 |
African VioletsBring gardening indoors this winter. |
||
|
Small File
|
Large File
|
||
| > Real
Player > Quicktime |
> Real
Player > Quicktime |
||
Transcript: Gift Plants
African violets are a beautiful plant for a bright window area of your home.You may have avoided them in the past thinking they're too difficult to grow, but they're quite easy if you follow a few simple principles.
First of all, start off with good, strong, healthy plants. Avoid ones with a lot of spots on the leaves or wilting of the leaves. You want to plant African Violets using a special African violet mix. These are very porous and, while they hold some moisture, they also drain well. One of the principle problems with African Violets is soggy soil conditions that promote root and crown rots.
You want to plant them in a container that drains well. Some containers have a wick that drops down into a water basin below. Other's, such as this, are made of a porous clay material so the water is literally wicked up from the basin below into the soil media where the plants are growing. That way, it stays moist, but not too wet.
Finally, you want to feed your plants with an African Violet food at the very low, constant-feed rate. That's an extremely dilute solution of fertilizer that's constantly present so the plants are being constantly fed.
By following these simple steps, you can have a beautiful African Violet that grows well. Just remember that they also need good light, so either put them in a very bright window out of direct sunlight, or use a fluorescent light suspended above the plants. You can either use a plant grow light tube or alternate a warm-white with a cool-white fluorescent tube in each fixture.
download
For comments and questions about this site please contact
coleena@tamu.edu
or e-gregory@tamu.edu
Last Updated:
July 6, 2006