If you keep the plant as is, with suckers, you can always put down a leaf (of take off one small sucker and root it) -- and then grow the new young plant sucker-free single crowned. This way you can see which way you like better, and which way the plant does better. And if the suckered plant dies from exhaustion or anything like that, you'll still have the young plant. I think most plants look better when suckers aren't allowed to stay, but really it's what you personally like. It's only a plant after all, nothing except for your preference should matter.

As for the pot size, maybe get a pot that fits the rootball? So If you have an unusually large rootball on your suckered plant, then get a wider pot, like you would for a trailer? And if the rootball is small, then get a regular pot, because having a pot that's too big for the roots, that's asking for root rot.

As for thrips -- what happened that you actually lost plants to trips? I had thrips a couple of times on my plants, it's really not a big deal, especially when you only have a few plants -- remove all flowers and buds, spray with neem (or some other mild insecticide), and they are gone. Sometimes even just removing flowers helps. I find that thrips are so easy to get and so easy to get rid of, that it's more practical to try and get rid of them than to get new plants every time. But certainly everyone's conditions differ, it's possible that thrips are harder for you to get rid of.

Actually, Alenka, things are not as dire as I seem to have implied. I had ten plants plus several babies and two rooted leaves (started those in July). It was getting crowded on the available window sills. Lately I noticed that some of the plants weren't thriving at all and then there were a few which I didn't particularly like. So when I discovered the thrips yesterday I did what my book as well as everybody here said I should do. I cut off all blossoms on my best and favorite specimens, after which I tossed out some of the weaklings. So now I have five healthy (I hope) standard av's, including the one with suckers, plus three babies and two rooted leaves. These little guys seem to be bug-free. But if the leaves don't get on with making babies by Christmas, they're toast.
One of my bonsais also got infected and that one I sprayed with Insecticide Soap. Today I'm going to buy more Soap and use it on the violets.
Tell me if this is what I should do: Since I don't think I should actually wet the av's, I want to spray the inside of plastic bags and seal the av's inside for a few hours.
Any comments?
Krys

Hi Krys,

IÂll bet you already know this but just in case you donÂt IÂll say it. There are some varieties of African Violets that are trailing African Violets and they naturally grow in a multi-crowned trailing fashion. ItÂs just the nature of that type of violet. Eventually they will trail down over the sides of the pot as the crowns grow longer and longer. If the violet that you say has suckers is a named variety, look at its description to see if it might be a trailer.

Some of the miniature African Violets are especially prone to suckering. It takes constant vigilance to keep them growing as a one crowned plant. I often sit down with a tray of miniatures once every two weeks and remove the suckers that are growing between the leaves using a toothpick. The sooner you remove suckers, the less damage youÂll do to the plant.

Some standard sized violets are also prone to suckering. If it is a variety that I want to quickly propagate I will let a sucker grow until it is large enough to remove then carefully remove it and put it in its own pot. Cover with a plastic baggie until it grows its own roots. When a non-trailing African Violet is allowed to grow large suckers, it ruins the shape of the plant. I have to tell you that I cringe when I see a plant in that condition. To me it just looks awful. If you do decided to separate the plant later, it tears it all to pieces and it will be a long time before it ever looks good again. I have even had plants to die from the shock of trying to return it to a one crowned plant.

Even though a heavily suckered plant will still bloom its blooms will be reduced and they may have difficulty getting out of the maze of leaves that are growing in all different directions.

Best Wishes,

Deb

Krys -

you can get them WET, you can shower them - they love it - you can spray with Soap or something else - the secret is - use lukewarm water, blot the water from the center afterwards and let them dry in an out of bright light/draft free environment.
If you are spraying - have your spray really warm - it will cool down while flying through the air.

Irina

PS - I join the no suckers crowd.

Hi Deb and Irina,
Both of you have given me excellent advice. Let me say right off, Deb, that I still have all but one of the babies you sent me (I gave that one to a friend)and the trailer is getting big and gorgeous. It doesn't seem to have any thrips and I wonder if it's simply because they prefer the big blossoms. And I can't wait to see what "Vampire's Kiss" looks like. Too bad it didn't bloom for Halloween.
The one with the sucker that I wrote about above is called Mercury. I'm pretty sure it is a standard and it has the most beautiful dark red flowers. When I look at the petals through a magnifying glass I see hundreds of tiny irridescent gold flecks in the red. It's stunning. This is the one that was crawling with thrips. I cut off all its gorgeous flowers -- almost through tears. Then I did a thorough grooming of all the others (remember how monkeys groom each other for fleas? That's how I felt:-))and got rid of their flowers too. I'll check the Internet for info about Mercury but I guess I'll go ahead and separate the sucker anyway.
Irina,I've been shopping today and am now armed with more
Soap so I'll do as you said.
Thank you both for your input.
Krys

Mercury

standard, Volkmann, Fuchsia-red star, Dark, green, quilted.

it is definitely Not a trailer.

If you have thrips on one plant - you have on all of them - some in the leaves, some in the soil - so you need to remove all bloom and all buds and spray 3 times week apart.

Irina

OK.
Thank you all for your help. I'll get to work now.
Krys