African Violets

My poor little friends...lol They looked so beautiful and full this morning. Then I went and did a nasty deed. Cut off all of the suckers :( There were 3 almost full sized suckers on one and 2 small ones on another. Till recently I didn't know these guys needed to come off. They were making the central plant off center, crowded, and loss of leaves, plus some yellowing, do to the fact that the suckers were sucking the life outta momma. Now my plants look pretty sad and not very full. I tell ya the suckers took off this summer while mommy just laid waiting for someone to rescue her. So hopefully now they will do some happy growing. I potted up 3 of the suckers. Each had roots. I damaged the other 2. Plus I am not in the mood to pot up the leaves so off to the trash they went.
Someone sent me a lot of AV leaf cuttings a while ago. Out of the cuttings that I potted in soil 5 have survived the trauma of it all. I got 3 other ones a bit later and all 3 leaves are alive. These ones I placed in a glass of water with saran wrap over top for the leaves to sit in. Two of these have babies now. One leaf has 3 babies growing on it. These are in my kitchen with no natural light just flourescent lighting. So far so good.
I got both of my AV's on Mothers Day. So I think so far I am doing good with them, since they are still alive....lol
Just wanted to share my trauma and excitement with ya.
Holly

Hey Holly,
Sounds like you're on the right track with your AV's, if the suckers had some roots, they should do fine. Let me warn you - it's only the beginning - before you know it, the suckers will have suckers and on and on and....you won't be able to give them away fast enough!
Cindy

question....just when do these 'suckers' show up?...i have some av's and am new to them....2 plants are in bloom.....i have rooted one leaf all by myself...lol..but i dont know anything about these little 'suckers'....cindy

Brom mom, Suckers are another plant growing on the main plant of an AV. If you have an AV you most likely will have suckers growing on it. If your plant is really full like mine where chances are you have them too. Here's how I describe it. Mommy(the main plant) Should be almost centralized in the pot. the center leaves should be smaller in the center and larger as you get down to the bottom of the soil line. When there are suckers they tend to grow better than the mommy. These suckers will then have thier own new growth of leaves, central baby leafs and the like. It is very tough to examine a full plant. I couldn't tell a sucker from the mom, until I took the whole plant out of its pot. You will see them growing on the main stem/stalk of the mommy plant. Some may confuse you because they are so big and they look even better than mom. Oh try not to pull these off, It doesn't work...lmao I learned that from experience yesterday!!!
What I did was take a really sharp knife (they come off pretty easily) and cut away the sucker. Aiming away from the mother plant. I even cut into the soil line a bit so as to take away some roots with it. If you get roots you are in better luck. Be very careful not to cut momma. If you do I am sure you can reroot the crown. I got 3 off of the main plant. You will be a little depressed upon removing the suckers, as they are what made the plant look full. hmmmmmm what else. Oh try not to get the AV sap on your face. I accidently scratched my face and the stuff burned for a min or two. It didn't leave a mark, but just be careful. I potted mine dierectly into a batch of soil. I can't say as they will survive yet. But we will see. Anymore questions just give a shout!!!!!!!
I hope this helped and that I didn't confuse you.
Holly

This message was edited Saturday, Nov 17th 11:11 AM

holly...do these suckers grow from the center of the momma or down at the soil line........i dont believe i have any yet.....but wanna be on the look out for them.....also, how long do you wait before you take them off?.cindy

Cindy, They are usually above the soil line, atleast this is how it was in my case. they grow right off of the side of the mother plant. So you have to look closely because they look just like regular old leaves coming off of mommy till you actually move some of the leaves out of the way (gently of course because the av leaves snap off very easily especially when just watered...lol) My mom had told me that probably has suckers on it. But I didn't believe here until I really examined it closely. I'm gonna look right now to see if I can find you some close ups of suckers.
Here is one it is not the greates but you can see sorta what is happening.
http://www.rachelsreflections.com/suckers.htm
here is another that shows you a closer view
http://www.rpi.edu/~gibbe/violet.html
hard to read what it says under the pics but you get the drift...lol
http://www.hgtv.com/HGTV/project/0,1158,GALA_project_22573,FF.html
Here is another this is more about decrowning a violet, but it still is useful. The chimera violets are the ones with the pinwheel like flowers. And it shows the suckers and how to remove them.
http://www.robsviolet.com/chimera_violets.htm
If ya need anymore research done let me know...lol
I hope this helped some. ANd if your plant doesn't have any suckers now, you have many references for the future.
Holly

Oh yeah. And though I truly do not care for this site. They do have an excellent amount of info regarding Av's Just reading all of the old posts helped me to learn new things. SO if you have some time to read check this out. Ughhhh I really do hate to do it..lol here ya go
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/afrviolet/
Holly