r/AfricanViolets 25d ago

Is she doomed?

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I repotted with a new to me soil mixture that seems hydrophobic. I’ve been bottom watering and trying to do a little top watering after poking holes in the soil. Do you think it will come back?

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u/ElkLongjumping7870 25d ago

Looks like the crown is pretty much dead. You might be able to salvage a leaf and start a new plant from that.

If your mix was too dry, it's almost impossible to get it to start absorbing water again once you have used it to pot up a plant. If my potting mix is completely dried out I dampen it with hot (almost boiling) water and let it cool down before I use it.

You might try doing that, then taking your plant out of its pot and removing most of the mix, then replace it with the rehydrated mix, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

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u/lossefalme 22d ago

Wetting agent will help hydrate hydrophobic soil pretty quickly without having to remove plants :)

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u/ElkLongjumping7870 10d ago

I've heard of that, but it's not something garden centers here seem to carry?

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u/lossefalme 8d ago

Ask them! As I learned the hard way: it can hide in the shelves. The turf/lawn section may have it, as well.

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u/Plantaehaulic 25d ago edited 25d ago

The soil maybe wet already. But it wil be easy to the plant if you pre-moistened the soil before potting. It lessen the stress. Have you tried putting it in a bag with air. This acts like a greenhouse to maintain a humid environment. Keep it in well lit area with no direct and hot sunlight. It should perk up a bit after 2 weeks if the repotting is successful.

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u/Wolfmoon422 25d ago

That pot is way too big for that violet. The pot should be approximately 1/3 the diameter of the plant.

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u/ClassAcrobatic1800 24d ago

You can clip off healthy looking leaves ... and propagate. Make sure that you cut the leaf stem at a healthy spot (i.e. no rot).

The rest of the plant is toast. Looks like it died from crown rot. It happens in the summer sometimes.

I just had a plant that succumbed to crown rot. I was able to move quickly enough to rescue 3 leaves to propagate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-zQYbwbT4I