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SHOW NOTES
Welcome to Episode 3. – It’s All About Sports – and I Don’t Mean Baseball! Today we’re going to talk about African violets sporting.
Welcome to my Sunroom
- I’m glad so many of you enjoyed the “Shorty” of the Illinois show last week. I’m going to see about doing more of that!
- Great discussion here and also in the FB Groups about potting mix! I hope you guys caught some of that!
- Some amazing Growing Spaces have been shared – I hope you are enjoying seeing them. Don’t be shy!! Share yours!!
- Same thing goes for your plants. We’ve seen some lovely plants on the website!!
Tips and Treasures
- Questions about Sports covered in this episode:
- From Douglas: I put down a leaf of Alexandra, and the babies are coming up with both red stems and white stems. This has happened before with another plant and it affected the look of the blooms as well. Are both of these plants “true” and can they be shown under the plants name? Or is the plant with the red stems a sport?
Photo 1 – N. Alexandra
Photo 2 – Leaf-pot of N. Alexandra with one true plantlet and one Sport
- From MrsJohnMT: Do you have any opinions on why there are so many sports during propagation? In my experiences, I have many more varieties not blooming true, some babies having light foliage among the babies with dark foliage as per the hybridizer’s description. When I began with AVs in the mid-80’s, I had very few off-type babies produced by leaf propagation. Sometime in the late 90’s, I began to notice a few among my babies. I realize some of the newer cultivars, with newer fantasy markings, color combinations, blossom traits, etc. MAY be less stable? But several of the cultivars I’ve had since the very beginning, and which produced 100% normal offspring in the first ten years, began to produce an occasional off-type baby. My soil recipe, fertilizer, water, lighting, etc. has continued with very, very little change. Any opinions?S. I have learned to look at the AVSA list of Known Sports. There are varieties that have already been registered as a sport of another cultivar. For example, Candy Swirls sported to a solid pink over darker foliage… all other traits were identical. The AVSA lists Colette as a sport of Candy Swirls which sounds the same as my sport. The AVSA list lists two other sports of Candy Swirls, so that tells me that particular variety does produce sports for other people.
Photo 3 – Candy Swirls and Sport
- Resources
- AVSA List of Known Sports
- AVSA Growing Tip
- And the Michael Keaton movie was Multiplicity.
A Look at the Stands
- We’re about 3 weeks out from National and things are coming in to bloom! I’m in the process of putting everything on reservoirs.
Get the Bail Money Ready
The spring show season is beginning to wind down. More details on the following shows can be found on the AVSA website – AVSA Events
05/11/2018 to 05/12/2018
- Billings Bloomers African Violet Club, Billings, MT
05/12/2018
- Edmonton African Violet & Gesneriad Society, Edmonton, Alberta
- Annapolis Valley African Violet Society, Nova Scotia, Canada
- African Violet Club of Burlington County, Medford, New Jersey
Keep Moving Forward
Thank you for joining me.
Remember, you can leave questions using the “Ask Annie” form in the Show ‘n Tell tab, in the comments below, or on our Facebook page, All About African Violets. If I don’t know the answer, I know someone who will :-)
That was fun…. and informative! :)
I enjoyed learning about ‘cut cell crying out for help’ and the neighboring cells responding by producing babies.
That would explain all the times I’ve seen a baby plantlet appearing on the back or center of a leaf, and other odd places.
Somehow/somewhere there was damage to the leaf, and a cell responded by producing a new plantlet. :)
Good Luck at National… and we will get to see the ‘Ready to Show’ plants next time! :)
Great episode, Annie. Very interesting information about sports and one of the appeals of African violets is this occasional gene switch. When I see a leaf baby that appears changed, lighter or darker than the others I’m always very curious to see how it will bloom. Your Xerox copy analogy of the reason we get sports, especially from older varieties, was spot on. Looking forward to hearing about and seeing your pictures from the national convention.