"African Violets Gifts form Nature" book says "To rechannel as much energy as possible to the newly-formed plantlets take a pair of scissors and snip off one-half of the mother leaf. Do not do this until you see the first signs of a plantlet forming."
I myself used to cut the tips off before planting, but now I'm thinking that it might be too much stress for the leaf, so now I cut the tips off when I think the plantlets are growing too slowly. But most of the time the leaf will root and produce plantlets either way, and I didn't do any experiments to compare which way is faster, probably someone here did, maybe they'll reply.

Thrips is singular or plural and rhymes with chips.

I saw a thrips.

Many thrips may carry seriously deadly virus germs.

I usually cut off the tips or the sides of a very large leaf before planting. This is only for convenience because I would likely miss it if I waited until babies started arriving.

Nancy

I think it is the only way to handle LARGE leaves - we want to have babies sooner - so we limit the size of the pot to a solo cup - and if the leaf is a size of the palm - it will make the cup unstable - so if we chop the tip and the sides if necessary as Nancy does - the pot is more stable and the babies are coming sooner. I do not cut mini leaves or small standards - just to preserve all the nutrients available.

Irina

It was too much food...