Growing African violets is a lot different than playing an instrument. If you play an instrument and hit a wrong note you will instantly know you did something wrong. If you change something when growing African Violets it takes about 3 months until you'll see a change in the plant.
So, what are some things I've done? As a new grower many years ago, I heard about a product I thought sounded good. I ordered it and tried it on a tray of 30 leaves that I had just purchased. The leaves withered and died 3 days later. Yessiree, all 30 of them!
Then I heard about the fine attributes of using cow manure in a growing mixture. My plants grew to a nice size and I was pleased with the results. One very cold day, rather than go into the garage to get a mix for the minis, I used the cow manure mixture. It took about 3 months until they started to grow into huge plants. None of them could be put in a show because they were too large.
I also heard of a product to control or stop powdery mildew. It seemed to work until I noticed that 3 months later all the plants had markings on their leaves. I have since heard that the product must be mixed and used immediately. It cannot stand for a few days and then be used without bad results. Once again many plants could not be entered in a show.
Many books and articles talk about alternating fertilizers. Yup, did that too. More plants not entered in a show. It probably is a good idea since different fertilizers contain different elements but it should be done all the time. Rather than alternating, I stay with one fertilizer. It saves me wondering what I used last week and what I should use this week.
So what is my advice to prevent such disasters? Try new ideas or products but do it on only three plants for 3 months. I try to select a plant with a light green leaves, a plant with a dark green leaves, and a variegated plant for the experiment and then I wait…………..
Thank you to our author - judge, teacher, grower and willing mentor for those of us still learning - Sharon Johnson!