Hi, I am from Bangladesh. Is there anyone here from Bangladesh or India growing African violet? I am mad about this plant but didn't find a specimen locally. can anyone from Bangladesh or India help?
if you can find anyone who will send you a few leaves,( 24 hr service) or if you can snag a few from a plant nearby, you can start your own quiet easily by putting them directly in semi moist soil, on a slight angle, with as much of the stem buried, without the leaf touching the soil, and under a soft light, within 2 weeks, there will be tons of new babies. to make a new variety, just bury leaves from 3 or 4 dif varieties, over lapping the ends, to insure they come up crossed.( i sometimes tie them together, with string before burying the ends. beware not to top water, always water from a dish below, or the leaves and stem WILL rot. i keep several varieties, but we dont have 24 hrs service here, as i live in a small island community.
I have better luck rootin African Violets in water. Just put the leaf stem in water and it will root. don't plant it, it will shoot off tons of little babies those will grow and once they are big enough, I either take them or the whole leaf and plant that. When the leaf grows roots and I try to plant it then, it just dies, I don't know why. But, I have never actually tried to plant the leaf directly into the soil. I may try that, but if that is not working for you, try rooting them in water, in any case, once they are in the ground, watering from the bottom instead of the top is a very good idea like Cargreene said. The leaves do not like being wet! Good luck!
if you start them in water, you may have a difficult time transferring them to soil. i keep those plants that i have started in water, inside a fish tank, on top of Styrofoam floats i made from packaging,( recycle)with some gardening stones for the roots to grip, and mesh to hold them in. they are in constant bloom 10 months a year,and very healthy. (i also keep a venous fly-trap in there, which flowers constantly) any old fish tank and light will do just fine, or a small fish bowl. i have had much more success however starting them in soil. the soil cant be too wet, and until plants are present, NO WATER, its ok if the soil dries out completely after you plant them.
YOU HAVE A VENUS FLY TRAP IN BLOOM CONSTANTLY!!!!!!?????!???????!!!!!! This is an impressive feat! So, it is not a tank with fish in it, because that should kill a flytrap. I would love to see pictures of that. It is tough on them to bloom, how long will it live in that environment? I am certainly going to try that, with the african violet, except maybe in a tank with something... lol. Maybe a bowl, I am impressed. But, I have had a hundred percent success planting into the dirt if you let the little leaves get big enough. If you plant too early, they will certainly die. I have several babies right now that I have just transplanted. If the little leaves are like the size of a dime, or even bigger, I have had swell luck transplanting them back into dirt. But, not a hundred percent overall. About seventy five percent over all, like if I put four leaves in the water, inevitably one always rots before growing roots, but after the roots grow, they seem to be fine. Please send me a pic of your floating plants. That sound just splendid! As my username suggests, I fond of the carnivorous plants, I have tons. I have bloomed and grown several flytraps, but I really want t see yours that blooms so much. That sounds tremendous. And I have seen no literature about growing them in the water like that. Sounds great!
i dropped my camera and broke off the focus dial on the lens! ( i was taking pictures of humming birds at the feeder when they decided to investigate what i was up to and i dropped it!!) its at the sony store, but i will add it to my list of 'things to do'. i feed my plants a full balanced diet, i know it says not too, but i give both micro/macro nutrients to all my plants. the fly-trap has never been divided or 'wintered', its quiet big, and it loves the humidity of the tank, i would say the leaves are about 1.5 cm at the fold, and rarely die off. i used to put some fruit flys in there on purpose, but they just made a huge mess. i will look and see if i have any old photos, as i take many of all my bonsai trees and garden flowers, but often forget the house plants....electron, i will see what it will take to ship you a plant, if there are no laws, otherwise, i may have some viable seeds i could send you....
Sorry to steal your thread Electron, but I have a couple more questions. How do you give the nutrients to your water plants? I have not had the best luck with providing the micro nutrients at all to the ones that I grow like that, and how did you get seeds from African violet, frankly I have never tried and I cut my flowers off to try and get it to flower more, woud it seed if I left it there?
i use advanced nutrients, sensi grow, 2 part feeding, ( its a hydroponics plant food), a bubbler rock, to give air to the root zone, and stir up any unused nutrients. i only just started trying to get the plants to seed, in the past five years. they cannot pollinate themselves, unless you have more than one plant in the pot together. i use a paint brush, and very delicately place the pollen from one, on the piston of the others. 95% of the time its a bust, nothing. but the other 5% starts to swell and form seeds. i let the flower petals fall, but leave the seed pods till they are so swollen, and begin to dry. just before they split, i take them. i have an older picture from my first ever plant started from seed, i will post it here...Electron, private message me your address, when you find out if i can legally send you leaves or seeds, and i will have them in the mail the next day.
