Here's my Apple Orchard, a semi-mini that I've written about before. It showed great progress after I fixed up its pot with a lot more drainage, in September. Note that the older leaves are much greener and look great (or used to), but the younger ones are really suffering.s

It's not getting any different treatment than all the other violets, but I've always heard that minis and semis are "harder." I suspect they're just more sensitive to some conditions, and are the first to respond. Canary in the coal mine, and I'd better solve it.

So I thought maybe "fertilizer burn" and did some reading on that. Doesn't look like it. So I read more on preferred fertilizers for AVs, and got the clearest info from the AVSA faq section, and more from the book "Growing to Show," though the latter doesn't discuss macro and micro nutrients so much.

The AVSA points out that when using rainwater (I use lake water, it's probably similar), fertilizers need to have not only NPK but calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg), in addition to trace elements. This is not usually a problem for people who use city or well water. I checked what I've been using: Schultz general 10-15-10, and Schultz AV food, 8-14-9. Nope, no Ca or Mg.

Another thing that apparently violets don't like, and that especially shows up in the leaves when ambient temperatures drop, is urea-based nitrogen. Both the Schultz products have at least some part of N derived from urea. This is apparently something that wouldn't have been obvious in the summer, but now that we're into full-on winter here, there are a new set of challenges.

So it looks like I have fertilizer faults on two fronts: urea-based N, and no Ca or Mg.

The AVSA article named some no-urea fertilizers that people are currently having success with in 2020, including one that I happen to have on hand for my orchids, MSU "Feed Me," which is 13-3-15. That doesn't sound like a good NPK ratio to me, for violets that one wants to have flowering, but I sure do think I'm going to try it, to make up for possible deficiencies and remove all urea from the equation. Right now I don't care at all about flowering.

Another one mentioned was Dyna-Gro 7-9-5, which has both Ca and Mg. Sounds good, I'm going to order some. Also Better Gro Orchid Plus, 20-14-13, but that one doesn't have any Ca. I can't find full label info on Optimara's 14-12-14, including macro and micronutrients, and I'm unwilling to spend a lot of money (it's really expensive) on something where I can't know what's in it.

So that's my plan right now, but I sure would like to know what you all think. Please chime in! Especially if you think I'm off base, or missing something.