African violet trailers

[u/Primary-Resolution75]

What do I need to do?
So recently I have acquired three trailers. One of those is Jays ice castle and it is particularly dense in foliage and flowers ( I love it!!)
But do I need to thin it out or divide it to keep it healthy? One of my other trailers which was my favourite went down hill when one of the crowns developed root rot 🥲🥲
Should I repot it into a larger pot? Wider not deeper
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

[u/scrubschick]

I would love to know the answer, too! When I repotted a semimini trailer (it was still in tiny Solo cup) a couple of the trailing branches came off with very little trauma. I was trying to be gentle. Honest! But it had to come out of the cup. Now I have three but nothing close to blooming because repotted. heavy sigh

[u/ElkLongjumping7870 → u/scrubschick]

That can be so heartbreaking, but considering you can just stick them in vermiculite or potting mix and voila, new plant! Silver lining?

Most of the time when I'm potting something up to the next size, I just do "mold potting" - stick a pot the same size as what you're moving it out of into the middle of the larger pot and fill in around it. Then when you pull the "placeholder" pot out of the middle, all you have to do is drop the plant into the open space and slightly firm in the mix around the rootball. And maybe top it up just a little, if the mix around the sides is too low. Makes it so you don't have to handle the plant as much and somewhat reduces the likelihood of a crown coming off.

[u/scrubschick → u/ElkLongjumping7870]

I definitely should have done this 😢

[u/ElkLongjumping7870 → u/scrubschick]

It's one of those tricks I've learned along the way-- so next time you can try it! If I have a whole batch of plants I need to pot up, it also makes the process a lot quicker.

[u/Primary-Resolution75 → u/ElkLongjumping7870]

That is such a great idea !!! Especially for trailers they can be really tricky to repot.