Potting Up Rooted Leaves.

13 years ago

I know it is pretty basic,but how do you pot up leave that have been rooted in water, and now have a bunch of babies at the root zone?

I have somehow manage to root 3 of my most expensive and difficult ones to get, a LOT of them,and they are all rooted and had nice tiny babies on most of the stem ends. BUT how deep do i plant them? And into what type of potting medium? Soil, vermiculite, perlite, or what? Do I put them in just deep enough to cover the roots and a tiny bit of stem, or bury the stem and babies an inch or two, or how deep?

I was thinking of using an egg carton as a planting 'tray', the egg holders seem to be a perfect depth to plant them, is it a good idea? Or could I use those tiny plastic Solo cups that I get a lot of my violets in,from EBay sellers.

Do I cut off the 'mother leaf' or leave it on? Some of the leaves are rotting, the stems are firm and the roots and babies are getting big, but the leaf part of the rooted leaves are starting to rot. Is this normal? I thought they needed the 'mother leaf' to grow. But if they are rotting, shouldnt i cut the rotted part off? How do I support the mother leaf, if it stays on when I plant them? I mean they will tip over from the weight of the leaf, so do I cut them off or in half or what? Advise please.

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Comments (4)

nwgatreasures
13 years ago
hello aveo5 and welcome to the group.

1:1:1 soil ratio (peat, vermiculite, perlite) I recommend small plastic solo bathroom cups with some holes burned (saudering iron) in the bottom and sides and wicking or watering.

In the future, I would recommend that you root your leaves in this medium from the very beginning. Leaves rooted in water are weak and won't hold up very long in the soilless mix used for growing. Once you plant these leaves with the water roots in the mix, they will *still* have to develop new roots for that growing environment.

As far as how far down, I like to make the distance from the bottom of the leaf to the end of the stem (open part) about a thumb's width. I push that cut part all the way down into the mix until the bottom edge of the leaf hits the dirt. I stick the stem straight down into the dirt and do not do it at an angle. The root system develops strong and deep and the plant grows stable, imo.

There's different ways to do it but that's my recommendation. I'd cut off those water roots to the best length on the stem and place them in the potting medium I described above :)

Good Luck and please stick around,
Dora
juliebees2009
13 years ago
hi,
i always do my violets the way my granny showed me and she had room fulls now not all of hers looked great and ready for a showing LOL but she could grow em.....O.K. I was showed to cut the good strong leaves off as many as I wanted and then put hem in a glass of warm water after say 6 weeks or so it would have roots make sure they were long and then pot them as I wanted ie., all in one pot or divied them and mine do just fine she used a home made fertlizer and i know it had egg shells in it and that was it the ones she loved the most were the prettiest. guess what when she died i got all her violets :)..sorry for the typos in a hurry
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aveo5
Original Author
13 years ago
Well I guess i am going with the Solo tiny cups and vermiculite,its the depth that I am concerned about, planting to deep,and the babies wont be able to get through the vermiculite. Guess best aim will have to do.
nwgatreasures
13 years ago
Depth can be good. do you want a 'shallow' root system that is not stable and allows the plant to be wobbly or do you want a deep one that is healthy and stable?

I promise, they will come up through all of that. ;)

Dora