What a great idea! Is DH usually this inventive???

Linda

He is, whether it turns out this well is another question ;-)

(I won't mention the time he took the specialized $15 washer from my whipped cream maker, cut it apart to try and use it on the bathroom sink - why he couldn't just wait and go buy the proper one I'll never know)

Great idea if they don't get knocked over like my plants always do!

You have a whipped cream maker?

Lol used to. DH bought me a replacement, but, go figure, someone had stolen the washer out of the package at the store.... Not sure what ever happened to it after that.

Here is a link that might be useful: Whipped cream maker

I've never seen anything like that! Seriously, is there a tool just for making whipped cream? (What I lack in cooking skills I make up for in plant knowledge!)

Linda

The only reason I have a kitchen is because it came with the house...

Lol, it's a gadget more than a tool really, you fill in the cream, close the lid and zap it with a co2 cartridge. Shake it, and you have whipped cream. Kinda like the spray can of whipped cream you buy at the store, only you actually know what is in it ;-)
For me the kitchen is the most important part of the house :-D. But since moving, I am back to basics tool wise - who has room for all that nonsensical stuff anyways....

My cat - if he is mad at me - comes and pulls the plants off the shelves. I just imagine the mess he would create - if I add wine glasses with water for him to show what he thinks about my hobby while I should spend all my time feeding and playing with him.

Irina, My indoor cat was the same. The AV leaves were always covered with cat hair with a few teeth marks for good measure. Linda, you are making me laugh! Joanne

Joanne,

If God had wanted me to cook he would not have invented restaurants.

Linda

Linda, Well said! The other side of the coin is ... When folks come to my home for Dinner, they think it is a restaurant with a menu. Between the "normal" diets, the "gluten free", the "dairy free," the vegan diets, feeding my AVs is a breeze. So that this is AV related, I noticed on Velleta's thread, you said some of her pots were too big. When I root a leaf in a 2 1/2" or 3" cup, if the mother leaf rots off, the baby is left in an oversize pot. Should I repot to a smaller pot? I' ve been reluctant to disturb the baby, but they don't do well without the mother leaf. But maybe their slow growth is due to the pot being too large. I've tried rooting leaves in tinier 1" pots, it does not work as well for me. I lose more leaves that way because they are too big. The leaves rooting in 2.5 or 3" seem to produce more babies faster. If I put two leaves in one pot, they do even better. But it is harder for me to separate. I found if the leaves are very different, such as one variegated, the babies are easier to identify. The longer the leaf remains, the more babies it makes. "Encyclopedia Joanne"

I am amazed you would even try to accommodate all sorts of different diets. There's water for you! Ha! ;-)
(ok, I do make an exception for genuine vegetarians, and allergies)

As for cats, I miss mine, but not enough to get another, especially since i couldn't have an outdoor cat where I live now. My dog doesn't bother with plants, unless it takes away from 'his' time with me. But then, that counts for anything, except baking - he likes his baked goods :-)

Joanne,
I am just experimenting with tiny containers vs groups vs deli container for rooting leaves & babies. One thing I have found, was that my new soil mix with 50% perlite yields babies faster, but anything I am keeping domed starts rotting on me. So either I am watering too much (initially) or I need even more perlite in the mix.
I just took everything off wicking because I am suspecting the mix is too wet for that as well. Next repot I will probably go with the 2:1:1 - perlite, vermiculite, soil mixture and see how that does.

Could be the humid atmosphere is what causes the rot. Perhaps ventilate once in a while.

I've tried, but then it turns into "a watched leaf never sprouts babies" - it's always worked before just to plop them into a communal container and basically forget about them. Now I guess I am just trying too hard ;-)

Hi I have read on many AV sites that the thing we tend to do the most is "kill them with kindness" (basically, over-water).
Today, I bought a water meter from the Ace hardware store. It looks like a thermometer that you stick in the soil, it will indicate if the plant needs to be watered. It has a separate category for AVs.

I also got a better spray for thrips that is safe for AVs.
The store did not have any vermiculite or perlite--I am preparing a bunch of plants for the Club's meeting. It will include a demonstration on repotting, so they probably won't mind if I donate plants that need to be repotted.

Your new plant sounds nice.

Community containers did not work as well for me as individual pots. Seems that I have better control because the plants all seem to have slightly varying moisture needs.
Joanne

A moisture meter, how fancy ;-)
I've been looking for those clay worms, that change color when the soil is dry - but no one has them anymore...
When in doubt, toss the dial and stick your finger in the pot :-p
Or there's the "chopstick method" I learned for bonsai growing (more an ambition than practice really) where you stick a chopstick or skewer in the soil and if you pull it out and it's wet or has soil stuck to it, it isn't time to water yet.

The community containers work along the motto "live with it, or don't" - seems to be working fine for the optimaras, can't say for other varieties yet. - only have two anthoflores so far, but seen as they were also bred for supermarkets, I presume they'll be nearly as hard to kill...
In spring I'll order some leaves, or wait for the AVSC convention....

Joanne,

When and if your mother leaf dies, leave the babies in the original pot. You don't need to pot down. Just be careful with your watering.

If the slow growth is due to a larger than normal pot, it usually means that the baby is busy growing roots which is a good thing. No roots, no plant!

You should begin to fertilize weakly when the babies show up.

If the leaves are teeny, like a micro leaf, I put two or three in a solo cup so the soil does not remain overly wet. But I always put the same variety in a pot so as not to mix them up.

Linda

Great advice! Thanks, Linda!

I side with Linda- I put 2-3 standard leaves in solo - and 4-5 smaller ones. Keeps them tight and competitive - plus if one or two croak - you have a spare.

irina

Competitive! I love it! Just

Sure - there is just so much space - and each leaf tries to put the babies. They are just jumping out, these babies.

At the Ohio State Show I talked with a hybridizer who said she always puts leaves in with the plant from which she took the leaf. She swears by this method, saying the mature plant helps the leaf grow babies. I have never done this, but she's a major hybridizer so she is obviously onto something.

Linda

Hi Linda,
Thanks for sharing this tip. But I am trying to visualize and coming up blank ...
How does she do that? With the leaves of an adult plant
filling the pot, it doesn't seem to have enough room in the pot to stick a leaf ...

When I root leaves, or especially when dividing suckers, if they are not going under a dome, I keep them near the plant they came from. I also believe it helps them, as they are part of the same plant.

If they are going under a dome, I try to keep leaves of the same variety next to each other. They do seem to grow in tandem.

I first noticed that a few years ago when I would order two of each kind of plant from LLG. If I kept matching plants next to each other, they began to mirror each other's growth, like twins. They bloomed at the some time and kept the same overall shape and size. Even if one started out bigger and stronger, with more blooms, in time, they began to match each other's growth.

Now, I usually group plants of the same variety next to each other, for the same reason. They seem to know they are related and therefore, grow symmetrically, even if in separate pots.

I have not made a big study of this, it was just a casual observation.

I suppose, if we were talking about a garden, growing, say, green beans, we would not be impressed if they all looked alike and grew at the same rate. In fact, we would expect it.

But I guess, anything interesting that our little AVs do, we are amazed! Joanne

It is a free country - we can keep glasses with glasses, shoes with shoes - and never drink wine, vodka and beer together at the same event. They say milk and cucumbers also make bad stomach neighbors.

Makes sense to keep all the plants of the same variety together - you always can see what to keep - and what needs to find a new home. Otherwise you never know if you have 1 plant or 5.

I sometimes use this method - stick a leaf in pot with mama. Works beautifully. If I repot a plant - and remove plenty of leaves - so the pot becomes sparse - I will put a leaf down near the edge of the pot. If the rosette is large and dense - there is no place to stick a leaf. Mama plant creates ambient humidity - and in no time you have a baby to dig out. Usually this method gives you less babies.

Irina

TGIF

Fascinating! Thanks for explaining! Where do you get your small size solo cups? Do you send for them to one of the growers? the only solo cups where I live in that small size are made of paper. (I can also do a search on this forum to try to find where people sent for theirs.)

I got some thin, flexible drinking cups in a larger size and cut them down. But they are too thin.

thanks
Joanne

Joanne,

Get your solo cups at the grocery in the picnic/paper plates aisle. I get mine at Kroger-300 for $2.99.

As Irina said, when you plant a leaf with the mother, you just stick it between the crown and the pot. My first thought when I was told of this was there would not be enough light, but I was assured that was not a problem. I'm going to try it and see how it works.

Linda

Linda, you know that baby I asked you about, that lost the mama leaf and is now in a pot way too big and has not grown for months? Well, suddenly, overnight, the leaves grew to being the size of nickels! AVs are like children. They thrive with attention and "pout" when ignored! Joanne

It's the unpredictability that is the source of our fun, fascination and frustration when growing violets!

Linda

Linda, I found the solo cups, in the picnic section! At a "walgren's" (a variety store ) Thanks for the tip! It is a different brand, but the right size. Joanne

Good! Now you can really start putting down the leaves en-mass!

Linda

I was afraid you would say that ... I bought the smallest package they have ... "only" 80!
Joanne

I buy them by the 300's... ;)

Linda

i got 24 plastic shotglasses for rooting suckers off my mini's. ended up using them as spacers (to raise the pots off the bottom of the coffee mugs i put them in) more than planters, and definitely need to get more....
300 Linda? you probably buy a shelf to go along with them! :-p

Karin,

I just bought my fourth bag of 300 since last summer. See what you have to look forward to???? ;)

Linda

I'd have to put fluorescents under my bed to accommodate that many!

Whoa! That's BRILLIANT! Florescent fixtures under the bed - what an ingenious use of otherwise wasted plant growing space!
(And see how this sickness progresses? A part of me isn't joking, LOL!)