Do you live in an area where you have had excessive spring and summer rain? Tea won't hurt or help. It might be a fungus from too much humidity if you live in a rainy area.

I live in Houston which is really rainy and humid already and we've had a really rainy summer so far - though not so bad in the last month. I'm not sure what the humidity has been in the house, but it's never been outside. The soil now is quite wet so I'm going to leave off watering it for a while. It's down to basically 5 leaves. If it is a fungus and if the plant doesn't already have too few leaves to recuperate, do you have a suggestion?

I have been reading from many people about the same problem. If the soil is too wet, try to dry it out by putting a folded paper towel under the pot to draw out excess moisture. I remember when I lived in a very wet climate, I had many struggles, but it was not a fungus, the plants just rotted from the humidity. Now I live in the desert, so no rain here for many months. Someone else will surely come along with an idea for you. If there is one good leaf, you might want to remove it to try to root it to restart the plant. Joanne

At this point, I would suspect one of a few issues ...

1.) African Violets are stressed by excessive heat in the summer.

2.) African Violets benefit by having consistent watering practice. Two persons participating in watering the plant is not so good an idea as it might seem. Either allowing the soil to stay bone dry ... or sopping wet will put stress on the plant, though Violets are killed more often as a result of OVER watering more than any other cause.

3.) African Violets will be stressed by being watered with water containing Chloramines, which many metropolitan areas add to their water supplies instead of Chlorine.

Any of these stressors, or a combination thereof, can put enough stress on your plant to cause the decline that you describe. I found out that my municipality uses Chloramine in our water supply, ... and so I would regularly LOSE a significant portion of my African Violet plants during the summer. I now use jug gallons of spring water ($.45/gallon) and am doing much better this summer.

I'd suggest that you (because your plant is quickly declining) go ahead and ONLY water the plant with something other than your city water (until you determine whether Chloramine is present), make sure that the plant is not becoming overheated, ... and ONLY water the plant SOON AFTER the soil has dried out at the surface. If it's wet, let it sit until the soil is nearly dry before you water it again ... and don't give it more water than it needs at the time. If the soil is sopping wet, remove the plant's soil mass from its pots and let it sit atop paper towels until the soil has dried out some before returning it to its pot.

And finally, if your plant doesn't perk up (maybe as we move into Fall), ... simply go and buy yourself another one. One of the benefits of African Violets is that they are usually easily replaceable.

While I agree with all of the above statements, my take on it is this.

First only one person waters the plants just in case there is miscommunication in who watered what with what.

Take off a good leaf and start it. Just in case you lose your mama plant.

Second and this seems to be the most important in your statement. it sounds as if you are "yoyo" watering. Being inconsistent in watering. This forced the plant to alternate between too wet and bone dry. Kind of like feast or famine.

Many mediums soak up water at different rates depending on what they are made of. If they are mostly peat you can water and the water will run through but that doesn't mean the entire root ball got watered the way it should have. In your case you may not have watered enough from the bottom to the top.

If your plant is having trouble soaking up water put ONE drop of liquid dish soap (no it doesn't matter what brand.) in the water you water with. You don't want bubble bath, but the soap breaks the surface tension of the soil, allowing the plant medium to soak up water better.

Bottom watering should mean you place the plant in a pot bigger than it is, add ONE drop of soap to the water (also keeps bugs away.), water the plant from the TOP and let the excess drain into the pot. Then let the plant soak up as much as it can in about 1/2 hour. Drain and don't water again until the plant is ALMOST dry, just a little damp.

Don't let your plant go so dry that it is bone dry. When you do this you will lose fine feeder roots that sustain your plant. You should water again when the soil medium is still slightly damp.

If you take your dry plant and put it in a larger container and literally water it from the bottom without wetting the top first, it may work if you have a good soil mix. If you don't have a good soil mix, it will work eventually but it may take a loooooong time to get wet again.

Also run a small fan to circulate the air around your plant(s). And space them apart. If you only have one plant this won't apply.

But make sure you are consistent in watering. As far as tea or coffee, I put my left overs in my plants. I dilute it with a little water first just to be sure. (of what I don't know! lol) I don't think it hurts but make sure there is no sugar or cream in it. Don't laugh, had a friend who put coffee (with cream) in her plant until it started to stink! Rosie

Thanks for all the advice. I am quite new at this whole indoor plants thing and therefore rather ignorant. I have put a paper towel under the plant and it *is* soaking up quite a bit of moisture which makes me think my main problem has been a major over correction of over-watering in the past couple of weeks. One thing that was confusing me is that the surface of the soil will remain dry (because I was literally watering from the bottom) which made me think the soil was drier than it was. Sticking my finger in a half inch or so revealed it to be quite wet.

I am not sure what the soil composition is but the plant never had any issues completely draining the dish under the pot. I never timed it (as I didn't know you should leave this for only a half hour) but I would hazard it would suck all this up in an hour at most.

I am also watering with municipal water and have no idea if there are chloramines in it. Would a Brita water filter for drinking water knock those out?

I think I will try to salvage this plant as I don't have much hope for any individual leaves being healthy enough for removal given the limpness/browness at the base, which I expect will eat its way up into the leaves.

If it dies I will try another and hopefully be kinder to that one. Thanks again!

Studies show that most home filtration systems don't alleviate the Chloramine issue if you have it.

And if you just have a few plants, it is much easier (and cost-effective) to purchase/replenish a jug of spring water/rain water every few months or so. Rain-water works great too if you have just a few plants.

Since discovering that my municipal water supplier uses Chloramines (and having my AV's die off each summer), I've begun refilling (5) or so gallons of spring water every week at the grocery (at $.45/gallon). Doing so has made a world of difference for me.

If you are not seeing enough plant vigor to even save off one leaf, ... it might be time to look for a replacement. Of course, the danger there is that when AV enthusiasts replace their plants, ... they usually end up with MORE than they started. But that's the upside as well.

I'll just pique/enable your interest with the following photos ...

Picasso

Beautiful plants! Thanks for showing them.

Nice photos, Aegis, lovely "moonlit waters" as I am partial to that type of blossom, and nice to end a thread on a happy note! Not much is blooming in my house since our move a few months ago. The green growth is perking up now that I resumed the jugs of spring water. So it is nice to admire someone else's blooming plants. Lyon's is having their annual 15% off sale starting in August. Last night, I looked at Annie's podcasts and saw her video taken at National where some of the vendor/hybridizers had their newest plants displayed. Talk about enabling! Joanne

Very beautiful! Well that is 3 more for my "wish list"!!!!! Rosie