Radagast -

if you have a way too long neck - it is much better to take the crown off and reroot it - it rejuvenates the plant. Remove large leaves down to 1 ring of half size leaves and the center, leave an inch of the stub, stick it in a pot with humid soil and cover with a baggie. Put the skewers to hold the crown in place and baggie above it. Do not put it at the direct sunlight - and in 2 weeks you can have a fresh rooted plant growing.

In my experience the small rootball means the pot is too big - (should be 1/3 of the leaf span) and the soil is not ideal. Depends what you use for your soil - if it is prepackaged AV soil -add 1/3 of the volume of perlite to it to make it more breathable. Repot your plants at least once a year - it will keep the neck from growing to the size of the palm tree - and the soil - sweet. It gets acid with time.

Good Luck

Irina

PS Watering from the bottom only - is not a good practice. Every so often it is good to give them a warm shower in a sink and let the water run through the soil until the runoff is transparent. Just blot the leaves and let it dry out of the direct sun. And you can water from the top - and dump the extra water from the bottom - also to reduce the salts accumulation. The spotting of the leaves only occures if you use cold water and/or expose wet leaves to the light.

PPS Use fertilizer without urea - so far the best for me is DynaGro - 1/8 teaspoon per gallon per each watering.

PPPS Looks like you are doing very much OK without all these extra things - but you can grow super volets using them.

Hi Radagast,

Irina gave you excellent advice. The link below has good pictorial instructions on repotting your violets to eliminate long necks and also how to decapitate one as Irina suggested in your case. Click on Violets with "necks" and Restoring your violet. Your plant should respond and come back better than it was, so no need to be angry with yourself. I've found African Violets to be incredibly hardy forgiving plants. Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Illustrated How To Lessons

Thanks for the advice!

Hopefully, things will work out!