Reddit reviews African Violets

Thank you very much. African violets can bloom constantly if given the right conditions but I would guess mine bloom every other month. I'm not an expert but I try to get them to bloom often. When they bloom the flowers can last several weeks as well, making them very desirable.

I sometimes rotate mine from my growing area, to my dining table when they bloom, where the lightning is less perfect for them. The right amount of light is crucial to AVs to help them bloom, but I like showing them off and having them in the rest of the house is nice. This way they bloom in my growing area, and then in the rest of my house the blooms fade while I show them off.

About separating them, I'm not sure if you mean offshoot crowns, or multiple plants growing from a leaf. For offshoot crowns, I actually only have one that does that, which I received as a gift very recently, just a few months ago. I decided to take the offshoot and try and plant it as its own plant, so I'll see how that goes.

For multiple plants coming off a leaf you've planted, yes I separate them, once they are sizeable and easy to handle. To me an African violet should have a single crown, otherwise it looks messy.

I also have cut old 'stalky' plants shorter and replanted them with success. I have two plants I did this to just a week or two ago, which are recovering nicely.

For watering, you can easily add your fertilizer to the water you soak your plants in. I would recommend occasionally, maybe 1 in 5 waterings, to use plain unfertilized water. This will help eliminate too much build up of fertilizer. The issue you may have is you're soaking the plant in a large amount of water, you should mix your fertilizer into the water based on that volume. Meaning you'll use/waste more fertilizer faster.

But ultimately for me, a smaller dosage than the recommended amount of fertilizer is more effective for me. I also water from the top with fertilizer mixed in, and occasionally just use plain water.

Edit: also everything I learned about African violets, I learned from this book by Tony Clements.