How to Water-Wick African Violets

Water-wicking is a time-saving method of maintaining african violets or other plants that like to be evenly moist. I think all of us like time saving methods to grow our plants. The big secret is having the correct soil mix. You need a "dry" mix with lots of air pockets. The air spaces are needed to allow the roots to have oxygen. Not all plants can be grown this way. Most of the fibrous rooted gesneriads will survive fine on water wicking. If youare in doubt about a plant, try one small cutting first and see how it does. Do not convert your whole collection after reading one article. Soil Mix. The classic mix is the 1-1-1 one part peat moss, one part perlite and one part vermiculite. Peat Moss and Perlite are easy to find in any garden or on okay. Vermiculite is harder to find. You will have to order from a supplier. You can find several on okay. When you are mixing soil it is best to have ventilation. The dust particles of any kind are not good for your lungs. I would suggest pouring the soil into your mixing container outside or at least a very well ventilated room. I like to use a small plastic container to mix it. I use a pot or solo cup to measure one part each of the three ingredients. You can also add a little charcoal to help absorb impurities. I roll the container back and forth until I am sure that everything is well mixed. I let the container sit for several minutes to let the dust settle. I then pour water into the container to wet the soil. Peat moss can be hard to moisten at first. I will let soil sit for one hour to overnight to moisten. I am then ready for planting. search for vermiculiteWicks. Wicks can be made of any artificial fiber. My favorite is acrylic yarn. You can also use cords. Do not use natural fibers. They will rot rapidity making a smelly mess. I accidentally used real wool and it rotted within two weeks. If you have any scrap or ugly yarn this is a great use for it. If you need to buy yarn. I would suggest dark green or black. White yarn will look very ugly in a short time. Also when algae grow on it not as noticeable on the darker colors. Potting. I take the put of yarn and pull it through one of holes in the bottom of the pot. I wrap all the way around the bottom. I will need put the soil in the pot. This seems to have the best contact with the soil. It more likely to stay wet. I will cut the end to match the container that I set the plant on. Containers. You have lots of choices to use. They are some beautiful ceramic pots. They are great but most of us not afford to have one for every plants. Violets are great addiction. You really need more than one. You can use various food containers like margarine containers or deli containers. If you need a large number you can buy them new. I cut a triangular hole in the top. It makes it easier to pour thewater into the containers. When the container need cleaning I rinse and soak in a bleach solution to remove the algae build up. Some people use empty baby food jars for the mini violets. They clean very easily in the bleach solution.
There a couple of more points. When using water wicking the salts minerals will build up on the soil surface. You have probably seen these before. They are usually a rusty brown color. You need to rinse the soil about once a month with plain water. Pouring from the top and draining out the bottom. This will removed the excess minerals and salts that are building up. If you are repotting often like every two or three months this is not as important but if the plant will be staying in the same pot for months or more. It is necessary rinse the soil. In the past, I had a collection of several hundred plants that I grewwith this method. I would take boxes of blooming violets tothe local club sale. I am slowly building a collection again.