anyone grow african violets?

[billylh]

Im a first time African Violet grower and it seems to be doing quite well after 2 months of owning and it not having done anything but drop all flowers. now its flowering again, take a look.

it sits on a shelf on a south facing window(where some of my baby neps and orchids are) which gets about 6 hours of direct sun light and bright indirect sun the rest of the day.

~billy

 

[rattler]

they bloom pretty much nonstop other than the occasional short breaks......

 

[droseraguy]

Well you can't treat them like regular sun loving plants for starters ! They will get hard and stop blooming with direct sun and too much fertilizer. Your best bet is to put them in a north window (diffuse light) and water with only room temperature water. Never get water on the leaves. Use only good water like for your cp's. As far as fertilizer goes use the kind specially made for them. If you can't find that you can use any ( gotta go get back in a bit)

 

[droseraguy]

Back to fertilizer, you can use a regular blooming plant fertilizer but cut the directed amount by 1/4. Normally we use 200 ppm N. but violets like 50 ppm N. Water with that every 2 weeks or so. Also keep the pot damp but not soaking and never dry.

Good luck

 

[billylh]

to be honest, i water it when i water my on the shelf, and i dont give it the good water, just tap. but i did buy the shultz african violet fertilizer for it and i make a batch and water it and the orchids. the only reason im really growing this is to prove my roommates aunt wrong about me being able to grow it. now ive gone and found a bag of african violet soil and plan on making some leaf cuttings. ill prove her wrong by giving her a whole new plant back.

~billy