Many factors can cause leaves not to produce quickly.

Yes, I suspect the time of year has something to do with it although with light gardens lights in the fall should have nothing to do with it.

The age and healthy of the leaf and even the variety itself have something to do with leaves not producing quickly.

Of course, it may just be your impatience! Leaves take about 3 months to produce babies. Watched carefully, a pan of water never boils!

Nancy

Here's a trick:
Get a flat dish and put about 1 inch of sphagnum moss in it. Take a leaf from a middle row, not too old, cut it and trim to 1.5 inch long and immediately soak the stem in a superthrive solution of one drop to an 8 ounce glass for 20 minutes. Put stem in sphagnum moss and cover with a thin layer. Do not allow the end of the stem to dry, like you normally would. Cover dish and in a few weeks you will have your babies. This gives plants twice as fast as any other method. The reason you cover the stem with a thin layer is that all the plantlets are produced at the very end of the stem, so you want to allow some light to hit them. After the plantlets have grown to the size of a nickel, cut half of the mother leaf off to force the plantlets to grow faster.

Sphagnum moss is anti-viral and you will have a 95% success using this method. Any other medium will cause a drop in your success rate, so stick with the sphagnum moss. A warm, bright place on you light stand will help out tremendously.

The secret with this method is the sphagnum moss, the superthrive solution and not allowing the end of the stem to dry.

Hi Nancy & Lipson:

Thank you so much for the information. It is greatly appreciated!

Cometgirl

Hi:

About the sphagnum moss; it grows everywhere here in Florida. Do I need to buy it (is it treated) or can I just reach up and grab some? Lol! Can I use the natural moss I have in my back yard?

Thank You,
Sincerely,
Cometgirl

I would pasteurize it first. You don't want nematodes around your violets!

Cometgirl, I think you are thinking about Spanish Moss, not Spagnum Moss. I don't know where Spagnum Moss is found (other than the store) but I do know that Spanish Moss is ALL OVER Florida!! Good luck! Christy

I may be in Maryland now, but I am a Florida transplant :)

I use my regular planting mix and have 99% success. Just be sure to use *barely* damp mix, and don't pack it in the pot; keep it light and airy. Cut the petiole on that 45 deg. angle just long enough to hold the leaf up, maybe 1/2". The idea is the plants come up from the base of the petiole, and the shorter the trip to the light the better.

Enclose the leaf until it roots, two weeks to a month. To test, tug *GENTLY* on the leaf; if it resists, it's rooted, and you can begin transitioning it to outside conditions. I've found that the more you baby leaves and plantlets, the slower they are to grow/produce.

Also, if you have large leaves, don't be afraid to take a wedge out of the top, the point being the main vein. It helps the leaf concentrate on roots and babies, and you can plant the wedge for even *more* babies! 'Cause you just can't have too many babies. Just stick the point of your wedge in with the rest of the leaf.

Now you have several methods to experiment with; let us know which works for you.

Good luck and have fun.

Korina
embrace the confusion

I've never heard of rooting leaves in sphagnum moss but it sounds interesting. I'd like to try it. Do you wet the sphagnum moss when you start?

DO NOT use Spanish Moss. That is the stuff that hangs on trees in the South. It will mold and mildew when you get it wet! It is a terrible potting medium!

Spagnum moss grows up north in bog areas and is what people are recommending to be used as a leaf starter medium. The two are not interchangeable!

Larry

Hi All!

Thank you for all the info. I have learned alot from all you good people.

Congratulations are in order! My Space Violet Leaf "Looking Glass" just produced babies! Yeah! It took about 8 weeks. Now, I hope they continue to grow.

Sincerely,
I am having fun!
Cometgirl

Spanish Moss, the kind that hangs from trees in Georgia and Florida--is not a good medium for rooting leaves. But it is good for topping of things like episcias just to cover the soil.

This moss has tiny little bugs in it. I put it through the microwave for 30 seconds to kill those bugs before using.

Nancy

I have rooted a leaf twice and both times it took 2 months before I saw babies - I had nearly given up by that time... So hang in there!

I can only wish you luck...I've been having great results, 1st mouse ears popped up 1 month after I planted my last batch of leaves (over 100 leaves), it's now almost 8 weeks after I planted them and over 90% have babies, I suspect the slowpokes were older leaves (got them on ebay). I use 1/1/1 mix and water a lot! Keep em moist is my mantra I do not however bag them, they always rotted when I did that and seemed to take forever. My lights are on from 7am till 10pm I think more light helps IMO. Oh, and I also use a modified Texas method (3 holes burned in the bottom of a 3 oz solo cup, 4 holes burned about 1" up the side of the cup, pearlite in the bottom 1" of cup followed by the 1/1/1 to fill the rest of the cup).

Hi All:

It is best to keep the mother leaf soil very moist? Also,
what if you microwaved and killed those little bugs; why can't you use the Spanish Moss?

I think I need to keep my soil more moist when trying to produce the babies. Also, I don't have good luck with the ziplock bags either. I must be doing something wrong with them. They build up too much humidity and the mother leaf wants to rot, too.

Thanks,
Cometgirl

Hi Again:

I just reread Larry's info about the Spanish Moss molding.
Forgot about that.

Sincerely,
Cometgirl

Cometgirl, too much humidity is one of the reasons you don't want wet soil to root leaves; barely damp is what you're looking for. If you do get condensation, open the bag for an hour or two, until it dissipates.

Once your leaf is rooted, you can gradually take it out of the bag and water it normally.

Really.

Korina

I have some leaves rooted in a medium with 1-1-1 spahgnum peat moss, vermiculite and perlite. Ive been to rachels and trying her experiment with no baggy or covering and gave it the tug test and after 16days now I know I have roots , waiting to see if I get babies, maybe another month.

Here is a link that might be useful: rachels reflections