Mary -

my suggestion would be fish emulsion and patience. Your friend shouldn't separate the plantlet from a mother leaf until it greens up. I would start watering this plantlet with a weak solution of a fish emulsion and take the baggie off. it would actully benefit from a cooler temperature.

And then wait. It will either shape up and start a new set of green leaf - or may be mother leaf will send another plantlet. The longest I was waiting was for Buckeye's Country Lilac - for a year - and even posted a question on this forum - but eventually one of 3 plantlets started greening up and grew into an absolutely gorgeous plant. It was worth waiting.

Good Luck

irina

Wow - you waited a year for it to green up? Talk about learning patience!

I have a couple of leaves that are slow to produce babies and I'm already thinking of tossing them....and it's only been 3 months, lol. I've heard of many people who've had to wait up to a year for plantlets, so I know I need to wait.

It's good to hear of things taking a long time for other people, but with eventual good results. Thanks for sharing that, Irina, it helped me put things in perspective.

Three months is no time in our world. It sounds like you may have a variegated sport. The white leaves will not produce chlorophyll, so you need to wait for green or mostly green leaves before you can pot up this baby. You can cut off the all white leaves. There may be nothing wrong with your culture, you just have to wait for leaves that can feed the plant, i.e. mostly green ones.
Carol

Thanks Irina... she keeps it close to the light so it may be too warm.. I will pass along your suggestions. Carol, I looked up the description and it says the standard foliage is light green, serrated and quilted. It would make more sense it it was varigated. Lathyrus, I'm with you... short on the whole patience thing. If I put a leaf down I just about have to hide it from myself so I will leave it alone. Thanks to all. Mary

Hey Lathyrus,
It's an old remedy but it works sometimes. If you have a leaf that has not produced any plantlets but is still viable, try giving the pot a squeeze. It disturbs the roots and sort of wakes them up and encourages them to send up plantlets.
Fred in NJ

Hi Fred, that's an interesting trick.

I admit to being absolutely CRUEL to my AVs. This has been much like a science experiment to me. I am known to rip (well, maybe a bit more gently) my propagating leaves out of the soil mix and stare at them, looking to see how the roots grow, when plantlet nubs emerge, etc. I wanted to know how it all worked when I first started.

Now that I know, I don't play with my propagating leaves quite so much (and maybe because I have more than 80 right now), but I still occasionally pull them out of their pots and see how they are doing. Old habits, and all that, lol.

In case anyone reading this thinks it's the way most people grow AVs, please know that it isn't! But, it has reassured me that AVs are much more tough than some people think. Not many plants would take being pulled out of the soil repeated times and still flourish.

I squeeze pots every time I water and always have. It loosens soil and as Fred said gives the plant a jolt. On non AV plants in clay pots I hit the side of the pot (like burping a baby) to get the water flowing out or bang it on the sink. haha. Same effect,,,loosens soil and jolts the plant awake.,,,Debbie

OK Fred, heres one for you. I have a Huron. as long as it is not under the lights, the leaves are green. If it happens to get under the lights(occasionally I move the non-blooming to the basement to put under the lights). If I happen to get a Huron with the others, the leaves start to turn white--WHY?