Propagation
Propagation of African violets is done by leaf, seed, sucker and peduncle
reproduction. Click on the titles below to go directly to the appropriate
paragraph(s):
Leaf
Seed
Sucker
Peduncle
Leaf
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Propagation of African
violets to gain more plants of the same variety is normally done by leaf
propagation. In fact, everyone seems to know that African violet babies
come from leaves. This fact makes African violets relatively unique in the
plant world as species which can be propagated by leaf are uncommon.
To
propagate the variety you have chosen you must take a leaf from the parent
plant. Take the leaf from one of the middle ranks of leaves. Leaves from
the outer row are too old and feeble to give you many plantlets. Those
closer to the centre are too immature. Snap off the leaf close to the base
of the stem. Then take a clean, sharp knife and cut the stem about 3-4 cm.
(1-1/2 in.), less for the small varieties, from the base of the leaf at a 45
degree angle to the stem so that the cut surface faces the same general
direction as the top surface of the leaf.
Old-fashioned water rooting is not recommended.
Roots will grow in water, but these roots are weak and must be totally
replaced by the plantlets when they are transplanted to soil. Medium
to coarse grade vermiculite and perlite mixed and a little activated
charcoal added is an excellent rooting medium. Fill a small pot with such a
medium, moisten it, make a hole for your leaf and tamp the medium around it.
Keep the medium evenly moist with the same fertilized water solution you use
for your plants and you will soon have a clump of plantlets.
When the
plantlets are ready to pot you may break up this clump and put each plantlet
in its own pot of soil. Some growers specify an actual height that the
plantlet should achieve before you break up the clump; others express this
height as a ratio of the plantlet's height to that of the mother leaf. No
need to be so complex. A plantlet should have four clearly developed leaves
before you attempt the operation. Few with less will survive. Tools for
this surgery can include sharp knives but some only use their fingers.
Experience will tell you which works best for you. There are no rules except
to ensure that each plantlet takes its own root system. When growing
plantlets from a variegated leaf be patient. These plantlets are usually all
white at first. Wait until the little leaves show substantial green which
slowly appears. An all white plantlet will not survive.
Seed
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Almost
all flowering plants produce seed and African violets are no exception. Why
do we not use seed to reproduce these beautiful varieties? We will not get
the replicas of the parent that we want. These beautiful hybrids do not come
true to the parent from seed. However, this very variability of
seed-produced offspring is very important as it is through crossing
varieties and producing new plants from the seed that the hybridizers
develop their new varieties. Growing plants from seed is not difficult
except for the fact that the seed is incredibly tiny and hard to work with
and the seedlings are similarly tiny and need patience in their care until a
larger, more familiar size is reached. Moreover, the success ratio in
obtaining satisfactory new varieties is low. Some hybridizers say only one
in one hundred varieties grown this way is sufficiently good enough to keep;
others say it is one in one thousand! Now you can understand why we
propagate the successful varieties by leaf to achieve replicas of the
desirable varieties.
Sucker
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Chimeras,
the plants with pin-wheel striped blossoms, must be reproduced using suckers
to get a replica of the parent plant. They do not come true to the parent
plant by leaf propagation. A sucker is a branch of the parent plant that
will occasionally appear in a leaf axil of the plant. When sufficiently
large, four leaves usually, these suckers can be cut from the parent and
rooted in rooting medium. In no time they will grow into a new plant
identical to the parent.
Peduncle
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Sucker
propagation as described is fine if we do not want to make too many copies
of the parent, but chimeras are very much in demand so another method is
used to obtain plantlets. It is called peduncle propagation. The peduncle
is the main blossom stem of the plant. If you look closely at a peduncle you
will see it has two small leaves just below the point where the individual
blossom stalks branch off. In the axil of each leaflet there is a very tiny
sucker. These suckers can be induced to grow into larger suckers with which
we can work by cutting the blossom stem about 6 mm. (1/4 in.) below the
leaflets and cutting off all the branching blossom stems about 3 mm. (1/8
in.) above the leaflets. The remaining leaflets and their tiny piece of
stalk are rooted in rooting medium. If conditions are right, the almost
invisible suckers will expand and eventually turn into little plantlets
which may be cut from the stalk and rooted.
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