Hi LunR
What an interesting post and photos! It is very
enjoyable to read. Regarding lighting and fertilizer,
a short answer is to use the least expensive white fluorescent light.
And to use Orchid fertilizer as it does not have urea.
Also, if you use AV mix, you might not need fertilizer, as
it contains it to last for six months. ( I have been
thinning my AV mix with vermiculite also as it is
finer than perlite and a soft sandy color, so
it looks better in the pots than just vermiculite. I put
vermiculite in the bottom of the cup, with a small
amount of AV mix next, then put some vermiculite
mixed with perlite around the root ball, then fill
the rest of the pot with the AV mix. I just learned
to do this from this forum and the Annie podcasts
(more info below.)

Offices most often have fluorescent lights, so that might be why your plants do well there.

(Someone
more qualified than me will hopefully respond.)

A website called All About African Violets by Annie
has various topics. In Episode 57
she interviews Dr Jeff Smith, a scientific expert on AVs
and hybridizer. They show
a tour of his growing shelves in his home.
In this, he talks about various lights. He
says he uses white light as it is
less expensive. He also discusses that red violets
do not look well under some fluorescent lights.
In others of her podcasts, Annie
talks about lights. Her plants seem to grow very
rapidly. She has indexes to the topics covered in
her podcasts, so you might be able to scroll through
to find those that talk about lighting.

I am presently using white fluorescent light spiral shaped
tubes (that replace ordinary white light bulbs) with some
of my plants. They are doing well. (More on that below.)

When I saw your question about artificial lights, I did not feel qualified to comment. I once mail-ordered a plant stand with fluorescent lights and a timer. Long story
short, I did not care for the set-up or the results.
However, at the time, I was raising various red violets,
so that might be why I did not care for the results.

I have also tried "gro lites" or "full spectrum" lights
in floor lamps. Again, the results were not as good
as I had hoped.

Recently I have been leaving plants in a bathroom
lit with new style spiral shaped fluorescent bulb.
There are four bulbs, each about the equivalent
of 75 watts. The plants are not too close to the light.
They are doing very well. They will be going back to
ordinary daylight soon. This was just to help them get
jump-started.

My cat wreaked havoc with the african violets, so they
all went to the office with me. Now the kitty has passed
on, so I raise them at home again. I found that trailers
grow very rapidly. As it has been pointed out in this
forum, some trailers have in their genetics something
other than AV DNA. They tend to grow much more
rapidly than other AVs. If the plant was attacked,
that would cause it to try to rapidly put out new growth.
Which is good, Annie would say, in her podcasts.

As for coffee mugs, you can use them as the outer
container for a plant that is in a smaller plastic pot
such as a juice size solo cup. Then when you water the
plant, you can pull out the plastic "sleeve." However,
you would not want to plant directly into the cup because
the bottom will not dry out, especially if the mug is
glazed. The plant will eventually get root rot. ("Been
there, done that.")

In my present living situation, there is sufficient daylight,
so I gave away my plant stand and fluorescent lights.
I did not have success with the self-watering pots.
However, I read to let them dry out between waterings.

It was my office manager who convinced me to
switch from clay and ceramic to plastic pots. Where we live, there is no humidity,
so they work well. It also makes watering cycles
easier because they dry out at about the same time.
I often use the plastic pots as "sleeves" and put
the plants that are being displayed inside decorative
plant cache pots. I remove the plastic pots and place
them in saucers when it is time to water.

This also stabilizes the plastic pots, which can
topple over when the plant is large and when the
soil is getting dry.

However, it can be a time-waster to have to remove
the plastic pot every time you need to water. So I
just use them for display when company is coming.

When I had some in ceramic and some in plastic,
I would have to check them often, especially the
ceramic.

You are probably not really stubborn, you are just learning
what works best. It took me a long time to convert from
clay to plastic because when I had lived in a humid,
dark climate, I was better off with clay and ceramic.

Happy experimenting, Joanne 47

Lun,

The show was GREAT!!

As for lights-not sure what your question was as we are planning a wedding here and my time on here has been limited but here's the quickie version.

Light is made up of various colors-think of a rainbow. Plants need the blue spectrum for vegetative growth and the red spectrum for flowering growth. You can find these colors in a 'cool white florescent bulb (blue) and a 'warm white' bulb (red). Ordinary bulbs do not usually emit these colors; they emit yellow and/or green. You do not need a special gro-light just a warm white and a cool white. They will be labeled as such although sometimes the warm is called daylight. I have used this combo forever and I have never found it to affect my flowers colors.

I hope this helps.

Linda

Thanks for all the info! I might try the spiral bulbs, since I already have some here at the house. I looked at flourescent bulbs while shopping for plant supplies, but they have them labeled so oddly that I couldn't tell if it was warm or cool light. I felt like I stared at them forever. Oh, well. I've got to get the fixture first, I suppose before I need to worry about it too much. That may solve my problem.

Linda, I know all about planning a wedding, so good luck with that. I've planned two, so I know how stressful they can be, all-consuming (time, money, energy...), and absolutely so much fun! Try to enjoy it and don't sweat the small stuff! (Planning was actually the best part of my wedding as my groom backed out a month before we were to get married... His loss.)

I hope you post lots of pictures from the show!

LunR, I really enjoyed reading your post. Your trailer looks like it will make great comeback. I am not that good at figuring out the lighting, and I had the same problem you had, I could not tell from the labels what was warm or cool. I have one light stand that is just a cheap metal shelving unit from Home Depot and I attached WalMart lights to that, but it is in front of a window too. My other plant areas are in natural light, but I also supplement with the curly light bulbs and I think they work really well. I love experimenting with all these plants and I have learned tons of great info from this forum, its a great resource. I live close to you, about an hour north of Atlanta. I used to live in Gwinnett county in the metro area.

LunR,
I think the fluorescent are always considered "cool."
The regular "incandescent" (if they are still called that)
would be the "warm."
I am happy with the spiral "bulbs" because they fit into
any lamp fixture. But I am no expert.
@ Linda,
The 20 baby plants I brought to the San Francisco AF Show and Sale were well-received. I decided to "donate"
them or trade. However, they did sell some and split
the rest amongst themselves and will give me some
exciting trades.

It almost never rains in this area, except in Nov. or Dec.
However, on Sat., the day of the show, it poured rain for
about an hour. That is enough to scare people away, so
they did not have a good turn-out.

One reason that I used to root leaves in water first
is that I had read that not all leaves can be mother
leaves. However, I guess now that I am rooting
in pots, the way you suggested, I will find out soon
enough if they "take" or not.

This is a busy time for me, so for the next couple of
weeks, I will be more in "reading mode" than
"posting mode" and will try to get caught up on older
posts for my education.

Hope the wedding goes peacefully,
Joanne 47

Perle, I live in Gwinnett County! Small world! I've lived here nearly my whole life, but I'm not saying how long that is, I prefer to keep a little mystery. Lol.

Question: does a leaf need a stem to take root?

I had a leaf from my Wrangler snap off right at the base of the leaf, so there was no stem. From any other plant, I likely would have tossed it without a second thought, but it was a very nice variegated leaf with lots of green that would (if started correctly) propogate easily. Should I toss it? I stuck it in my starting medium and put a baggie over it to keep it moist... just in case... But, is it a lost cause?

Hi lun, I saw a video where if the stem broke off too near the base yo could use a sharp sterile knife and cut away a little portion from both sides of the leaf to create a new stem. Just google " how to start a broken leaf from an african violet plant, show video" and you will see. Velleta

Thanks, Velleta. I almost did that, but decided to ask first. Nice to know my instincts were correct. Hopefully, it will make a nice baby. I'm glad I didn't toss it.

I had a leaf of one of my plants break off at the base of the leaf and I stuck it in mix and it produced babies very quickly. I have also had leaves that I made a fake stem by cutting away part of the leaf and that worked too. You can also root the tips of leaves. These are amazing plants.
I cut off the tips of some of my large leaves when rooting and that causes them to put energy into developing roots rather than the mother leaf just growing bigger. I don't always do that, but when I do I sometimes go ahead and root the tip I have cut off. If you have a leaf that has bad parts on it, you can cut off the bad spots and root the remaining good part of the leaf. Its a lot of fun to experiment with them.

Joanne,

Florescent lights are not the cool ones and incandescent are not the warm ones!
Florescent lights are called cool or warm according to the light they are giving off. The cool ones give off a bluish color and the warm will give off a reddish glow (which is not noticeable until you look at the bulb. It's how I make sure I've got one of each in a light fixture.) Neither affect my flower color. The color comes from the part of the light spectrum they are emitting.

Any healthy violet leaf can be a mother leaf. The middle row is used preferably because those leaves are mature but not old but you can use any leaf.

I'm surprised a little rain would keep violet people away. I've been to flower shows in rain, snow, heat and dark of night!
I even traveled to Tokyo for an orchid show (but I was a judge so I have an excuse!).

Thanks for the wedding wishes. It's been fun and exhausting.

Lun and Perle,

Try HD for your bulbs and make sure you use lights fixtures with reflectors otherwise the light just scatters around the room. I get mine at Lowe's.

Lun,

Leaves vary in the time they take to root. As long as it's alive, it is capable of rooting. The average is about two weeks for roots and two months for babies to appear.

If you are in doubt about whether a leaf will root, always try. You have nothing to lose and will often be surprised at what violets can do.

What Velleta is recommending is correct-you are cutting away the sides of the leaf to make a new stem. I always apply cinnamon just in case.

Linda

P.S.
Lun, did you at least keep the ring???

whitelacey gave some good advice about the lights. I also wanted to add that many of the experts have found that the light type bulb really doesn't matter in the end, and that repotting, fertilizing, and good soil matter more. Also about the MG 7-7-7, don't be afraid of using it. While it is urea derived you should only be using it at 1/8th - 1/4th tsp per gallon of water. Furthermore you should also be repotting frequently enough to avoid any buildup that would cause root-burn.

Now about potting in a mug, you can do this but you'll need to put a good layer (about 1 inch) of perlite in the bottom to allow the water to drain/collect without being in the "root-zone." You'll want to look up on youtube modified texas style potting.

Great tips, Whitelacy and Taxonomist, thanks so much. That helps with my lights and also, I was using MG 7-7-7, then got worried, but now think it will be okay if I use it as a weak solution.

fwiw weak Miracle-Gro 7-7-7 is what I use, but I have actual soil-based potting medium instead of soil-less. My understanding is that urea isn't the bane of soil-based mixes like it is for soil-less, since the urea is used by bacteria(?) that can be found in soil-based mixes but not in soil-less.

Bttr - do you actually use a soil based mix? Like take a spade of soil from your tomato patch to add to your soil mix?

The reason people stopped using the loam - is because of the possible infestation by root nematodes that can be present in outside soil - and it is impossible to get rid of them - beside trashing the plant.

SO - be careful! Keep an eye on your roots - if you start seeing the knotty bumps on the roots - it is it.

Thanks so much for the advice about lights and the MG 7-7-7. You have no idea how much that eases my mind knowing I don't have to worry. I only add a few drops to my water (which I store in empty water bottles at least overnight before using). I also flush with plain water every 3-4 weeks.

And, yes, Linda, I did keep the ring! My beautiful gown still hangs hidden in the back of a closet, waiting patiently. One day, I'll be able to pull it back out again.

Linda and LunR,
Great advice, everyone!
Linda,
Thanks for clarifying about the light! bulbs. I've decided
to get light fixtures for plants I want to display in my
living room. I will probably look on line at the places
you suggest.

The Tokyo trip must have been fantastic!!

Thanks for the tip about cinnamon, as I am getting
ready to perform surgery.

In having a "violet talk" with a friend today,
I learned that her sister lost most of her collection
to a bug.
Someone had given her a plant she did not isolate
that infected the lot. She has disinfected, and is
ready to replace. I offered to pass along some of my
back-ups and plantlets. This is incentive for me to don
my surgical scrubs to go after any suckers, etc., as
they will go to a home in need.

One more question for today, does it happen that a plant
with double or triple petals might result in a single
or sem-double blossom from leaf propagation? I know
that the colors might not have the full range as the parent.
We were discussing whether leaf propagation might affect
petal count, also.

She commented that her plants "like to be crowded
and grow two or three in a pot."
I am trying to think of a tactful way to address
this issue. Perhaps I can offer a free grooming session.

Rain keeps Californians from going out. It is amusing
for those of us from rainy climates. They also are amazed
when they do go to a wet climate and see people walking
around with umbrellas! They must think they are
African violets, afraid to get their leaves wet!

I am discovering Violet Friends are lots of fun to talk to.
(Or perhaps we all just have undiagnosed OCD.)

@ LunR
Gorgeous ring, and a fun design!

Joanne

Lun,

Beautiful ring! Good for you that you kept it!!!

Joanne,

Theoretically, a leaf propagation will result in an exact replica of the mother plant as it is a clone. That said, violets can be and often are, genetically unstable and can vary from generation to generation.

Violet friends are fun to talk to; we all share the same addiction!

Linda