1. I am not aware of any specific method of forcing variegated plants into blooming. You can give the plant 3-4 waterings with "bloom booster' - high phosphorous fertilizer (DynaBloom for example) - but you are not supposed to use it all the time - the plant will decline. Heavily variegated plants just do not have energy for abundant blooming - they do it quite rarely when they accumulate enough energy. Probably if you stimulate greening - put the plant into warmer spot, feed some fish emulsion - it will speed up the energy production.
I would just leave it alone - and be patient.
2. I would think that using fluorescent light shelf is preferable to scaring plants into bloom by chopping their companions - whatever mechanism of this phenomenon is. Probably energetic - aura of a damaged plant touches the neighbor and puts it into propagation mode - bloom and set seeds - or Joanne will come with a lawn mower. They react to the danger by suckering and setting buds.
3. Suckers - if you do not plan to root them - remove them as soon as you see them- - they use the energy and destroy the symmetry. Tweezers with long tips (forceps) work well.
If you plan to root them - you are right - let the plant finish blooming, remove bottom leaves, cut the suckers with x-acto knife - and repot the plants.

good luck

I.

Joanne,

Patience...where have we heard that before??? :)

As Irina says, variegated plants are not heavy bloomers. They are deficient in chlorophyll and as such are living on a less than optimum dose of it. This slows down blooming. Upping the fertilizer will not force bloom and can damage your plants. It would be like eating twice as much as needed so your hair will grow faster. Patience.

Ethylene is one of the five main plant hormones. It is essentially responsible for fruit ripening, leaf abscission, and flower opening. I know of no effect it has on other plants. I'm not saying it does not, I just have never heard of it and I've been doing this Hort. stuff for a lot of years.

Just for fun, here are the other four:
Gibberellins-responsible for growth processes-cell elongation, dormancy, etc.
Cytokinins-cell division
Auxins-coordinates cell development
Abscisic acid-regulates stomatic action to aid in transpiration and aids plant defenses in extreme growing conditions.

I know. I'm such a nerd but I love this stuff!!!

Here is something that Ethylene will do for you: when you buy those rock-hard peaches at the grocery, enclose them in a paper bag with an apple. Apples give off copious amounts of Ethylene gas and your fruit will ripen in a day or two.

Linda

P.S. Patience

I am thinkng that what Ethylene can do - is to make your AVs drop the flowers faster. That's it.

I can tell you - eating twice as much - doesn't make hair grow faster...chomp-chomp-chomp - but sure plumps the waist line! By the way - where is my waist line? I lost it...

Thanks, Irina and Linda,
Love your sense of humor! And great advice! I was
inspired to do a little google search on ethylene and
learned some interesting info. Linda, I also enjoy
the science behind our lovely living gems we grow.
The comment by Joyce Stork about ethylene in the
air stimulating growth spurts in other plants,
was on Annie's Podcast,
AllAboutAfricanViolets.com Episode 19, Nov. 4, 2012
Irina, not sure where I can find long tweezers, however,
I will eventually order a sucker plucker. The suckers that
I am concerned about are more at the X-acto knife
stage because the plants in question have been in
bloom since the summer.

I do recall that when I grew under lights, the plants
never seemed to bloom. I do have excellent daylight
where I live. I will have to see what light winter brings
in my new location.

Joanne

Joanne - I swear by lights - mine are 8-12 inches above plants, doesn't help if you have fluorescent lights in your office. But some plants truly prefer sunlight.

Out of 4 tweezers - I use 3 of them - the last one to the right is probably not necessary.

Good Price!

irina

Here is a link that might be useful: tweeser set

Irina! Another fantastic response! I have wanted to ask
about tweezers for a while, but did not want to be
pesky. As the kids say, "You rock!"
J

You are welcome.

Rocking I.

More Q, Linda & Rocking I, Perle, and All,
The Midnight Sun that toppled off the shelf,
breaking off the crown … I put the stump of the neck
in its pot under a dome. Lo and behold, it now has two tiny
outcroppings of green fuzz that will be two separate
suckers. This AV is a compact standard, not easy to
propagate. One of my favorite reds, I hope to preserve
both suckers.

The crown, in a separate pot, does not appear to have rooted, it looks wilted. It is also under the same dome.

Also, another favorite red that is merrily blooming,
has a twisted neck. It, too, has developed two
suckers on its neck.
This is also a difficult one to propagate as it
has leaf edge variation. It is another favorite of mine,
it drapes beautifully and grows symmetrically.
I had put down 2 or 3 of its leaves
2 or 3 months ago that have developed babies.
I know, Irene, you said to remove the extra suckers,
just to keep one. But these plants are slow growers …

The AV I had written about that has fuzz all over
a green bare spot on its stem that look like a bunch
of suckers …. you advised me not to allow all
to grow … is another compact standard.
(I like the compact standards that grow in a whorl
and drape.)

Oh, well, I will just let them develop and
see what happens!

(That one had gotten lost in the
trunk of a car of a friend who was helping me move
my plants. By the time we found it, much side
damage had taken place. I did not think it would
survive at all. That was in May. It is now fully in
bloom, and also reproducing. Guess I am still too
much of a "noob" to sacrifice any suckers just yet!!)

Of a big batch of leaves I put down in August and domed, nearly all have sprouted babies. However, three of the mother leaves
started to rot, though the babies seem fine. There must
have had a bit too much moisture, even though the
dome was ventilated. I trimmed off the rotten parts
of the leaves, leaving tiny portions. I put the affected
plants into a separate domed container so that the
rot won't spread.

Finally, I saw a few You Tube videos of Russian
nurseries. One showed numerous large flats full
of leaves that were sprouting
babies. The gardener methodically
snapped of the edges of the mother leaves, but only
after the babies were developing.

So I just went
through my domed trays and did the same.
(I don't have 100's of leaves, of course, only about 20!)
Some leaves I had already trimmed when I first put
them down because they were so large.
Those I left alone.

Not really a Q, just a report and comments …

For Michael, if you are reading this thread, on the
Optimara website, they state that it takes 18 weeks
to produce babies from leaves.That seems like
a long time. Perhaps they mean babies that are
able to survive on their own, separated from the
parent leaf, and are of substantial size to be put
in separate pots.

Joanne

Just a thought-I would assume everything stated on Optimara's site pertains to Optimara's. As we all know, these are easy to grow and bloom so the stated time for them to produce babies may not be the time for other, more "exotic" violets to reproduce.

If your mother leaves are rotting, but have produced babies, you can safely cut them away from the babies. The little ones have developed their own root system and no longer need the mother leaf. If left, the rot may spread to the babies. Also, it is a good move to separate the rotting leaves from the rest but I wouldn't worry about the rot spreading to others. It sounds like an environmental problem unique to a few leaves; as you said, too much water or humidity.

I never cut the top of my leaves unless I can see that the leaf is visibly growing instead of making babies. I have tried this in the past but never saw any difference. But, everyone's conditions are different.

Finally, why do you say leaf-edge variegations are difficult to propagate? Has this been your experience?

Linda

Hi Linda
thanks for the great advice. will try to write more later,
since joining this forum, i can now root and grow
variegated leaves that have moderate leaf variegation!

i still have not had success with the mosaics.

Joanne