I believe this wicking business is more an art than a science. I've been wicking my plants for nigh on ten years and I still can't figure it! My soil is also very wet to the touch yet the plants grow & bloom and fill the container with healthy white roots. If I were hand watering, I would never allow the plants to be so wet, yet they seem to thrive.

I generally use one or two strands of yarn, rarely more. However, I understand that the thickness of your wick makes no difference as eventually the pot will reach its saturation point and thats that. I think the main key to success is perlite. . . 50% or more of your mix and like you, I use the chunkier stuff. Fine is worthless.

You say your plants are faring well and flowering so I would leave well enough alone for now and fine tweak later if they start to decline. Or better yet, act on Irina's suggestion!

Terri

Thanks Irina and Terri. I think I'll thin out the mason twine as you suggested but first hand water for a little while and see if they utilize the water better. If after a couple of months they haven't improved enough I'll have to figure out a different soil altogether. I switched to Espoma because I didn't want the added fertilizer because I like to control that myself. The Espoma also has Myco-tone Mycorrhizae in to promote root growth. Don't really know if that's important or not. Can you suggest a good draining soil for semi-minis? I want my violets to thrive now that they are finally blooming. My first nine were from Violet Barn and have taken two years to finally mature enough to start flowering. My last five are from LyndonLyons and they've started blooming a lot faster. I don't want to jeopardize their progress.

I just want to give a shout out to Oyama pots - plastic self-watering pots similar to Dandy pots. They can by purchased at VioletSupply.com and are very reasonably priced - especially if you don't have a gargantuan collection. Most of my plants are in them and loving it. I use Optimara potting medium with a little added perlite. The soil does seem quite wet, but there hasn't been a problem so far.

Thanks Judy, I will look those up.

Ok, so because I am slow and always on the brink of setting my plants up on wicks...how is it that if the soil is soggy wet the leaves rot and thats that...but if you put them on a wick with continuous wet feet they are fine with that..? Is it just bc they only take in what they need?

Oyama pots - you can let them dry if you need to, or add a smaller amount of water if it is cool otherwise they work the same...Wicks - there is no linear equation - diameter of the pot and amount of wicks, I use mason twine - and it generally works well on solo cups. A friend drinks Keurig coffee - so she brought me a bunch of used single Keurig cups - 2 oz. - And they dry for me on mason twine wick... cannot figure out why not enough contact with soil?

A friend of mine lives in the mountains in a leaky old cabin... enjoys peace and quiet, elk and chipmunks - she moves her plants to wicks in summer - and hand waters them in winter keeping them on a low water regimen so they won;t rot and die.

I,

Irina, I like that idea of wicking in summer and giving them a break in winter by hand watering. I may try that. Mine are all in Dandy pots which I like because I can see the water level at all times....and I think they're cute. I can also easily take them off of the reservoirs as needed. My violets are in different colored pots according to when they were purchased so it's easy for me to keep track of the older ones/newer ones which accommodates my bad memory. I also labeled them.

One more question, I thinned out the mason twine and will use only two strands. Will it work better if I thread each strand in opposite holes in the pot so the wicking is more uniform?

Walmart carries plastic 3 oz solo cups.

The best method is very much climate related - so whatever works the best for me in dry CO - is not going to work in CA or in FL.

I tried Dandy pots- and I like Oyamas better - again - in my conditions. So I unloaded all my Dandies to a friend and she loves them to pieces.

Kathy Spissman (kathystrep) on ebay has good price on pots if you buy them in bulk - https://www.ebay.com/itm/100-TERRACOTTA-MIX-MATCH-PICK-WHAT-SIZES-YOU-WANT-VIOLET-STREPTOCARPUS-POTS/263428430285?hash=item3d558ed9cd:g:QQ8AAOSw8H1aVXZL

violetshowcase sells a lot of AV supplies - and I love their soil

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Round-Plastic-Miniature-brown-flower-pots-lot-of-100-new/263658155779?hash=item3d63402f03:g:y64AAOSwrhhaRwYv

They even have have solo cups with holes burned in them.

I.

I just looked at the violetshowcase av soil. I really like the ingredients. Going to have to try that. Will buy some next month. Thanks Irina.

I use a two strand acrylic yarn. Some potting mixes have too much vermiculite, others none or not enough. A bit of confusion comes to bear when people who don't wick water start comparing their potting mix with those who do and vice-versa.

Without some water retaining ingredient in the potting mix, (vermiculite or something similar) capillary action cannot take place. The wick cannot function under completely dry conditions.

If a plant shows signs of consistently getting to much water through the wick, I dump it and replace the potting mix with some that has more perlite and less vermiculite.

If it consistently dries out even though the reservoir remains full, I dump it out and replace the mix with one that has slightly more vermiculite and a little less perlite.

I always use the same two strand wick so I only have one variable to deal with. I still have the odd one or two that will catch me napping but mostly, the system works.

Thanks Jeff. I thinned out my wicks this morning to two strands and am awaiting an order of av mix from violetshowcase that Irina suggested.

As for the 2-strand wick. I placed a strand on either side of the pot for more even wicking. Is it going to be a problem keeping such thin strands from being pulled out of the pots when I refill the reservoirs? They slide through the potting mix so easily.

Lots of tricks available if your wicks are coming out of the pot too easily. Some folks put their wicks in after they're potting mix is already in the pot. A darning needle or something similar is used to pull the wick up through the soil. I don't do that. I make sure my wicks are plenty long, thread one end through one of the holes in the bottom and pull it up over the side of the pot. Fill with mix while holding both ends of the yarn. I don't have a pulling out problem but if you do, you may try this.

Thanks Jeff. My problem I think was putting the wick in vertical so after the wick was in place in some of my pots when I would lift the pot off the reservoir to clean and refill the reservoir the act of raising the wick out of the water would pull the thin strand out. When some of the wicks pulled out the last time I did use a needle to put new ones in through the mix but that didn't solve the problem. What I did yesterday when repotting into better soil and switching to just one strand of wick (had 2 strands) I held the wick in place and filled the pots half full then laid the rest of the wick horizontally on top, then put the plant in and filled in the rest of the mix. This way the wick is laying across the mix horizontally instead of vertically. I'm hoping this will work.