Vicki ( you are Vicki - aren't you?)

most possibly it doesn't get enough light.

I do not know what is in your bloom booster - except it will be heavy on phosphorus. The part that I am worried about is it can have urea - so read the label - and if it has 7-10% of urea - it can be bad for the plant. If it doesn't have that much urea - you can try to use it for watering for some time in a proportion of 1/4 teaspoon per gallon. Better fertilizer is Specialty African Violet Peter's.

Your plant will benefit from repotting it to the fresh and light soil and from moving it to the brighter spot.

If you want to know more about growing violets to die for - there is a site we all love.

We all will be glad to help if you have more questions.

Good Luck

Irina

Here is a link that might be useful: Rachel's Reflections

Vicki, My AV quit blooming after almost 30yrs, 20yrs of being in a southern window with wooden blinds open and it started dying. The neighbors came over to see what was wrong with the flowers in the window? I was heartbroken to say the least.
I FOUND LITTLE BUGS, replanted it in a new pot and new soil. Still no blooms and was still struggling to come back. I wrote to this forum and someone recommended to me to break off the first 3 leaves around the plant. I did, within 2wks I had new buds. I can't say this will help but it is a start.
I have not had the blooms I once had but that may be the age of this plant. All good things come to an end and I will keep fertilizing and feeding it to the end. It does look healthy, just tired. Check for the BUGS. Good Luck Puppy3

If your African Violet is an otherwise healthy robust plant, it's not blooming due to one of two things...not enought light or lack of the nutrients that plants use to set buds. The blooming fertilize you bought might just do the trick. Just don't mix it too strong. Read the mixing directions on the label. I usually use half or less of what the label recommends to a gallon of water. For every third watering use plain water from the top to help flush out the salts. If possible try giving your plant more light.

Hope this helps,
ItsDeb

I get plants from stores all the time, even if they look bad , but the leaves look healthy. The first thing I do is deadhead and repot the soil, using 1-1-1 spahgnum peat, vermiculite, perlite and I have changed to wicking which I learned from this site[and love] and other help from Irina and others on this site. Irina has already given yu a link you can learn from. I also already use the peters specialties 12-36-14 of which there are some on here who thought it had urea , which it does not, I argued long and hard on that issue and now as you can see, it is even recommended. For one plant I recently bought, deadheaded , repotted per above, is now blooming beautifully and will soon show a pic as proof.

i have several violets that appear leggy. the lower leaves have very long stems and are pale. however i moved them to better light and new leaves are starting in the center and look strong. should I remove the long stem leaves and let the plant go to strengthening the new leaves?

Alice,

Yes.

Linda

African Violets live in "colonies" in their natural habitat... . . you can put several plants in one big pot & they will be really happy together: it looks better somehow.. . .. also, if you stick wooden "coffee stir sticks" down along the outside edge of the pot all the way around at say five inch intervals sticking up into the air about two to three inches: any pathogens in the soil will be drawn up into the [sterile] wood and begin to show dark discoloration which you then just lift out and replace with fresh... learnt from work colleague

Penny -

Usually the plants in a wild do not look as attractive as our plants, dirt, caterpillar holes - but they are alive, they bloom and put seeds - so their biological function is fulfilled. It rains, the water runs off, the soil gets leached naturally. Bacteria work on debri from the nearby trees providing nutrients for the plants, birds fly over leaving their droppings all over, also adding to the nutriens. Complete complex ecosystem at works. We cannot reproduce all the complexity of the system - so we repot and fertilize and leach soil. I do not believe that using wood sticks is enough. They will definitely got stained by humic acid of peat, but I do not think they are capable of taking all the salt and acidity out. Leaching works better.

But - whatever works for you...AVs are very flexible and they can survive for long time, even bloom even if they are crowded and not repotted. They won't give you all the performance they are capable of, but they will live. Plus - whet we are dealing is not wild species - we are working with pampered hybrids. So beneficial bird droppings will probably burn ugly holes in the leaves.

Irina, the spoilsport