredients at lowes? Im in a small town and we are very fortunate to have lowes and a walmart, but thats it.

I have put one leaf from my grandmothers plant in a shot glass of water to try rooting it. Any thing special that I am supposed to do? I really want to have little ones like these and learn as much as possible. Thanks.

PS. If anyone has tips on peace lilies too that would be great. my post didn't get many replies. :)

The yarn is for those who do water wicking. I don't use wicks, i just water as needed.

As far as the availability of the mix materials, maybe. I just have a huge bag of peat moss my dad gave me a couple years ago, that should be there. The perlite I found at Walmart. The vermiculite I couldn't find at Walmart (she said they were out) but I did get at a greenhouse/nursery.

I'll see if I can be of any help with your peace lily question on the other forum... but I'm also a novice.

Hi Butterfly

The perlite, vermiculite and peat are all available @ Lowes for around $4 a bag. I mix 3 parts peat/ 1 part vermiculite/ 1 part perlite and have been doing great with putting up leaves. This mix is very light and airy.

As far as rooting in water:

I have had some limited success with that. I have found that some leaves do better than others in the water. You will see a main feeder type root in about 3 weeks and I plant it in starter pot when this root is about 3/4 inch long (about 4 weeks). Watch the end of the stem of the leaf in water. I have had some less hearty varieties start to turn brown at the end of the stem and I had to remove from water and make a fresh cut and plant in a pot. I guess some like that method better than others.

Hope this helps!