As a fellow plant hoarder - I can confirm - if you try to park too many plants on a windowsill - they are crowded and do not grow to their potential, If an AV touches anything - it immediately starts turning, moving leaves - and the rosette shape goes to pot. Since I believe that an AV at its best should has a decent rosette as well as blossoms... giving it a good space to live and breath is a necessity, And I doubt you have a square foot on your windowsill to devote it to one full size standard AV. Regarding the light intensity - if you can rebloom Phalenopsis... about right.

AVs are fast growing plants - so there is always work in progress - you can always bring the ones in bloom to your table a enjoy - and take it back to the shelf several days later - or build a small showcase light stand somewhere upstairs where you will keep blooming specimens - cacti or AVs or whatever else is portable - and rotate them.

Yes, I do have a lot of plants but I also have a lot of
windows in my house so my philosophy is I can always make room for one more.

Your comment is interesting about grouping too may plants
together because I always thought it was good for them as it raises the
humidity level. I have not experienced
any issues with having too many together but everyone’s environment is
different so I will keep that in mind.

I will probably just put them under grow lights for now
especially since winter is fast approaching.
I have an entire shelf that is empty and they would have plenty of room
(I only bought two). I just will have to
make it a point to go down and check on them often. The other plants I have on my grow shelves don’t
need a whole lot of attention so I don’t check on them quite as much as I do
for the ones I have upstairs.

Thanks for the suggestions

AVs are pretty jealous of their space - they push the ones on the edge off the shelf - like a cuckoo chick pushes the other chicks out to absorb all the resources. AVs are plants of the dappled shade - so light is a resource they will quietly strangle one another... no friendship lost between the sister seedlings or plantlets from the same leaf - you do not separate them - only the strongest will survive, the rest will perish.

I wanted to update this thread because I am wondering if I
am giving the violets I have too much light.
The first two pics are two that I got from violet barn which I have had
about a month. I have them under 4 bulbs 2
warm and 2 white (two separate fixtures).

They are tight in the
middle and don’t seem to have enough room for leaves to come in. The other thing I read that causes this is
mites but the leaves don’t look deformed or abnormal in anyway.

What really got me wondering is I bought two new plants from
Lyndon Lyon so I could compare the plants from both companies. These are the plants in the nd photo but they
have a lot of space between the leaves and the stems are a lot longer. Is this normal? I didn’t think there would be that much
difference between them. I believe they
are all in the same size pot which is a 2.5.

At this point I am thinking of turning one light fixture off
so in other words cutting the amount of light in half. I have them on for 12 hours a day which seems
to be the average time others use.

Since I am new to violets although I do have other plants I am
trying to figure out what is normal and what is not.

Any replies are greatly appreciated.

I would say that all of your plants look good, except, perhaps the second plant photo. And I wouldn't guess that the second plant's issue is a light issue.

Your plants are not really tight in their middles.

It may be that the second violet will grow out of whatever is troubling it in time. You might try turning off one of your fixtures (i.e. your plan) ... and see what happens ...

Thanks, I already turned off one of the lights today so I
will wait and see. I was just surprised
the two plants in the last photo had so much space between the leaves compared
to the other two. I am wondering if they are a little older because one of them
already had blooms.

Is it possible the fertilizer I have been using has
anything to do with it. I have been
fertilizing them every other watering with the optimara fertilizer

I wouldn't use more than 1/4 of a teaspoon of fertilizer per gallon. Probably 1/8 of a teaspoon if used with every watering. Better to keep the load a bit under. No harm, while too much - you get brown crystals on the young leaves... Otherwise Optimara fertilizer is good,

Ok I have the individual packets that you mix with a gallon of water. I am thinking I should dilute it by half and only fertilizing every other watering.

The packages are 2g - hard to say what it means in teaspoons - somewhere between 1/2 and 1/4 of a teaspoon. So your dose is about right - i am not sure it is better to alternate fertilized water with not fertilized - or dilute a package in 2 gallons and use it every time...probably is not going to make very much difference.

Whatever you are doing seems to work.

I agree I really think it is more of lighting issue but if does not turn out to be that I was wondering where to look next. I have been fertilizing every other watering but with regular strength so I will cut it to half strength just to see. I would think the same thing that it may not make much of a difference on whether you fertilize every watering or every other as long as you adjust the strength for whichever way you prefer.