Potting Up African Violet Leaf Cuttings

Oh, and welcome to HealthyHouseplants.com, where we teach you all about gardening in the great indoors. Today, we’re going to have a follow-up on our last video and also pot up a little baby African violet that was grown from a leaf cutting put in water. This is the one that we have in the last video, where I showed you how to do a leaf cutting. You’ll see that it has some really nice roots there now. It’s not ready yet to be potted up and done into potting soil, but it is getting there. This one, however, which I showed you last time, had little baby leaves. This now has bigger, adolescent-sized baby leaves, and we’re going to pot these up today. I’ll show you how to do that.

Once you get some roots and you get the leaves, you’ll see that this has died back. I left that on there for a reason. I wanted you to see that you don’t want to let this go all the way to where the leaf has died back. What you want is the leaf to look something like this, where it looks like it’s starting to die, and you’ve got fairly good-sized leaves on there.

Okay, so we’re going to pot up both. This one should be okay, but this one definitely will be okay, so we’ll see what goes on when we get to that part. But first of all, what I want to do is we want to start with a nice, light soil that has some good drainage, and this has some perlite in it. Pumice is also good. I’m adding here a little bit of our Green Gourmet Houseplant Food, which is great for starting plants and also for growing plants. You can get that one at the website.

You want to moisten the soil before you plant anything. When you’re potting, you don’t want the soil dry, so when you plant and then go to water, the soil is going to go down, and the plant will be too low in the pot. When you have a plant that’s too low in the pot, you’re going to end up with things like root rot and also pests and diseases because there’s not enough air circulation going on.

Okay, now I have prepared both of these pots. This is about the size you want for these little babies. You could go a little bit smaller too, but I wouldn’t go any bigger, however. Now, this is isopropyl rubbing alcohol. This is what you want to use on the top of these pots too. Okay, and then let this sit for 5-10 minutes and rinse it off. That will kill off any potential pathogens that might be in the pots because you don’t want any pathogens, especially in reused pots. If they’re new pots, just rinse them with water, but if they’re reused pots, do spray them. You don’t want any pathogens that could give these little babies a disease when you’ve done all this work to get them to this point.

Okay, now we did these. I already prepared them with the alcohol. Okay, so we’re going to fill this guy up to about here, do the same with the other one. This is called tamping, tamping the pot, and getting it to go down a little bit. We’re going to do more firming in a minute, but that just gets it to a good level. You see, about that level is good for this smaller plant. You want to very gently pull these guys out, and we’re going to get some scissors. Okay, this one you see easily took itself off its mother leaf. The mother leaf is here. There’s a little bit of root on that, but not much. But essentially, two different plants.

You could keep them together. I would in this size pot, but I’m going to separate them. Once they start growing, it’ll be easier to separate them when they’re bigger and ready to be repotted. Take something like this, or you can make a little hole and go down as far as possible because you want a nice root system. Actually, what I’m going to do is put this guy in alone. We’re saving this one to go with the other one.

Okay, make a hole almost all the way to the bottom for these roots and nestle it in there very gently because these are little, very tender roots. You can use this again to push them down very gently. Okay, now you don’t want this too low in the pot, so you’re going to want to add a little bit more soil. It looks like it probably would have been better with a little bit more. I’ll do that on the next one.

Okay, now we want the soil, when we’re done, to be in this small of a pot about an eighth of an inch underneath the rim of the pot itself. Do you see I’m pushing that down? Make sure you haven’t buried any leaves. This looks like this was from something else, but it’s not dead. Okay, so tamp it down gently, very gently. Then you want to water very carefully but get it nice and moistened. Got that there, and then we’re going to do the same with this other one.

What you see is on the dead plant, so we want to remove that dead mother part of the plant, at least a big portion of it. Got a lot of root on this guy, and we have this other little one too. Since these are single leaves, I’m going to put them both in the same pot and put more soil in here. Make two holes for each of these. Now, having this much root is a little bit problematic. I’m hesitating to cut it because there’s so much of it, and it’s good for the plant. You could cut some, but it’s better if you don’t. It’s not that great if you have twisting, so it’s kind of a toss-up. It should be okay, though, this way.

This guy over here has a lot less root, so he’ll be fine. Nice big hole to slide it into, there we go. More soil around it. Make sure if you’re a little low, you can gently pull and then add more soil, and that will lift it because you do want it as erect as possible. Now you see this little guy has enough little leaves that will start growing now that we’ve got it potted up here.

Okay, so now we’ve got these two cute little African violets. We’re going to water them. Now, the next thing you would want to do is put them in some sort of dome to give them some humidity for about a week while they acclimate, especially if you have the heater on and it’s drying the air. What you can do is take a milk jug or a water jug, cut off the top and bottom, set it on top, and open up the lid where you would pour the water to give it a little air circulation periodically. Put it back on to keep the moisture in there, and that will keep them nice and moist while they start to develop their roots.

So that is how you repot these. We will revisit them in the future to see how these little guys are doing. Thank you very much for watching, and enjoy gardening in the great indoors.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best method for propagating African violets from leaf cuttings?

To propagate African violets, take a healthy leaf cutting and place it in water. The leaf will develop roots over time, and eventually, small leaves will grow. Once the leaves reach adolescent size and the roots are strong, the plant can be potted in soil.

When should I transfer my African violet from water to soil?

Transfer the African violet to soil once the roots are well-developed, and the baby leaves have grown to a decent size. It’s important not to wait too long, or the leaf may begin to die back.

What type of soil should I use for repotting African violets?

Use a light, well-draining soil with added perlite or pumice. The soil should be moistened before planting to prevent the plant from sitting too low in the pot.

How do I prepare pots before using them for repotting?

Spray the pots with isopropyl rubbing alcohol to kill any pathogens. If you are using new pots, simply rinse them with water. For reused pots, make sure to sanitize them thoroughly.

How deep should I plant my African violet in the pot?

Ensure the plant is not too low in the pot, which can cause root rot and poor air circulation. The soil should be about an eighth of an inch below the rim of the pot.

How do I care for newly repotted African violets?

After repotting, water the plants gently and place them in a humid environment for about a week. You can create a humidity dome by cutting the top and bottom off a milk jug and placing it over the plants with a slight opening for air circulation.

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