mL's blog
2009-03-14 -- New African Violet Home
Earlier this month I brought home an ugly old table from work that was just going to get junked. Thought it would make the perfect African Violet home, since my smaller makeshift growing surface was becoming crowded. It works most excellently and offers some room to grow:
On March 1, a day or so later, I went about repotting some of my violets and the mama leaves that were getting far along in rooting. Now, about two weeks later, the repotted plants are still showing no signs of shock and the first of those babies are just starting to poke through:
I'm trying to figure out about how long it takes to go from leaf cutting to first blossom. I never took note of that before. So far, the timeline is suggesting that it will probably be around 4 months. I took the first leaf cuttings around the middle of February, so it looks to me like it's about a month from the time you cut a leaf until the time its first babies pop through the soil... a couple weeks rooting in water and a couple of weeks acclimatizing to the potting mix.
Of course, it depends on the leaf, too. I still have two from a different plant that have not sprouted a single root yet. I'm getting close to giving up on those two. Maybe it was because the plant was unhealthy? (It didn't like the pot it had been in for years. I replanted it and it seems much happier and greener now that it's in a smaller pot with drain holes.)
I got asked this a couple times last month... for potting mix, I have found that a typical bagged potting soil (without fertilizer or pesticide included) mixed with the same amount of peat moss works pretty well. They seem to like it. The peat is spongy and doesn't pack solid. It's fluffy enough for roots and leaves to develop easily.
Happy plantings!
~mL