I have lots of experience rotting leaves....

As for rooting slivers, not quite thumbnail size small, but I've done it successfully. (Both, in a baggie and a fish bowl). Not 100% success rate, but about 50. Main problem with me is that I keep things too wet.

Just make sure at least one of the leaf veins touch the soil.

Good luck :-)

Karin

Wow, I did not know AVs could do that. I've always done whole leaf propagation in the distant dark past. The only successful sliver prop I ever did was Rex Begonias.

First things first, I am by no means qualified to give advise about rooting violets, since I am really just getting into this hobby/obsession.....or whatever.

I have rooted a few leaves over many years, and I just put them in a small container of water so the stem is submerged, and the leaf is kept out of the water. This method has not failed me yet.

My latest leaf is one I picked up off the floor in a grocery store...It was quite a distance from the AV display, and destined to be trampled or swept out with the next cleaning. I brought it home and put it in the water and waited. Didn't take long before the tiny leaves appeared. When I thought it had enough roots I snipped the end of the leaf off and planted the tiny plant. The leaf went back in the water.

Wasn't too long before another little plant formed and was potted, and the leaf returned to the water. The next results were a group of tiny little plants that formed around the stem. When they had roots and little leaves I potted the whole thing in a small pot and let them grow a bit more. I finally picked 5 little plants off the stem and potted them in a covered container where they are still thriving. The original leaf...a bit battered, but with a good sized little root ball was returned to the pot, and today I see tiny little green things peeping out of the soil around the stem.

The first plant that I took off the leaf is currently developing its first buds.

I guess what I am saying is that if I can get 7 plants...and counting...off one leaf, surely you can get one from a fingernail sized piece of leaf. The fun is in the trying....even if you don't succeed this time.

I grow AV's for the fun of it.....is there another reason? Unless you are commercial.

Bill

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thanks everyone! the main problem is that its not just fingernail sized... they are mini leaves so what i have is the size of fingernail CLIPPINGS. :-/ im beginning to think that im silly to even try. :]

No harm in trying. Other related plants can easily be propagated by splitting the leaf down the central vein, removing that vein entirely, and placing the cut ends of the leaf blades in potting mix. I do this routinely with Primulina. It might be harder to do with AVs, but I don't see why it shouldn't work.

I have not been doing this for very long but I was sent a leaf of Tongwensis. I cut the top half of the leaf off as I heard that would stop the leaf from growing and force the leaf to set mouse ears faster. I set that bottom half with the stem poked into the potting mix. That is the perfectly traditional which has worked.

Then I had the top half of the leaf. Since I only had one leaf, I propped that cut-off top up in the same bag as the rest of the leaf which had a stem. So the bottom half and top half were in the bag, separately set in the soil.

I put the baggies aside and a long time later, when I checked the baggie, the bottom half had rotted away. The cut-off top had set mouse ears.

Now I have 3 Tongwensis. I was very surprised that the top half, which is a sliver, had set mouse ears.