After overfertilizing my African violet – Frosted Denim – and had most of its flower buds burnt, I have learned my lesson well.  Nowadays, I don’t fertilize it very often, maybe once every 2 weeks.  In fact, I didn’t fertilize my African violet at all in January and February.  And I always dilute the fertilizer solution to half the suggested dosage before use.

Today, I actually spend less time and attention on my African violet.  Yet, nevertheless, the plant has kept blossoming since December last year.  Although now there are less flowers blooming than its highest peak in January, new flower buds keep growing and blooming

Real Life Example of Bad Fertilizing Practice

A few weeks ago, my African violet – Frosted Denim – was growing beautifully with many flower buds. Since African violets like to be continually fertilized during their blooming period, I diligently fed mine in a regular basis with diluted fertilizer. African violets are happy with weak fertilizer, so I always feed my African violets with diluted fertilizer solution at half of the strength recommended by the fertilizer manufacturer. Everything was fine, until one day when I was left with some diluted fertilizer that I used for my Pachystachys lutea (Lollipop Plant) which was extra-strong (stronger strength than what was recommended on the label). Since I didn’t want to waste, I used the leftovers to feed my African violet… and that’s how the tragedy began…

I actually diluted the extra strength fertilizer solution a bit before using it on my African violet. But since I have got the flower buds burnt, I guess the fertilizer solution wasn’t diluted enough… or I might have fed my African violet once too often.

Arrggghh, I should know better than this!

Here is how my African violet looks after a few months  – My Keep-Blossoming African violet

As a curious gardening novice who like to try different things, I decided to take up this challenge and separate the crowns. It has been almost three months since I separated the crowns. Seeing that the separated crowns of my African violets are now growing healthily, I consider this “operation” as a successful one. And here, let me share with you how I did it.

This was my African violet three months ago. As you can see, the plant was very messy, jam-packed with its leaves shooting to all directions.

First, I allowed my African violet to dry slightly so the compost was loose and the leaves were rubbery. This helps preventing the roots and leaves from breaking easily when one tries to separate the crowns.

I picked out all the unhealthy leaves from the plant. You can also do this after removing the plant from its pot.

Then I removed the plant from its pot, shook away any excess compost and exposed the root ball.

After some careful examination, I found two distinct root systems. With a clean sharp knife, I cut between the root systems. I feel like a doctor doing a surgery.

Since there were existing roots on the crowns, both of them could be placed directly into fresh compost. If the crown is an offshoot without its own root system, then it is better to first be placed in water to permit root development.

The two African violets, which I have separated there months ago, are growing strong and healthily now.

Yes!  After repotted my Ness Fantasy Gold to a smaller container for about six weeks, I have finally found a sign of life!  My plant is finally growing!  This has confirmed that my guess is right.  Not only did I overwater my African violet, the ridiculously huge pot probably had caused rotten roots in the plant. Lucky that I have taken the correct action early enough, else my plant would have been killed by my silly ignorance (again…).

While a smaller container is the major factor that brings life back to my plant, the weather now in Hong Kong probably helps much as well.

It seems like everything just grows in spring

I have bought a little Ness Fantasy Gold (Saintpaulia) in October last year. Once after I brought my African violet home, I repotted the houseplant into a bigger container and watered it whenever the surface of the soil feels dry.

Yet, despite of my constant care, my African violet has never grown at all in this half a year! In fact, instead of growing bigger and stronger, my African violet is getting weaker, with discolored, yellowish leaves that, at some point, may droop and die young

After some researches online and getting advices from other gardeners, I have learned that the big container of my plant may be the root cause of this problem. Originally, I thought that a garden container too large wouldn’t hurt. Since I would need to repot my houseplant later anyways, I could just pot my African violet into a larger container now and save myself some work later. Wrong thinking!

Lesson Learned

Only now I have learned the importance of the size of garden containers. A container too big will lead to rotten roots. The extra soil in the big container will keep staying wet all the time, causing rotten roots in the plant.

I have just repotted my Ness Fantasy Gold into a smaller container – a much, much smaller one.

It is actually quite embarrassing when I put the two containers side-by-side, showing how silly I was using such an oversize container for my little African violet…

Hope my little African violet will survive. I am crossing my fingers now

Related Post:Why My African Violet Isn’t Growing Much?
I once guessed that it might be a problem of overwatering.  I got part of it right.  But I missed the key factor – the size of the garden container – the reason why the soil had been kept wet all the 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.