How do you deal with "Long Neck" on a Violet?
Recently I shared a photo of one of my violets ID'd as "Lucia". It was an older picture of a time it was blooming. I had said that it is now recovering from having a "long neck" which you know is when the stalk gets long and not compact. My Lucia was starting to become like that and I read about the method of chopping it off at the soil, then removing a good amount of older leaves, scraping the stem of dead material then planting that in soil to encourage roots to start growing again. Well thats what I decided to do. So you can see what it looks like currently. Of course, doing this did appear to stop the leaves from growing which I hope is temporary while it puts energy into root development. Does it look normal for having had that done to it? Root growth is visible so I am optimistic the self watering wick set up will help.
Do you agree with this method? Is it too extreme or sometimes just what a violet needs? :)
Comments (8)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoThat's a strategy used by knowledgeable growers for a large number of plants.
As the leaves die from the bottom up on this stripped NOID thing, I remove them to keep things tidy. The result is an ugly bare stalk/stem with a tuft of growth at the top. This plant is quite old (15 years) - I just keep chopping it back as you described and repotting it. The same is true of the Aeonium you can barely see in the background. Eventually you have an ugly bare stem with a rosette of leaves at the top,
So I chop the top off and restart it as a cutting by leaving a very short stem which is planted so the bottom leaves of the rosette are just above the ground. This leaves the old trunk as a stub, which ends up something like these:
Your plant looks normal for what you did, though the pot is rather deep. Also, the roots of some plants don't tolerate clear containers well. While it's fun to see them grow, it might not be good for the roots. I don't know if Viola is a genus that does mind or doesn't care for roots being exposed to light. Not only that, but algae can be a problem in clear containers because algal growth can severely limit gas exchange and attract unwanted insects like gnats, ..... .
Al
6 years agoRelated Professionals
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- 6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
6 years ago- 6 years ago
Damask, Cooks, Yolanda, thank you everyone who are offering tips. I'll have to try remembering those if I ever have to do this again! Cooks, I'll definitely check out that link out.
Hi AL. I did take see your advice about clear plastic containers. I had planned for that to be temporary until I was sure that roots were growing well. I agree algae can be an issue. So I have since moved the violet to an opaque pot. Thank you for the advice.
6 years ago
damask_rose_zone9b