Hi cookie,the brown spots may be due to too much light or it also could be due to spilling water on the leaves.Overwatering can cause brown spots too. African violet leaves don't like to be splashed with cold water this can cause brown spots.These are the most common reasons I can think of right off. Angela

Hi Cookie, how do you water your AV? Do you water them like you water other house plants from top? If so, that might be the reason for the brown spots. You need to water them from the bottom or at least from below the leaves.

Hello, I water my plants from below. I dont think they have ever got water on the leaves. Though I do remember I watered them with warm water and it was very cold that day so by evening maybe the water had turned cold. It would be around 60F. Is there a way to remove these spots? or should I cut the leaves?

Hi Cookie,

Poor guys. It could be a number of things. When you water from below how long do you let plants sit in water? It should be no longer than 30 mins. No soft water, and they say tap water should sit 24 hrs before using and be room temp. In cold temps. violets don't need a lot of frequent watering. In pic. soil looks wet. Are violets sitting near cold window? Put cardboard or something between window and violets on cold nights. Are they under lights?
Who knows what happened to them in transit. Jarred around, cold temps? They could be in shock. Have you repotted them, yet? I'd probably check the roots and repot if you haven't already in a 1-1-1-soil less mix just moist. Put in baggies and seal or plastic containers. They can live in those for a long time without watering just check on them till new growth comes. When checking roots if some are brown, mushy, cut off and leave healthy roots. repot in small 3oz.solo cups. Plants look small can't tell from pic.
Fertilizer - very little. Cold weather they need less. Use 1/8tsp. to a gal. of water. Do you have other violets? Keep these violets isolated.
Unless leaves are just totally mushy leave on, if you start taking off leaves you wouldn't have much left. There's nothing unfortunately you can do about existing brown spots. You just have to wait for these to grow out and then take off.
I probably didn't hit anything right here, if I was going to try something it would be water less. Good luck to you. Keep us updated on their progress.

Mac

Hello Mac,
thank you for the long answer. Yes the violets are under lights on a rack. I have not repotted them yet. Yes the soil does seem pretty moist, they were sitting in a little water overnight. I think thats why they turned brown. I will wait till the soil becomes dry and not water them for now. Today they look much better. I will surely keep an update.
thanks once again

I moved in Dec. and where I am living they do have softened water but they use potassium, not salt to soften. My violets have not received the care I owe them but they are blooming pretty good.

Mary

Hello ,

I hope you can help finding out what my African Violet has . There is brown spots on the middle of the leaf . The spots gets bigger and dies out . I'm water from the bottom . They seems to spread on the plant.

Thank you,

Joann

Hi joann ...

A few years ago I was experiencing a problem similar to yours. The problem turned out to be caused by Chloramine, an additive to my city-supplied water. Chloramine is being used in the place of Chlorine in many water processing sites because it more effectively keeps your pipes clean.

Unfortunately, the chemical can be fatal to African Violets. You should be able to check with your municipal water provider to see if they use Chloramine. If so, the best approach is to switch to using jugged/bottled "Spring Water" from your grocery ... or rain-water (i.e. anything but your tap water). Unfortunately, it seems that you would need a quite sophisticated filtering system to filter out Chloramine.

Since I've switched to "Spring Water", my African Violets have significantly improved, whereas, typically, I would lose up to a dozen during the summer months (summer heat and Chloramine seem to work together against your AV's).

The good news is ... if it's Chloramine, it's an easy fix, ... though you will likely need to repot your violets to get rid of the Chloramine accumulation in the potting mix.

Good luck ...