Herself's Houseplants

Root Knot:

Symptoms: Galls ( knots ) form on roots.

Treatment: Not much unfortunately start a new plant from leaf cuttings.

Crown Rot:

Symptoms: Older leaves drop and as crown rot progresses younger leaves start to drop as well. Stems are water soaked and weak. Roots become brown and die.

Cause: over watering

Treatment: Sometimes fungicides can help. They can be found at your local nursery. Also get the plant out of the wet soil and into fresh, sterile soil. It is organisms that actually do the damage.

Botrytis Blight:

Symptoms: Small spots appear on leaves and stems. The spots will enlarge, often quickly covering the entire leaf. Flowers look faded. A close look might show gray fungus.

Treatment: none – remove infected plants before the blight can spread to your other plants.

Powdery mildew:

Symptoms: White filaments grow on leaves, stems, flowers, they will look like powder. It might only effect flowers.

Treatment: Use a fungicide available at your local nursery.

Petiole Rot:

Symptoms: Rust colored spots appear where stem touches pot or soil. The stem and leaf collapse.

Cause: Too much salt accumulation in soil. This means too much fertilizer.

Treatment: Repot in a fresh pot with fresh soil and go easy on the fertilizers.

Ring spot:

Symptoms: Rings appear on leaf surface, they might be white, yellow, or brown. Leaves affected eventually die.

Cause: Cold water touching the leaves

Treatment: Use warm water to water African Violets.

See also:
African Violets

. . .African violets are the most popular collectible houseplant, Holtkamp said.Nell said African violets’ easy care has led to their widespread popularity among indoor plants.“The violet is very easy to take care of. The more you neglect them, the more they like it,” Holtkamp said.

. . .

Innovation took off again in 1984 aboard the space shuttle Challenger. The greenhouse partnered with NASA to send 20,000 violet seeds to an unmanned space laboratory, where they were exposed to microgravity and other elements of space.

The seeds were to remain in orbit for one year, but delays and then the Challenger explosion in 1986 postponed retrieval for several years. When they were finally brought back to Earth in 1990 by space shuttle Columbia, 7,000 germinated, more than Holtkamp expected.

“They were very deformed creations,” he said. “But there was one particular flower that stood out unique. It was blooming very nicely and very profusely.”

Holtkamp realized multiple generations coexisted on the same plant — which he affectionately named his “space baby” — so that when one flower died, another fresh bloom was ready to take its place. That characteristic, “multiflorescence,” is now patented for Optimara’s EverFloris series, which bloom continuously.

Innovation keeps violet growers from being blue

More information:
Optimara Home Page