I'm relatively new to AVs myself, meyermike, but I seem to recall that while spidermites can attack them, it's other mites that are more likely to cause problems. Broad mites and cyclamen mites are the two that are problematic.

AVs have several potential pests. I've quickly learned that there are several things important when growing them:

1. Always isolate new AVs from your existing ones. Some people put them in separate rooms, others actually quarantine them in zip-top baggies. Isolate them for at least a month or two, and up to a year depending on how many AVs you have and how much damage an outbreak of something could cause.

2. Get to know the common problems: mites, soil mealies, leaf mealies, thrips, aphids, powdery mildew. Some people add springtails, others think they are just a nuisance and ignore them unless they get out of control. Also, learn how to control each of these.

3. Follow good growing hygiene. Keep good air circulation, water appropriately (not too much, but never letting them dry out for more than a day), groom them to remove dead leaves, etc.

I also recently had a conversation with a person in a local AV club. She said she wished we would all stop using chemicals as preventives. She said that we're contributing to making the insect/pathogens resistant to the treatments by doing that. It made sense to me so I will not be trying that and will instead just treat things when it happens.

The Optimara website has a LOT of info on pests and pathogens and I've learned an incredible amount reading there.

Nice to see another Container Forum person here.

Hi,
I agree with what LO has said for the most part, isolation of new plants is the key to prevention of diseases. I think however that isolation of a plant over 6 months is excessive. I have found that the three major problems are foliar and soil mealies, thrips and powdery mildew. The key to growing good violets is consistency. By that I mean to treat the plants the same way all the time. Water on schedule and fertilize on schedule. This plus keeping your plant area clean and checking them every time you water to get rid of any dead or dying leaves as well as keeping the plants trimmed to a symmetrical shape.
Remove dead blossoms as soon as they fade and check for diseases every time you are by your plants.
Fred in NJ

As someone with a few plants, I am with Fred - a couple of months is all I will isolate. But, I have read of growers who have hundreds (if not thousands) of AVs who do isolate for 6 months, even a year, because they feel it can take that long for some things to show. I haven't a clue if that is correct or not, but they feel it's important. I suppose that if I even have a problem and it was because 2 months of isolation wasn't enough, I'll potentially get more stringent. For now, 2 months is easy enough and I've not had any problems yet...

Thanks for the great advice..
Very imformative...I will definately read the other stuff..

If you ever fail in the prevention department, and it does get mites or other insect, is there anything safe that will not harm the leaves to spray, since I have heard they are very sensitive....

I use neem oil on all my plants along with alchohol..Is this safe even though it's a natural pesticide on their leaves?

Thanks again..:-)

Hi,
Neem oil is a good preventive for thrips and foliar mealies. Marathon, which is a systemic that is worked into the soil is good for soil mealies. If I found mites on any of my plants, I would take a leaf or two off, pot them up and isolate them for a mininmum of 6 weeks. Even after that I would watch them carefully for signs of mites.
Fred in NJ
PS. AV's are definately not sensitive plants. They are tough little buggers that sometimes struggle to survive in spite of what we do to them. Just make sure that your plants receive constant care and you will be rewarded with beaautiful blooms.

I agree with Fred that AVs have a bad rap for being sensitive. Their leaves actually LOVE having a bath - they just don't want water sitting on them, especially cold water - it will spot them. I have been brutal to my AV plantlets and propagating leaves. I am always taking them out of soil, looking at them, repotting, etc. If I did that to many other plants, they'd die instantly, lol.

Watering is specific - they need a very narrow range of wetness - too much and you get rot. But, they can even handle being quite dry (but I find mine do better if I let the soil get to dry for one day, then water, simply because it's too difficult to rehydrate the soil.

MM, I am trying one of my young plants in Al's gritty mix. I'll let you know how it works. The rest are all in a peat/perlite/bit of vermiculite mix. If it dries out, rewetting is a bugger.

Per the chemicals, as Fred said, alcohol is fine as is Neem. I used hydrogen peroxide recently because I don't keep bleach in the house and I had part of a propagation leave getting moldy. I cut out the mold, dipped it in hydrogen peroxide and repotted it. It's just fine.

I wonder how a african violet does in the grity mix lathyrus.. I have been using this for many plants that LOVE it.. But not for violets...Please let me know how yours does...

Thanks for all your help, along with Freds...Man would I love to see some pics of your plants..They must be beautiful...

Fred's are beautiful...I just have leaves mostly, lol. I just started a few months ago, so I've about 50 leaves that are in various stages of propagation. I've a couple that I could separate soon and others that haven't even rooted yet.

I will let you know how the gritty mix works. Al says he's grown AVs in it before. I have two young plants that are same variety. I put one in the 1:1:1 AV mix and one in the gritty mix. I put the slightly smaller one in the gritty mix and a month later, it's still slightly smaller, but growing at the same pace; they've each added two leaves. I won't know about a root difference until I transplant which will be in 6 to 8 months, probably.