Hello. At my office we have several African violets growing well under the charming glow of the overhead fluorescent lights. Recently one large plant began to get very odd leaf damage. A circle of dead tissue would form in the middle of some leaves. The affected leaves are evenly spread out around the plant, and the leaves directly below the affected leaves are not damaged. The leaves were not damaged by sitting water and haven't had anything dropped on them - there's no sign of external damage. The dead spots are exactly in the center of the leaf in width and in length and about the size of a quarter. One of my co-workers is a member of a local African violet club and regularly exhibits her plants at the Philadelphia Flower Show. She says that she's never seen anything like these odd leaf spots before. Some of the plants are occasionally troubled by powdery mildew, but only one specific strain of purple flowered African violets gets serious flower damage from the mildew before we are able to get it under control again. The plant with the dead leaf spots has never been touched by the mildew but has certainly been exposed (we have maybe 15 violets along a shelf above our desks). No other bugs or problems have been noticed, and I've looked! Any thoughts? It's very puzzling. Thanks!
I'll try to get a photograph the next time a leaf goes bad - I'd been breaking off the leaves as the damage occurred in hopes of somehow also throwing away the problem. Wishful thinking, I know.
Here are some pictures I took today of two new spots. :( The photos are not the best as they were taken with my camera, but I think you'll get the idea. I'm not sure why the photos are upside down - let me see if I can fix that!! OK, really not sure what to do - I rotated the photos and resaved them - I guess you'll have to turn your heads. Sorry!! Any help or ideas you have on what to do would be much appreciated!
looks like some kind of mold. I would snip off the infected leaves to help what ever it is from spreading to more. and certainly keep it for now away from the other plants. there has been no water dropped onto the leaves?
Hi Annette. No, there hasn't been any water dropped on the leaves. The plants are above our desks and this plant is much wider than its saucer. So we water from the top in the very center or from the bottom. For water to get on the leaves at the edges it would have also rolled off onto the shelf and then deluged all of our papers below, as well. And that hasn't happened. Besides, our office is so dang dry that any water on the leaves evaporates within minutes, well before any damage could occur. Do you have any idea what types of fungicide I could use? When we get powdery mildew I spray them down with soapy water that has a tiny bit of rubbing alcohol in it, and that seems to work. Do you think that a simple soap solution would work here, too? Thanks!! (and apologies again for the upside-down pictures)
