My African violet, fantasy gold, isn’t growing much since I bought it in November last year. After some research that I have done and getting advices from other gardeners, I believe that the problem is due to overwatering and wrong size of container. African violet hates soggy soil. And with a container that is too large, the soil can be kept soggy for a very long period of time.
This is my African violet, fantasy gold, in November of last year. Because it was potted in a little plastic container which I found too plain and ugly, I went to a $10 shop to get a new container for my baby plant. But due to my botanical ignorance, I bought a pot too big, thinking that my little African violet would need a bigger pot sooner or later anyways…
But it never grows!
Reviewing the photos that I have taken of it, my African violet actually looks even worse now than when I first bought it a few months ago. Overwatering is probably the key problem. So from now on, I will water my African violet less frequently and see how it will do. If the plant gets better and grows stronger, I may repot it into a smaller container.
I think I over-watered my African Violet too. The only difference is that mine is HUGE compared to yours. Rather than the whole leaves starting to wilt and rot there are large spots placed randomly on various leaves, sometimes half the leaf will go. Then again, some of my leaves are the size of playing cards. I haven’t seen any stems rotting yet. It’s either that or over fertilizing, but mine has about 20 flowers on it and more blooms on the way and none of them are burnt. I have suckers and more blossoms popping up at almost every stem base. So I thought that the plant may need a little more water. I guess I over did it. I don’t want to re-pot the plant since it’s fine so I shoved paper towels or napkins in the drainage holes and sat the whole thing on a thick pile of napkins. It’s drying out the soil by leaching out the water. I’m hoping since only about 3-4 of my leaves have been affected that the damage isn’t too bad.
Hi Stacy,
Our plants will get burnt if we use too much fertilizer. The random spots on the leaves are likely caused by over-fertilized. What kind of fertilizer do you use for your African Violet? Let’s say if you use Hyponex, we should dissolve the fertilizer 1:2000, instead of the recommended 1:1000 stated on the package.
Happy gardening! 🙂
Well the fertilizer I have is designed to be used every time you water. It’s a liquid and you add 7 drops per liter of water. I usually put 6. But when I noticed how much it was growing I went a little crazy on the watering so I think I may have accidentally started to drown it. The top of the soil was fine but when I checked the drainage hole in the bottom it was soaked.
it doesn’t look like the leaves are burnt… they just get these patches that go limp, then turn brown and die. But it doesn’t affect the whole leaf which I find weird.