African violets are small houseplants that produce clusters of white, purple color flowers over frizzy leaves. They can easily bloom in low light conditions and medium to bright indirect light also works well for their healthy growth.
Growing African violets from leaf cuttings is one of the easiest ways popular one these days to form new plants. Caring this plant is also quite easy and they propagate readily through division or leaf cuttings.
Let’s see step by step process to grow this cute little plant from leaf cuttings and even how to care African violets in this article.
Growing African Violets From Leaf Cuttings:
Propagating from leaf cutting is so popular because it is very easy and successful. If you want to try this process, make sure to do this in spring season.
Step 1:
Using a sterile knife or scissor, cut down healthy leaf from the plant along with its stem from base of the plant.
Step 2:
Take a small pot and fill it with rooting medium. Now place the cutting in a one inch deep hole in potting mix.
Step 3:
Cover the pot with plastic bag and secure it with a rubber band and create a green house environment so that it gets some fresh air as well.
Step 4:
Place this pot in direct sunlight by keeping the soil moist. You can see roots within 3-4 weeks and the plant of those leaves can be seen in 6-7 weeks.
Step 5:
Once you see the plant, slowly separate those small new plants carefully cutting or pulling them apart. Each small plant will give you another new plant.
Growing African Violet In Water:
Water propagation is another easy method to grow African violet from leaf cuttings.
All you need to do is, take a healthy leaf from the mother plant and place in a baby food jar which is filled with water.
To keep the leaf above water level, add a piece of wax paper across the top of the jar, use an elastic band to hold it.
While the leaf stays dry on top, but the stem of it reaches the water. Roots will grow and eventually it would be potted up and placed on the top of windowsill with the rest of plants.
How To Care For African Violet Plant:
- Always use room temperature water for this plant and keep the soil moist.
- Clean the leaves using a wipe cloth to make them look fresh.
- Thin, dark leaves and leggy stems indicate you that the plant is getting too much of light and light green or bleached leaves indicate too much light.
- If they overgrown from the pot, shift them to larger pots, but keeping African violets slightly root bound can encourage them to bloom.
- Make sure to fertilize the plant for every 2 weeks with high phosphorous plant food, start fertilizing when the plant appears to need an extra boost for their healthy growth. Don’t over fertilize the plant that might result in death of it.
- Many varieties of this plant mostly prefer warm conditions even though some can tolerate cooler conditions. Just keep them away from drafty windows in winter.