| THE RIGHT LIGHT FOR AFRICAN VIOLETS Nancy Robitaille
Mrs. John's Window - Lace Curtain Diffuses Sunlight Often someone asks, "Why isn’t my AV flowering?" The simple answer usually is another question. "How much light do you give it?" If you raise your plants by window light, you need to have a bright window with no sun. Sun will burn the leaves within a few days. Bright light from any window is acceptable. In the north parts of the country, growers put their violets in a western exposure but in the southern US this would probably kill the plant. Generally speaking an east-facing window would be perfect. Remember to turn your plant a quarter turn every two days so the plant grows the same on all sides. 
Nancy's Light Garden If you are lucky enough to have a florescent light garden you should have no trouble at all getting plants to bloom. Most growers set timers on their light stands for 10-12 hours a day. Violets need at least 8 hours of darkness to start the process of photosynthesis. This is just the plant absorbing light then in darkness turning that energy into sugar to feed the plant. Technically a plant should bloom on the light energy with no fertilizer at all, although it probably wouldn’t bloom very much. Some growers take their plants to show and this means they have to adjust their lights to provide more energy for a huge head of flowers at a certain date.When you take plants to show, you increase the lights on your light garden to as much as 16 hours a day. Light plus fertilizer and a lot of TLC will produce beautiful show plants. For an in-depth article on lights, look HERE. Return to the Newbie's Nook | 
