Heather - you probably have too much light. If it is shelf with fluorescent light - please give us the specifics - how far above the plants, what kind of tubes and how long they are on.

Take one of the plants off this shelf - and put it near the ones that do good. If you see an improvement - it is probably it. Should take about 2 weeks to relax your "taco" leaves.

The light is led..actually meant for an office. When I use my lux meter its about 200-400 foot candles depending on where the plants are..its 6 inches away..on about 14 hours. The other is the same distance away. But a higher powered light. Although one av is folded but its mother plant is all spread out and fine. I just shortened the height of the lights..so looks like I'm distancing them..yay! Gives me an excuse to mess with them

Change the time to 10. Some of the LEDs have lots of UV in their spectrum. This is a problem with Costco LED lights as well as I can tell.

Will do..thank you!

Some good ideas there.

Heather, I use LEDs (office clip-on blue and red grow lights). Light meters don't work on LEDs. For AVs, you're supposed to have 900 to 1100 foot candles, which is measuring natural light and fluorescents, I'm pretty sure.

Yes dviolet. Thats why I wasnt sure about the curling when mine are not even up to that in foot candles.

Thinking about this..I am pretty sure I had the lights closer..and the leaves weren't taco like..when I inquired about the spots I then raised the lights thinking that was an issue.

My cheapy lights are most likely nowhere near tanning salon like

Hmmm... I must be missing something. What is it? At first I thought maybe the discrepancy in this foot candles business might be artificial vs. natural light. But not so when reading the following from the AVSA.org site. They mention grow lights in same paragraph as foot candles...

Light Requirements
... If you have access to a light meter, the correct luminosity for African violets is 10,000 to 12,000 lux, or about 900 to 1100 foot candles. When selecting a grow light, it is important to make sure it emits light in both the red and blue spectrums. Red light is essential for African violets to bloom. Blue light is necessary for photosynthesis to occur and, thus, is vital for the development of green leaves and the production of plant carbohydrates.

Don't mind you correcting me if I'm wrong, but they're also talking grow light foot candles here?

Since I got super low readings on my grow lights, I thought something was funky, so now I usually try the shadow test, as mentioned from the Optimara.com site:

... As an alternative, you can get a reasonable approximation of this light value by simply holding your hand over a Violet during the time when it is receiving the brightest light. If you can barely see the shadow of your hand over the Violet, then it is getting the correct amount of light.

dviolet1 -

Can you post a link?

I tried to find it and the best I found Joyce Stork advice on light here - http://avsa.org/faq-light. She says - 2 T12 tube, 12 in above the crowns, 12 hours a day - for mature plants.

i.

Here's the link to the .pdf file. It's under the Light Requirements section:

http://www.avsa.org/sites/default/files/files/Basic%20Care%20for%20African%20violets.pdf

Aha - found it. I think the lady who wrote an article in 2001... never used a lightmeter in her life and just copied something from somewhere. There is plenty of free apps for android lightmeter and since I do not know where I put a lightmeter - I just added an app "lightmeter" to my phone.

I have a shelf with 2 T8s - where I know is too much light for some of my AVs - because they hug the pots or at best grow flat - tubes are 9 inches above the plants - 490fc. And another shelf which has 2T12s at 7 inches distance- where I force young plants to bloom early - and the number is 392fc. Here some of the plants I need to move to the edge - and some to the center - depending of their requirements.

1100 fc is probably a good number for large Sinningias - but AVs will scorch for sure.

I keep playing - and the highest level is under Costco LED shoplight where I keep my Achimenes - 800 fc. The AVs will bleach there.

I.

Yeah I've read a lot where its 10,000 to 12,000 lux, or about 900 to 1100 foot candles. First time I've been told or read anything less then that. We've come a long way since 2001 though..its frustrating while searching for answers

It is the only place I see these numbers. The rest of infomation I saw in 18 years - and I read everything I could find - was significantly less. They can live and bloom well at 150-300fc- if you give long light hours. You up the numbers - you need to be more attentive to the hours and varieties - some thrive - and some get scorched. Actually if you move your lightmeter around the shelf - the numbers change significantly - and more so with LEDs because the light is directed practically down instead of all around as in fluorescent tubes.

I think the lady who wrote the article on Basic care - did a good job, she wrote everything quite sensibly using her experience. Lightmeter... she probably never saw in her life - so she did her research and copypasted it from a wrong place. In 2000 we all used 2T12s - 1 warm and 1 cool light - and no way in hell you can get 1100fc from this kind of fixture 12 inches from the tubes.

The good part about being on the low light side - I am not talking about a middle of the room with semi-closed draperies where the blooming plant color matches the chintz sofa - these people should stick to artificial arrangements - but so-so windows - the plant is adaptable - it will survive and accumulate energy to give you a good bloom or 2 in summer. The growers who want them to bloom 10 months out of the year - go for light shelves. But we get hopelessly spoiled. Instead of waiting and anticipating... you just tell them - you bloom now - or you are compost.

They do change..I usually test it on each plant

Nice reading. I am in the process of separating my light hogs from my crybabies. I have at least a half dozen plants w leaves showing signs of sun burn. I try to start new plants in the lower light shelves. As they mature, I move them toward the brighter shelves. Sometimes I don't catch it in time and they get the dreaded brown burn marks.

A few of my larger Optimaras periodically exhibit the "taco" syndrome. As long as thats as bad as it gets, they can stay where they are. I like tacos anyway.

Still have tacos...I've actually been turning my lights off after 8 hours

Odd how they weren't doing this when the lights were at the closest to the avs...

I don't think Id be interested in AV's if they were easy. Yep, my mom, neighbors, sister and a few others all grow them accidentally in their windows. I love it and always visit their plants when I go to their houses. I miss those days.

Really. I thought they were supposed to be easy before I started. They are so temperamental!

I'm just so hung up on wanting them to look a certain way..fanned out..flat

I have a table full of tacos. But I know why. Until I move them from under the desk lamp to my good window they’re going to stay like that and they are not happy. Doesn’t look like they’ll be blooming anytime soon either. Shame on me for tormenting these innocent little plants like this.

Mine seem to bloom still..*knock on wood*

There are some varieties which do a better job of lying flat ... even when they're not getting a lot of light.

There are some plants which I don't grow (for instance - Optimara Hiroshige) ... simply because they need more light than I can provide to them ... and they end up reaching.

For me, some of those that, naturally, lie flatter are listed below ... (you should be able to find a photo of tmost of these plants through the use of the GardenWeb search ... in African Violets, or through Google). I search Google using the following entry "Afican Violet" "<name of variety>". For instance, to find info/photos of Pow, I would enter "African Violet" "Pow Wow" in Google search.

Pow Wow

Jersey Snowflakes

Pink Panther

Love in Bloom

Heaven's a' Callin'

Candy Swirls

Optimara Harlequin

Picasso

Cool Mint

Red Rocket

Optimara Modesty

Royal Rage

Shazam

Silverglade Plums

Perfect Harmony

New Year's Eve

Raspberry Glitz

Sun Sizzle

Gold Coins

Tony's Jennifer