African Violet is named so because they have bright flowers in violet color and should not be confused with a type of violet. African Violets are very easy to care for as a houseplant and are a native of Africa namely Kenya and Tanzania and belong to the family Streptocarpus. They are a very good choice for indoor plants as they have beautiful flowers and good foliage.
Why Crowding or Too Many Leaves on African Violet Happens
African Violet plant has an issue that while it likes to grow tight sometimes if it grows too many leaves it can crowd out even the flowers of the plant from blooming and sometimes even stop the growth of the plant this is called crowding. The main problem that happens is that it is a single-crown plant but instead of growing a single crown, it starts growing suckers or new baby plants that can be propagated on its own. If you don’t take care to remove suckers early you will start seeing too many leaves or crowding which is nothing but multiple plants growing inside one pot and the plant instead of flowering will start diverting its energy into growing these new plants leading to the growth of too many leaves. You can fix too many leaves problem by simply pruning the leaves and removing the suckers into their own pot as suckers can grow their own roots which they don’t do as long as they are attached to the main plant instead they generate leaves when attached to the main plant.
How to prune African Violet Leaves
In order to prune this plant you have to remove leaves from the bottom every month and doing this will ensure that your plant will remain healthy as well as ensure that the violet flowers have room to grow. To prune the leaves you can use your hands or a clean scissor and pinch the stem closer using your fingers to the point where it connects to the main plant while ensuring you don’t damage the main plant.
If your plant is looking full and crowded but doesn’t have suckers then move up radially and remove two to four leaves from each row. You can even use these leaves to propagate a new plant.
Pruning African Violet: Things to Take Care
These plants have soft stems so you don’t need complicated tools for pruning you can use your hands with decent fingernails or clean scissors to do the pruning. Unlike other plants, you can prune these plants at any time of the year and there are no restrictions to pruning in spring or summer only. You should prune your plant once every month during the growing season and stop in winter unless you are using grow lights to grow the plants indoors.
Pruning African Violet Flowers
You should remove the flowers as soon as they are spent and wilted as doing so encourages plants to use their energy in creating new flowers. Pruning the flowers improves the appearance of the plant and also improves the airflow around the plant. You can prune the blooms using your hands.
When Should you Prune Your African Violet Plant?
If your plant has more than 5 rows of leaves or more than 15 leaves in total then it is too many leaves and you should prune your plant. Only the first 5 rows of leaves on this plant produce blooms and the more rows of leaves your plant has more it is taking away the energy of the plant from producing flowers to producing leaves. When Counting leaves you should count from the central cluster which is also known as the crown while not counting the crown itself and since each row has leaves you should ideally keep around 12 leaves and a maximum of 15 leaves or 5 rows and prune the rest of the leaves
What is meant by Sucker on African Violet Plant
Sucker is a spot where a new crown is popping up on your plant for it to reproduce asexually. You can identify a sucker by seeing a cluster of leaves growing up at the edge of the plant instead of growing up at the center of the plant. Suckers usually show up beneath a cluster of older leaves joints so you can only identify it when it starts becoming big the best way to identify it is to always keep looking beneath the older leaves of the plant. If a sucker is not removed it will completely take over the growth of the plant and you will have a lot of leaves on the plant but no flowers.
How to Prune African Violet Suckers
As suckers grow from the crown of the plant and not from the stem or the leaves you will have to take your plant out and trace each back to the leaf stem of the plant and then use your hands to either tear the sucker out or use clean shears to cut them off completely from the plant. Be careful not to damage the leaves of the main plant especially the ones at the center
You can plant these suckers into their own pots with soil and potting mix and they can grow out on their own into new plants
Causes of Suckers & Too Many leaves on African Violet
Too Many leaves and growth of suckers in African violet happens essentially because of Nitrogen Overload due to incorrect fertilizer use, too much sunlight, or exposure to higher temperatures above 80 degrees Fahrenheit
Why Should you Prune Your African Violet Plant?
You should prune your plant to ensure it maintains its look and also to ensure that it keeps on flowering otherwise too many leaves will make it stop flowering as discussed above. If you don’t trim your leaves you may end up investing in pests and diseases also so better do your pruning regularly.
Caring For African Violet Plant After Pruning
Usually pruning the plant will simply lead to more flowers however sometimes if you are removing leaves after a gap you will end up with a long bare stem. This exposed central stem after pruning is called a neck and is not a problem but can cause your plant to look droopy or even tilted. If you want to fix the neck the best way is to put the plant more deeply into the pot so that the stem gets buried or you can slice off some of the roots so you can put the plant back into the pot. While doing is retransplanting make sure that humidity is high using a humidifier so that the plant doesn’t feel the stress.
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