Limiting your African violet (or whatever) collection

2 years ago

When I first ventured on the AV forum, experienced growers - so well-loved and respected by me after all our interactions - collectively smirked when they told me my collection would only grow. I swore my space constraints would restrict me, but all of you were all too right.

I've never seen another thread like this on this forum, so I thought I'd start one. Not that I've had complete success. These are just the things I'm doing now, after a couple years of enthusiasm.

• Once you figure out that you really do know how to propagate, give away all those extra plants you grew as "insurance" as much as you can. You could just trash them. But on the other hand, you could be giving away some joy, and meanwhile making more space for new plants.

• If you're setting a leaf or two so as to make sure you don't lose a valuable plant, save only one out of all the props you get. These plants want to live, and unless you're mistreating them, you don't need more than that one backup. In my experience, all the babies are going to make it. Not a single one has ever failed for me. So pick the best of the best, and trust it. This will save you from having to do Step One, above, finding people who will accept your spares, which in itself is not always so easy.

• (Refinement of above: due to genetics etc not every prop may be a complete clone. If potential morphs are what you care about, you have to have a lot of space to grow the props and watch them. I don't, and my priority is limiting the collection due to lack of space. Think this out for yourself, your choices, your priorities.)

• If you bought a couple of violets that have never performed for you, or which don't satisfy you no matter what other people have said about them, don't be afraid to compost them. Why offer valuable space to anything that doesn't make you happy to see, when you visit in the morning. (I'm about to hold a funeral tonight for a violet that has been hanging around here for well over a year and even when it blooms, I go, "Ugh, ugly.")

• It seems to me that at the heart of being an experienced gardener is a certain degree of ruthlessness. I also observe that at any time that I've employed that judgement, I've never been sorry.

• If you are insatiably curious about every different kind of plant/AV/whatever, remember that since you can only grow so many things at a time, you must cull, to make room for the next adventure. So getting rid of something that's redundant or unrewarding opens up possible new horizons.

Hopefully my AV collection will be better curated soon. (Feel free to smirk again. 😝) Additional tips/stories definitely invitied.

Featured Answer

Billsc

2 years ago

NG, I went to Good Will, and paid them a buck or two and got more than I thought I would ever use. I have used them though, and foresee the day when I'll have to make another trip. My wife swears I could build a battleship if I had enough clothes hangers. The hangers do a good job holding the jars, just don't make them too long. You don't want to fill the water so much it touches the plastic pot, so its less than half a jar of water. That will last over a week. I put the hook in one end of a straight piece of wire and wrap it around the top of the jar under the lip of glass that stops the ring when you screw it down tight. When the bend gets around the jar to the point of the bend in the end of the wire, I pass the unbent end over the first bend and bend that 180 degrees. That forms a lock, and from there you can bend the circle so it is parallel to the base. No, you don't get perfect circles, but they are certainly "good enough for Govt. work". You hook the end of each wire around the wire above or below it which locks them in place preventing them from rolling in the drilled hole in the tower.

Oh, I use a piece of straight hanger wire as a drill bit for drilling through the tower. It has to be long enough to go completely through the tower, so be very careful drilling, if you bend that wire the drill will turn it into a pretty wicked rotating cutting device!

Its really not that difficult, try it, you might like it...Let us know how it comes out.

Bill

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Comments (7)

Billsc
2 years ago
Hay Northern Gardener, Not sure if you will really dislike me for this, or maybe appreciate me for it, but here goes.... My little AV space saving device has been around this forum for a while now, but you sound like you might be able to use it. I'm growing 8 newly rooted plants, or fully grown miniature AV's on an 8 inch square piece of shelf space that has approximately 15 inches of head room. See attached photos (I hope).

The base is an 8" square of used flooring tile, the "tower" is a section of bamboo, or a section of hardwood sapling cut from the woods behind the house. The hangers are light weight clothes hangers, which are bent to fit the neck of half pint canning jars. With the canning rings screwed on the jars, a Dart 3.5 oz. plastic cup No 3.5N25 will fit perfectly into the top of the jar leaving about half the height of the jar for water. I punch about 4 holes around the edge of the cups bottom, and loop an absorbent string through two of them making sure the loop is buried up into the potting soil. The holes for the hangers are drilled in pairs so the jars are on opposite sides of the tower, and the ends sticking through the tower can be wrapped around each other to prevent the jars from rotating.

These jars are too small for full grown standard AV plants, but miniatures can and will grow nicely in them.

I throw this out for what its worth.

Bill
Northern Gardener (3b west central MN) thanked Billsc
Northern Gardener (3b west central MN)
Original Author
2 years ago
Hi Bill, I haven't seen this before. Been missing in action for a few months, when it seemed like things were pretty quiet anyway. Nifty! I'm a little surprised the coat hangers have enough strength to hold the bottles up, with their water burden.

You know, it's getting harder to find wire clothes hangers anymore. Unless maybe one gets a lot dry cleaning? I admit to getting rid of quite a few, years ago, because they were always getting tangled up in the closet. I went to wooden ones. There are only a few wire ones left around here.

Did you find it easy enough to shape those perfect rounds, perhaps by bending them directly around the canning jars? I would be surprised if mine didn't come out rather kinky. ;p
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Northern Gardener (3b west central MN)
Original Author
2 years ago
Thanks, Bill, I'm hopeful that my inquiry and your response will help other users who visit this forum.

For now my own plan is to keep things as simple as possible. I have 2 oz Solo cups for individualsupp young'us, tightly grouped and tented in a take-out dish. Regular monitoring is required for these until they can be transferred to a wickable setup. Most of my individual baby violets in 2-oz Solos - about 7-10 at present - are backups of parent plants, with only a couple of exceptions. Then there are the leaf props, in various stages of development.

There are only three unique starts. My plan is to pick the strongest of each of the three examples for survival, and discard the rest. OH the heartlessness required is painful! I might have to give in and let the best two of those props which have come from ordered-in leaves and not from in-house mother plants have a performance contest.

I don't have any trailers, minis, or semi-minis yet, although I do have a semi-mini in prop state (baby leaves coming up, yay!). So while I don't have immediate need for your wonderful design, it does make me think ahead to future possibilitiies.

Thanks so much for adding to the community's resources. I am so grateful.
sw_gardener
2 years ago
I agree about having to be ruthless. I bought some leaves in the late summer expecting one or two leaves of each variety and ended up with at least four of each.

I've been choosing the best pups then after they settle the rest are tossed/will be tossed. There are also a few AVs that are either not growing or keep having problems. It seems to be the same few varieties that keep fussing.

Some varieties that I like I might keep two of, we'll see.

It's important to keep the plants that grow well and bring joy otherwise the hobby can feel like more of a burden.
Northern Gardener (3b west central MN) thanked sw_gardener
bragu_DSM 5
2 years ago
Ha ha ha hah. Is this an April 1 joke?
aegis1000
2 years ago
"I've been choosing the best pups then after they settle the rest are tossed/will be tossed. There are also a few AVs that are either not growing or keep having problems. It seems to be the same few varieties that keep fussing.

Some varieties that I like I might keep two of, we'll see.

It's important to keep the plants that grow well and bring joy otherwise the hobby can feel like more of a burden."

A good approach ...

Limiting your African violet (or whatever) collection

Billsc

Comments (7)

Billsc

Northern Gardener (3b west central MN)
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Northern Gardener (3b west central MN)
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Limiting your African violet (or whatever) collection

Billsc

Comments (7)

Billsc

Northern Gardener (3b west central MN)Original Author

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Northern Gardener (3b west central MN)Original Author

sw_gardener

bragu_DSM 5

aegis1000

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Northern Gardener (3b west central MN)
Original Author

Northern Gardener (3b west central MN)
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