Janice H. asks Annie:
Q I have great difficulty in growing miniature violets. There are so many that I would like to grow, but shy away from buying them as they seem to die on me so easily. What is the secret to growing them? In the past I’ve treated them the same as my standards.
A I sure wish I could answer this, but – as you probably already know, minis and I don’t always speak the same language. What I’ve been told from friends who do grow them well, is that they really need to be repotted regularly on a schedule, every 3-4 months.
I hope this helps,
Annie :-)
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Hi Janice,
I grow both standards and minis/semis. You can see some of my plants in Annie’s short video at the end of the Illinois African Violet Society – Behind the Scenes post. I won the AVSA collection (3 minis) which included the Best Miniature. I also won Second Best Miniature, which you can see around the middle of the video; Annie pauses briefly in front of a variegated mini with a large bunch of hot pink/coral flowers.
I grow my standards and minis/semis exactly the same with one exception. By “the same” I mean they live in the same room with the same temperatures and humidity, they are potted in the same mix and they receive exactly the same concentration of fertilizer in the water.
The one big exception is lighting. I don’t know why this is but minis/semis require significantly more light than standards. Without sufficient light their metabolism is too slow, meaning they won’t use the water in the pot as efficiently, leading to rot, they will experience fertilizer build-up in the soil, they won’t have the energy to fight diseases like powdery mildew, they will grow slowly and bloom very little if at all.
Generally they are happiest about 2/3rds the distance from the lights as a standard. For cool white and warm white bulbs, recommendations are typically 10-12 inches away from the lights for standards, 6-8 inches for minis/semis. I personally use Gro-Lux bulbs, which have a higher output of red and blue wavelengths. I grow my standards 16 inches away from the lights (tops of plants to bottom of bulbs) and my minis/semis 10 inches away.
If you grow in a windowsill, put the minis right up next to the window and the standards behind them.
The other possible problem can be pot size. Sometimes people pot minis/semis in pots that are too large, leaving the soil soggy for long periods of time, leading, again, to rot. I grow my minis in 2.25 inch pots and my semis in 2.5 inch pots.
Hope this is useful,
Tim