SHOP PRODUCTS
Houzz Logo Print
genevragarrett

African violet growing flowers but not leaves!

Melochia Tomentosa
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago

Hi guys!

I seem to be having the opposite problem from most people with AVs. I'm getting nice regular blooming, but my plant has been very slow to replace the leaves I trimmed when I brought it home. How can I correct this?

This is my first AV. I'm not sure what cultivar it is, but it has warm lavender flowers and the inner leaves near the flower stems are speckled. I bought it from Home Depot about two weeks ago. I cut off leaves that were damaged (maybe as much as 1/3 of them), bare-rooted it and re-potted into 1-1-1 true gritty mix, and added it to my little patio garden (zone 10b).

It gets only indirect sun, but the light is supplemented by a big ol' CFL grow bulb (60W, 5500K) less than a foot overhead that is on for 9hrs/day.

I am watering it almost every day with 1/4tsp/gal Foliage Pro solution.

I also dead-head the spent flowers.

Will reducing the light or the fertilizer give the leaves an opportunity to catch up? I'm happy with the plant, (the flowers are larger and more numerous than they were when I bought it!) but I would love to see it looking a little more balanced.

Thanks!! :)

Comments (2)