How much light?

I have 3 AVs in my office. At my old job they were in a window and did fine. Bloomed almost constantly! I use AV food, very diluted everytime I water (from the bottom in plastic saucers). A year ago I changed jobs and don't sit by a window anymore. My plants continue to grow and are healthy, they just don't bloom. The blooms dropped about 2 weeks after I started working here and haven't bloomed again since. So, I assume it's the light. I brought my plant light up here and have that shining on them all day. Is that too much? Someone told me to just give them light from the lamp for about an hour a day and see what happens. I have the light about a foot from them so they aren't getting fried. Any suggestions? BTW- they do not need to be repotted. I thought about that already. And someone else (a very good AV grower!) told me to water from the top to rinse all the deposits from the AV food out of the soil, then blot the leaves dry. So I did that too. But again, they don't seem sick or dying... just won't bloom anymore! Thanks- Jamie

Hiya Jamie,
Here's a couple of quick thoughts that might help.

Your AV is probable just adjusting to it's new enviroment. Could take 30 days or more for it to settle in... think about how long it takes you to settle in and feel warm & fuzzy in your new surroundings... AV's have a lot stricter requirements than we do..lol
If it has been blooming for a long time, then it may be in it's resting stage.
It may need to be repotted, fresh soil can do wonders for an AV.

Those are the most common reason AV's stop blooming, aside from the fertilizing of course.
I try to keep my AV's on lights about 12 hrs a day with the lights about 12-14 inches above them...I use a mix of different types of lighting depending on where I have a place to set them.

Now, for my AV's I notice the temps in the house have a lot more to do with their bloom cycles. The ones I have in a window that gets some sun bloom way more frequently than the ones that are under grow lights....not so much because of the light factor but the TEMP factor...took me a while to figure that one out..lol

The heat from the sunny window and the air conditioner were just the right combo 2 of my AV's love the rest of them are just sitting around growing leaes and NO bloms...the little rascals. Now when winter gets here and we use the heaters in the house I am hoping for one heck of a flower show cause I got these little gremilins all over the darn house .

Now, I'm at that magic time of life when it's hotter than the dickens for about 20 minutes and then I wanta know who the heck made it snow in here sooo with that said it's a miracle anything in the house is alive.

Keep us posted on what you discover with your new growing conditions and f course we'd love to see your pics.


Blessings to ya,
MsC


Sorry edited :cause I can't type or spell today :)

This message was edited Oct 26, 2004 5:36 PM

Hey MsC- Well I have been at this job for over a year now so I would hope they have adjusted!!! Their blooms all dropped about 2 weeks after I started working here (which was September 2003). Mine are getting the growlight from about 9am to about 5:30. That's when I'm there so that's all I can do! I wonder if I would get in trouble if I left them on overnight instead. But then they would be pushing about 15.5 hours a day in the light. I guess I will buy a bag of fresh soil and try repotting next. I have only tried the lighting thing for a week or so, so I guess I could give it a little more time. I am bad about trying 5 things at once then no knowing which thing(s) made the difference! :) I am afraid they just want to be back in a window so I will just take them home if I can't get them to bloom at work. You made me laugh on that "magic time of life" comment! My mom refers to it as "mentalpause" and said she's glad to be done with it. Ha! Oh, unless you want pictures of some green AV leaves, I will wait until when/if they bloom. :) Thanks for the suggestions!

Jamie

Glad to offer any suggestions... an AV that doesn't bloom is a sad, sad plant..lol
They are affectionately refered to as "Canners " in my house...if ya ain't gonna bloom then ya can hit the trash can! :)

As far as the lights in the office you could try a "timer" set to go off after a consistant amount of light. Try adjusting the light schedule over time until you find what works for them.

You could always pluck a leaf and start another plant, depending on the variety of the AV it maybe one of those that has a shorter life span for blooms.

In reading some older issues of the Av books & mag arrticles , I learned that the older varieties were slower to bloom, bloomed with less flowers and had a shorter life span, but they seeded easier, with years of breeding now they are breed for perfection of leaf shape, symetricalness as well as bloom size color a frequency of bloom cycle... so with so many out there it maybe hard to tell what your plants genetics are.

Probable more info than you ever wanted..??? LOL

MsC

Nah, that's great! The more info the better. Canners huh? Love it! I will start calling plants in the garden something similar then- yankers. Because if you don't perform, cause me grief, prone to disease, etc. I will yank you out! :)

I am way too tired to read everything, so sorry if this was already mentioned. There is a relationship between the amount of light necessary for blooms and the temperature. Higher temp = more light needed. I have an AV in two places - warm under lights, and cool in an almost-no-sun window, and the one in the window blooms more. The temp difference between the two locations is significant. So, if your office is warm (and it may be on weekends, for example), the amount of light you need might be higher than you think.

Here most of mine bloom at between 12 and 24" under a bank of 4 fluorescent tubes.

I know I'm strange but I really like the foliage on the AV's so don't worry if they bloom or not. I do really enjoy them in bloom also, tho! I don't think yours are getting enough light. Although, I bought a really raggedy space violet that was marked way down. After repotting, it's become very pretty and in almost constant bloom.

Good Luck! You should be able to get them to bloom at work, tho. I've always thought they liked fluorescents.

We are in a kind of loft space in the top of a building w/ lots of windows and high ceilings. I am several feet from a window so I don't get that light, and the florescents are really high up so I don't get that either. I like the foliage too, but want the blooms back darn it! I will repot them ASAP.

Hiya texasgarden,
Maybe after you repot it you could try a table lamp with a grow light bulb in it, just set it over the top as an accent light. You know the ones with the movedable neck piece. WalMart $10.00 type.... And of course they always have the fancy $20.00 kind
on where else but eBay...lol.

Check your temps & humidity too. Maybe add a gravel tray with a gentle heat mat??

Keep us posted so we know what you found to work.
Now, I gotta do critter chores & house work.. yuck!lol

MsC

I do have a desk top grow light on them now. I've been doing that for I guess almost 2 weeks now. It is just the flexible neck kind with a "plant bulb" in it. I am going to Home Depot tonight anyway so I will pick up some fresh soil for them. Couldn't hurt! I'll let y'all know what works... assuming I figure it out!

Well, I repotted like I said I would. That was 3 weeks ago today. And a grand total of 5 weeks that they have been under the grow light. I turn it on when I get here and turn it off when I leave. So about 8-9 hours a day they get light. Of course they get no light on the weekend. The temp in our office is consistent even on the weekend, 68-70 degrees I guess. Any thoughts on jacking up the light they get? Oh, no blooms yet. Guess I should mention that part. I do have lots and lots of new leaves though. Anyway, I am thinking about getting a timer for my little light and setting it to go off every day and turn off in the evening. Do y'all think that 12 hours a day would be too much? I was thinking of having it run 6am-6pm. I was just wondering, if something is going to work, is there a set amount of time I should give it? For instance if the amount of light I have been giving them has been consistent for the past 5 weeks and they still won't bloom, is it safe to say that isn't enough light?

I think 5 weeks is a little too early to tell, although I'm no expert on this.

Can you get the leaves closer to the light without them getting too warm?

My lights are on for about 12 hrs in winter and 16 hrs in summer. Some are on 14 hrs year round. I'm all for timers generally - makes things a lot easier.

Keyring- how funny you should say that! I just did the exact opposite and moved the light further AWAY from them. Ha! It isn't just a lamp, but a grow light that puts off quite a bit of heat. I read on another thread that having the light too close can cause problems so I put it up on a stack of books to make it about 10 inches over the plants. Think I should keep it closer? I know you are supposed to let them have a rest this time of year, but since mine haven't bloomed in over a year I figure it's okay to try and make them bloom now. I just took a few leaf cuttings and put them in a pot next to these guys since I re-read what others have said and I am thinking maybe these were just short lived AVs. We will see what happens I guess. I think I am going to get a timer and up the time it is on. From everything I have read, seems like 12 hours is the minimum people leave them on!

You want to make sure that the leaves don't get too warm - use the "touch" test, lol. There's no way to tell without touching the leaves, so check on them every couple of hours and see how it goes.

Also, if the center leaves are scrunching up, they are too close to the light and may also be too warm. If the leaves are reaching up instead of lying flat, then chances are you have too little light (some AVs just seem to grow upwards anyway, though).

Mine are growing almost straight UP. The leaves feel slightly warm to the touch. No scrunching up. They have always seemed to be a little perky if you will, with the leaves going upwards. But now they are almost vertical. I thought they were trying to reach towards the florescent lights waaaay up on the ceiling which is why I put the grow light on them in the first place. They did start putting on new leaves, but showed no signs of the leaves flattening down. The color is still a really nice green.

A little side question on AV leaves:
If the leaves on two of my violets curl around the pot and point down, are they getting too much light? They're farther away from the south-facing window than other AVs I have, but our kitchen does have fluorescent lights (that are only on sometimes). I've been wondering why the leaves are doing this. They're fairly new minis.

the fluorescents are probably having no effect. Could they be older leaves dying off naturally? or could you be over-watering? If they are minis, could they be over potted?

I could be over-watering, but probably not much as they are in terra cotta pots. They are in 2.5 or 2.75 inch pots and I'm pretty sure they're full-grown. They are older leaves, but they don't appear to be dying yet, just curling! It's kind of funny looking. I should post a picture. They weren't doing this when I received them, probably two or three months ago.