AVs don't fare well in hot tropical regions. One of my friends from here was in Jamaica, and through years, found that to be so.

Of course if you can give them AC or you live at an elevation, then that's a different story.

Yes I have AC but I was afraid it would be too cold and would dehydrate them?

One of our most senior (and no you're not that old, Irina) AV experts is fond of saying that AVs are comfortable at the same temperatures and conditions that people are.

I am looking at Natalia's plants - and they look pretty decent - the ones on the windowsill - very good - the rest - may be not enough light.

Yes - when it is hot, the blossoms will age faster. Since it is the hot season now - they will do better when the heat is down, so as long as the plants are healthy - you will enjoy more bloom later in a year.

We all didn't become good growers in a month - we made our own mistakes and killed our own share of plants. Every place has its own challenges - and it will take time and patience to figure out what works in your house. You need to listen to your plants - and work to make them comfortable.

Yes... the the joy of finding new varieties and bringing them home... BUT - do you have good space for them? You have a windowsill where they look good - and shelves with not enough light - my understanding you do not use supplemental light.

Do not be in a hurry - enjoy your learning curve and try to keep the ones you have happy.

You may be found or not found a mealy bug. Mealy bug will not kill your plants immediately - you have time to investigate the matter and come up with a treatment - while washing the roots can do more damage than good. It doesn't remove the eggs...

Same with mites - you used Lysoform, a medical desinfectant - that killed your plants much more efficiently than any mites.

Do not be in a hurry, read and research. Plants are living things - be patient, if you make changes - do not do all changes at once - wait until you see the results.

Tr aircoditioner - just make sure that cold air is not blowing directly on the plants. If you can reduce the temperature from 35C to 25C inside - it will be better for them.

Good Luck and Happy Growing.

The pictures doesn't do justice to the amount of light I have here, I actually took the pictures in a time the sun started to set. The ones in the shelves were in the another place but the leaves started to burn. After the lysoform issue I put them there so they could recover, I was afraid the light would harm the leaves damaged by lysoform. Since the ones by the windowsill were thriving I though the ones in my bedroom would too, I'm so sad.

I was afraid the soil mealy bug would spread to all plants thats why I hurried to wash them, but now I'm afraid the transplanted ones will die. There's something I can do to save them? Maybe a root fertilizer? The soil is from a local flower grower that makes the mix with coconut fiber, pinus and coal, is very light and looks like the soil they have from nursery.

Thank you for your advices, I won't buy another until I'm confident I won't make such big mistakes, at first I thought all I needed to avoid was root rot - my gramma use to have lots of violets but I never cared for it before, now she's gone and I don't know what to do T.T

Edit: the ones with black pots are optimaras, I know because in the producer (from a colder part of the country) website they have the Optimara label and the name of all the varieties on production, but the ones with brown pot I don't really know they have their own names - the leaves are smaller but they seem much more sturdy and drink more water than Optmaras. If I don't water every two days they start to wilt. Seems that Optmaras are more sensible to hot weather and don't like too much water.

This is a magnified picture of the center baby leaves of the plant I thought had mites.

That was the plant and the effect of lysoform one night after sprayed. I deeply regret the moment I read in the internet lysoform could kill mites in African violets. Now this plant is in the white shelve almost without any leaf.

The ones in those pastel pots all had soil mealy bugs, I don't know if the pots had any influence, but now they are all transplanted and I really hope they recover because they were my favorites.

As Irina has said, we all lose plants as we struggle to enjoy this hobby (I have likely discarded hundreds of plants). We discard plants for various reasons. At first, we don't know what we're doing ... and the plants just die. After we get better at keeping our plants alive, ... we will inadvertently expose our plants to some pest, that we spend time and money to eliminate, only to eventually have to discard the affected plants anyway.

One thing that is really regrettable is getting plants with pests. This can turn what should be an enjoyable hobby into a non-rewarding fight to save our plants. I spent my early years with African Violets fighting really unwinnable battles against Thrips, Mites, and Mealybugs. Now I would never buy again from a vendor who I know sold me plants with pests.

It may seem harsh, but I lean toward discarding the plants that you confirm have Mealybugs.

Also, you should never put your plants outside .... because that's where they can pick up more pests.

What I would do if I were you ... is to completely separate any plants which are doing well ... from those that are showing any sign of problems right now.

Plants that might have a problem need to be set away from ... or below ... plants which are doing well.

Finally, ... don't stress about plants you might have to discard. It's just part of the process of learning to grow AV's. It's pretty easy to start new ones ... which is one reason they're relatively cheap.

Check out information at the link below for more information about successfully growing African Violets.

https://www.optimara.com/africanvioletcare1.html#anchor460712

P.S. Your Optimaras look pretty good ...

Thank you! I will try to follow all the advices :) I really enjoy growing them

Do not use lysiform. Ever.

I have serious doubts you ever had mites. It can be some mild cuture damage.

The ones you repotted - sorry - but you need to remove blossoms. Blooming takes a lot of energy - and right now all this energy is needed to recover and regrow feeder roots damaged when you did your root washing operation.

I think I have a plan. When you see something suspicious - make a good photo - and post it. We will all participate in deciding what it is - and the best course of action.

Good luck and happy growing.

Irina

PS And no more homemade treatments - no Kerosene, no 96% alcohol or Lysiform. They probably will kill bugs - but they are guaranteed to kill plants.

Thank you, Irina! I will post everytime I see something different. Oh I read this kerosene recipe for mites too... I ordered neem oil, it is ok to use?

The ones in by the windowsill started to show lesions under the leaves, its spreading. And I thought they were doing well...

Like in medicine, treatments to kill parasites are risky and you risk killing the patient along with the disease/pest.

Unless 99.9% certain, don't treat stuff. Ask.

Your discoloration are likely varied, #1 looks mechanical. #2 is more probably reactions to culture/climate.

I agree with DBarron. No infection.

Neem oil is a preventative for powdery mildew, If you do not have it - do not use - with wrong concentration it also burns leaves. DBarron is correct - if you are not sick - do not take pills. Poisons are not vitamins, they do damage to plants and to people around these plants.

I.

Are you sure it's mechanic? Because it's spreading to the steam and the leaves are rotting.

This is another plant that was very healthy but it's starting to show the same spots, same with other plants.

I didn't water them, or fertilized or anything, in two days a healthy plant is now almost dead and full of brown spots. I took a healthy leaf to root because I think it will be dead by tomorrow.

It may be after effects of being poisoned and uprooted. I mean you've done a lot to them in a month.

No, this one is new, I bought it last week. I didn't put anything besides water in them. They were ok but started to show this yesterday. Those are the ones from the windowsill picture.

Is it under AC (or outside in the heat and humidity), it seems to be growing quickly. I'm sure it's something culture related then, not a disease.

No AC...I don't know, maybe it was too hot and the plants suffered.

And due to temperatures (and rainfall), mine are permanently house plants. I'm sure at 115F, they'd die in days.

Yes if it is that hot - the plants will die. The temerature should be in 68-84F range for them to thrive, So - 28-27C is tops. The heat damage can stimulate bacterial infection - brown spots and if you have a wound - mechanical damage - it will be a begining of a rot. Normally the plant successfully heals the woiuds and protect itself from diseases - but in high heat i is so stressed that it cannot heal or fight off the bacteria - and it goes downhill fast. No amount of pesticides is going to stop it. African vioets originated from high elevations montane forests of central Africa... I think up to 4000ft.. so there are limitations on what kind of heat they can take.

Brazil has a lot of beautiful native Gesneriads, many of them will be happy in your environment. An world reknown expert on Brazil plants Mauro Peixoto - his website is brazilplants.com has a private conservation facillity near San Paulo. His website has a gallery of blooming plants, a bunch of priceless advice on the culture - and he carries seeds. Look at all these treasures - and talk to him. There are small size blooming species that will fit your conditions better.

irina

Yes, normally the temperature here won't go over 90F, Rio de Janeiro summer is like we have a hot day and then a rainfall in the afternoon and the rest of the night is fresh. But this summer is something else, we are having extremely hot days, the humidity is over 80% but doesn't rain. Some sellers here said to me they wouldn't bring African violets until autumn because now it's too hot, so they ask for more water, but end up dying from funghi or bacteria. I think that's what happening.

Well, when I bought them in january they were ok in my balcony, now I think I should have left them there because it isn't hot as it is inside the house. I put them inside because in the balcony I had to move them everytime the sun was too strong, or the wind, or the rain, but yesterday not knowing what to do anymore I put them back there, it rained during the night and surprise - today they look MUCH better, the leaves hardened again, the brown spots looks dry and stop spreading, I think they are telling something here. I know it's not the ideal situation but I think they are happier this way. If it's get too hot again I'll put them in the AC. More good news: two of the transplanted ones are ok, one of them (the one of the picture in the green pot) have the soil dry and the leaves are hardening again. Also the ones I "attacked" with lysoform are back growing new leaves.

One thing I noticed is that my Kalanchoes are doing great in this crazy weather, they are blooming like crazy and giving flowers in the size of a quarter, I've never seen this big, and don't get any desease or pests. So if you ever think of growing Kalanchoes, looks like they love extreme summer hahahaha.

Thank you all! I think discussing the problems I face here I can have patience to handle them with less harm to the plants. If I was alone, I would've choped all the leaves with spots and give medicine and sprayed the leaves and this would harm them more.

Irina, brazilians plants are beautiful and sturdy but they are very big and like being on the ground rather than a vase, unfortunately I can't have them in my apartment with small balcony :).

Our Kalanchoes (at least ones I've grown) are winter flowers (it's our winter now...or going into Spring maybe).

Really? Here they sell them as flowers that love sun and hot wether and hate too much water. Interesting!

They don't stop blooming, old flowers dry and new bigger buds bloom.

Yep, that's the one I think of (K. blossfeldiana), which is triggered to bloom by short days. So yeah, we start having flowers about Christmas and it lasts oh..I don't know..probably 90 days (about now) till they're out of bloom for us.

Natalia ...

You say your grandmother used to grow violets.

You probably need to follow her lead as much as possible.

What do you remember about how she grew them ?

I remember she left them in her windowsill outside, in the front part of the house with only morning sun, under the shadow of a tropical almond tree (they have the ability to make environment a few degrees colder) we had in our house. She would cut the old leaves and I fertilize them sometimes with organic fertilizer. That's all I remember. But now I live in the 9th floor of an apartment so I can't have a tropical almond tree :(.

That's a tropical almond tree in my street, they are like natural AC that's why they are very common here in Rio. Thinking back gramma was very smart, maybe her violets thrive because of the tree.

Well keep in mind the original habitat of the AV is a cool high humidity higher altitude African mountainside, usually near a stream and growing in sharp drainage (I've seen a pic of a species on a cliffside). Ambient temperature 70-75, RH 60-70%

That's what we want to duplicate.

Just to give update, the temperature is mild now, with constant rains at night so the violets are well recovered. The transplanted ones too. Now the autumn arrives and they will be even better. Thank you!

Previous poster...your post makes almost no sense with the garbage that somehow got thrown into it ?

I think the poster just above dbarron is scamming or fishing - they have copied (poorly) some of the original poster's original message and then added a link at the end, hoping some of us are dumb enough to click on it. Don't be sucked in!

Later: I went back and flagged it.

Good job AnneCecilia !!! I thought it was a little weird !!!!! Rosie