How Often Should You Change African Violet Potting Mix?
- If you have just acquired a new African Violet plant, I would recommend you re-pot it into your own fresh soil, to avoid any contamination from the original soil into your growing area.
- Also after re-potting, it’s best to still keep this plant isolated in a sealed Ziploc bag or in an area separate from your growing area.
- For existing African Violets in your collection, re-pot once every 6 months in fresh soil. For more information on African Violet potting mix, please visit our post, “African Violet Soil/Potting Mix“.
- Its best to use plastic pots for African Violets, as you can control the watering better in these pots.
- When re-potting African Violets, remember to use the same size pots.
- If the rootball is still small in size, you can even use a smaller size pot.
- When the African Violet plant is completely root-bound and overgrown its original pot, you can-pot into a larger pot, to provide more breathing room for the roots.
African Violet, perlite, coco coir and other potting mixes shown below:
Do We Need To Re-pot African Violet Plants?
- Yes, African Violets should be re-potted in fresh soil every 6 months and kept in the same size pot.
- Do not re-pot to a larger pot.
- African Violets like to be slightly root bound which promotes flowering.
- Root bound is when the roots start to grow out of the pot holes underneath the pot or when roots show on the upper surface of the soil.
- An African Violet plant is completely root-bound, when the whole soil surface area is tightly covered with roots, the roots are growing out of the pot holes underneath the pot and the roots are showing on the upper surface of the soil.
- If plants are completely root-bound, its time to re-pot the African Violet.
- Below is an image to help you figure out the optimum or ideal pot size for African Violet plants when re-potting them.
Examples of 2″ & 3″plastic pots, great to keep a few extra in your growing tools:
Why is African Violet Potting Soil Mix Important?
- The soil or potting mix in which an African Violet is planted is very important for the overall survival of the plant.
- This is because the plants roots spend all of their time within this soil mixture.
- If the soil mixture is old, the roots will not be able to absorb water and nutrients.
- This will over time affect the overall health of the African Violet plant.
- Healthy soil promotes healthy root growth which in turn will lead to a healthy African Violet plant.
- Healthy roots also ensure the efficient uptake of water and nutrients from the soil.
- Once you have re-potted the African Violet plant, remember not to immediately resume your normal fertilizing schedule.
- Wait at least 2 weeks, for the plant to settle down in its new pot, before you start fertilizing again.
Examples of commercially available African Violet fertilizers below, also my favorite African Violet fertilizer, optimara.
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