Experienced flower growers who are serious about breeding violets claim that their passion began from the moment the very first beautiful flower appeared on the windowsill. Immediately there was a desire to expand the collection, purchase other varieties or get new rosettes from an existing plant.
Our article is addressed to those who are just carried away by these plants and do not yet know how to root a violet leaf. Usually, at home, these beautiful flowers are propagated precisely by leaves cut from a vending adult plant. This is the simplest and most common way to grow young rosettes, which is not difficult to master even for beginners in floriculture, who have recently become interested in this amazing culture.
When do violets grow?
The most favorable time for reproduction is summer and spring, when plants have enough light and heat. But in case of urgent need, when, for example, planting a violet from a leaf is the only way to save a rare variety, an experienced grower can carry out his plans during a short daylight hours.
Choose a sheet
To understand howto properly root a violet leaf, first you need to decide what planting material should be. In other words, we will talk about how to choose a sheet for reproduction. If he is sick or weak, you will not be able to grow strong, abundantly flowering offspring. That is why, before rooting a violet leaf in the ground or in water, it is necessary to carefully approach its choice.
Experienced flower growers do not recommend using leaves from the lower tier closest to the ground for propagation. Firstly, they are the oldest, most likely already weakened, and secondly, such leaf blades can be inhabited by fungal spores and bacteria. You should choose a cutting from the second, and better - from the third tier, where the leaves are already well formed, they have reached the size of an adult plant, have a pronounced turgor.
Why does the leaf seem sluggish?
Sometimes planting material seems drooping, having lost elasticity and visual appeal. This can happen when they try to grow a new outlet from a leaf that was purchased at a store, arrived from a nursery by mail or was received from friends. A long road, and sometimes irregular watering, instantly affects the condition of the cutting and leaf plate. Therefore, lovers of indoor plants, who know how violet develops, rooted from a leaf, are recommended for beginners to put the whole leaf intended for reproduction in warm boiled water for a couple of hours, in which you must first add a few crystalspotassium permanganate.
This simple method will help return the leaf to its normal state and disinfect it. After that, the cutting is dried on a napkin, cut with a sharp knife at a distance of about four centimeters from the base of the plate. The cut can be made straight or at a 45° angle.
How to root a violet leaf in water?
The sooner the leaf cut from the plant gets into the water, the faster and easier the process of root formation will be. For beginners, we recommend this particular method of propagating violets from a leaf. How to quickly root a plant? Quite easy. The easiest way to do this is in settled or boiled water. This will allow you to: track the state of the selected sheet; prevent cutting rot; track the formation of roots and the beginnings of new rosettes.
Before rooting a violet leaf in water, the container into which it will be lowered must be thoroughly rinsed, and if it is a reusable dish, then it is better to sterilize it. For this purpose, small cups or bottles made of dark glass are more suitable, which prevents the formation of green algae on the walls of the vessels, as a result of which the water stays fresh longer.
How is rooting done?
Dip the leaf into the water two centimeters, while the cut of the handle should not come into contact with the walls of the vessel, for this it can be fixed with a lid on a jar or a sheet of paper. To exclude the development of microscopic algae and pathogenic bacteria, dissolve inwater tablet activated charcoal.
As water evaporates, add water, but use only clean and settled water. Try to stick to the original liquid level and do not wet the sheet plate. You will see the first roots in two to four weeks. The timing largely depends on the variety of violets and the condition of the planting material.
How to root a violet leaf if instead of roots there are traces of rot on the cut? The sheet must be removed from the water, dried and trimmed in such a way as to completely remove the damaged tissue. Further decay will help prevent all the same coal, but already crushed into powder. They carefully process the cut, after which the sheet is again immersed in water. If traces of decay are found, the water is changed and the container is thoroughly disinfected.
Transplanting into nutrient substrate
After numerous strong roots about two centimeters long appear on the cutting of the leaf, it is time to transplant it into the soil mixture. In some cases, flower growers do not remove planting material from the water until tiny rosettes appear on the handle. They are not added dropwise to the substrate. But in this case, there is a danger of slowing down their development and growth. What is the best way to root a violet leaf that has already taken root?
Prepare small plastic glasses, make holes in them to drain the water. Fill them a third with fine drainage, and then top up with soil. The stalk and leaf cannot be deeply deepened, since the emerging rosettes will make their way tosurfaces. As a result, they will weaken and may not hatch at all. Around the cutting, the soil is slightly compacted, moistened with a sprayer, and in this form the cups are placed in a greenhouse or simply covered with a bag to create a microclimate and retain moisture.
If you grow violets from the leaves of several varieties at the same time, the cups must be signed, indicating the name of the plant and the planting date. Plants are taken out from under the film after the young foliage appears above the soil level. It usually takes at least half a month.
How to root a violet leaf in the ground?
Leaves planted immediately in the ground take root perfectly, and this process goes much faster. This method is indispensable when a leaf from a very young, still fragile plant is used to propagate a violet, or, on the contrary, the planting material has already been received somewhat withering. The same method is also suitable for those who do not know how to root a violet leaf without a cutting. The leaf is selected and prepared in exactly the same way as when rooting in water, but the stalk from miniature varieties is shortened even more, leaving only from a centimeter to one and a half.
If there is no stalk
If the cutting is missing, the leaf is cut into segments and then deepened into the ground. Experienced flower growers resort to this method when they receive a sample of a very rare species and fear that it may not take root. If you divide it into segments, the probability of successful rooting increases.
If you first learn how to root a violet leaf in water, then this method will not causeyou problems. Prepare all the same plastic cups that so often help us out when propagating plants. Fill them a third with drainage. Then fill the cup to the top with soil mixture, and it should be soil mixed with perlite for looseness. This will facilitate the development of small outlets, providing them with free access to air.
Not only perlite, but also sphagnum moss, which retains water and has an antibacterial effect, is included in the soil for violet leaf. How to quickly root a leaf in this case? The soil mixture should be slightly damp. A leaf or its segment is buried in the ground: by five millimeters for miniature varieties and by a centimeter for traditional varieties of violets.
You can plant two or three leaves in one cup, but it is necessary that they be of the same variety. As in the case when cuttings with roots that appeared were planted in the soil, the soil is moistened and the glass is placed in a greenhouse. To prevent mold from appearing on the soil, the plants are periodically aired, but at the same time they are protected from drafts and too cold air.
Many beginners are interested in how to root a violet leaf in peat tablets, and whether this method gives a good result. Yes, due to the nutritious and loose substrate, the plants in this case quickly give roots and young rosettes. And the landing principle remains the same as when landing in the ground.
Conditions for growing violets from leaves
How to rootviolet leaf? What does a young plant need? The most important condition for the success of this process is the constant attention to this tiny plant, which must be provided:
- light nutrient soil;
- stable temperature;
- light day at least 12 hours;
- even and regular watering;
- humidity and draft protection.
Violets feel very comfortable on racks equipped with additional lighting, which provides plants with conditions for growth even in the autumn-winter period.
Split outlets
When rooting a violet leaf, several tiny rosettes with a diameter of three to five centimeters are formed at its base. This indicates that it is time to plant the plants. The children are divided in such a way that each rosette has at least a pair of leaves with a well-developed growth point and several roots.
To make the separation as gentle as possible, you need:
- moisten the ground well;
- take out the plant along with the soil ball;
- carefully clean the roots from the soil.
Children who do not have enough roots should not be planted in the ground, but in a mixture of soil and perlite, like a leaf cutting. Such a plant must be put in a greenhouse for two weeks.
Grown rosettes are planted in a permanent place when their diameter is approximately twice the size of the previous pot. Plants will need containers with a diameter of up to six centimeters. transplantcarried out by the method of transshipment, keeping the earthen room. New soil is added around the circumference and to the bottom.
