African violets are easy to grow, have the most charming blooms and take up far less space than other houseplants. Which means you can have more of them! But to enjoy continuous blooms and make your violets last, they must be repotted regularly.
The African violet has very different repotting needs compared to other houseplants. An often overlooked part of African violet health is repotting. While things like light, fertilizing and water are often considered, African Violets’ soil and container needs always seem to take a backseat.
Like most aspects of African violet care, repotting is quite easy, and a lot less scary if you master a few simple steps. Even if you regularly fertilize your plant, it needs fresh soil from time to time.
The best time to repot an African violet (previously classified as Saintpaulia, these plants have been renamed as the Saintpaulia section of the Streptocarpus subgenus Streptocarpella after genetic analysis) is every 6 months to a year. Your plant won’t always grow by your set schedule. It may develop a long leafless neck and need immediate attention. Or, perhaps you notice roots escaping out the drainage hole and sneaking over the soil surface (a red flag your plant is becoming root-bound).
I feel like those of us who grow African Violets are in a secret horticultural club. When asked about them, most people think of the simple purple or pink violets you see for sale at the grocery store. For those of us in the know, however, we would argue that you’d be hard-pressed to find a houseplant with more variety within the species. There are well over 16,000 different cultivars. However, without the proper care, you rarely get to enjoy their delicate flowers.
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Many of us know someone who is a magician with plants. Everything seems to thrive in that person’s care. The difference between a magic green thumb and a hapless brown thumb is often found in the subtle techniques of repotting. That’s especially true with African violets. Sick violets often recover if repotting is done well. Healthy violets often become weak if repotting is done poorly. Great transplanting skills can make violets thrive.
Here are detailed steps on how to repot your African violet:
- First, prepare your tools and space. You’ll either return your plant to the same pot or transfer to a different-sized container. If your plant is root-bound, it’ll be happier in a slightly bigger pot. Scrub-a-Dub: African violet repotting is a prime time for pests and diseases to find a new host. Use a clean pot. (A 4-inch pot is sufficient for a standard-size African violet).
- Next up, extraction. If your plant lives in a porous container, like a clay pot, you might want to give it a drink first. However, watering causes plants to swell, which makes them more prone to repotting injuries. One Good Tug: Grasp your African violet at the base, getting a hold of as much of the crown as you can.
- Next, brush the root ball clean. Gently remove the soil with your hands, a small rake, or a soft toothbrush. Examine the root ball; are there any black, brown, or mushy sections?
- After you’ve given the roots a little TLC, it’s time for a haircut. Free up energy for your plant to reroot by pruning away damaged or dying leaves. Encourage more flower buds to form by maintaining a single crown plant. Carefully remove any sucker growth as soon as it forms in the leaf axil to prevent overcrowded growth in the pot. The More, the Merrier: This doesn’t have to be the end of the road for healthy leaves and suckers. Moving is stressful enough! We recommend waiting for a lull in blooming before you repot. That said, if your plant is tightly root-bound or at risk of toppling over, it’s okay to repot while flowering.
- Place a thin layer of soil inside the pot and set the root ball on top. Gently cover up to the base of the leaves and pat down just enough to stabilize. African violets love fluffy, slightly acidic soil; they’ll struggle in a standard mix. African violets grow new leaves from the crown outwards. Older leaves near the bottom eventually die and fall off, sometimes leaving a bare, trunk-like neck. This can make your plant vulnerable to toppling over, but it’s an easy fix. Repot your plant as normal, but move to a deeper pot.
- Consider placing your African violet in a clear plastic bag for a week after repotting. This boosts humidity, giving your plant a little extra gas in the tank. Just make sure the bag or container doesn’t squish or damage the leaves.
The process of repotting an old violet is intimidating, and often growers try to do it the “safe way” which is actually why they die. Necks on African violets are a natural part of growth. As leaf age and are removed, the stalk becomes exposed. It’s ugly and vulnerable to breaking if the plant tumbles. It isn’t advisable to bury the neck deeper in a bigger pot, since it is vulnerable to rotting which may spread up into the crown.
Here is the “decapitation” method described below has been used thousands of times by many growers:
- Step 1 - Remove all older leaves that are smaller than the leaves above or are faded in color or nicked and damaged. I rarely leave more than about 10 leaves total.
- Step 2 - Use the dull side of a knife to scrape about two inches of the stem (gently!) that is just below the bottom row of leaves.
- Step 3 - Next amputate the top half of the plant by making a straight cut about one-and-a-half to two inches below the bottom row of leaves. Discard the bottom section of the plant, although the pot may be saved and washed for reuse.
- Step 4 - While you can see the inside of the stem, look to see if there is any sign of rot. A brown pithy center or dried powdery center is a definite sign. You may also see darkened mushy plant tissue or leaves that seem to rot off at the main stem. If any symptom is present, clean your knife and cut higher on the stem until you are above the rot.
- Step 5 - Prepare a fresh pot, the same size as before, with a light porous potting mix. Commercial potting mixes are too heavy (even the ones labeled for violets). I recommend a homemade mix made of one part sphagnum peat moss (brown is much better than black), one part vermiculite, and one part perlite. Or, choose a good quality commercial mix and combine it half and half with coarse perlite.
- Step 6 - Set the stem of the violet onto the top of the pot so that stem is in good contact with the potting medium. If that part of the stem is bent, set the stem straight down into the soil. The leaves will soon straighten out and go level.
- Step 7 - Place the plant into a clear plastic bag or container and seal it tightly closed. Set it in a bright location but out of direct sunlight. In about a month, new roots will have formed and the plant will be showing new growth.
- Step 8 - Open the bag or container gradually over a period of two days to equalize the humidity slowly and prevent shock.
The general rule of thumb is to repot each time the neck of your violet reaches an inch above the soil, typically twice a year. It sounds a bit fussy, considering how infrequently most houseplants need repotting.
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When repotting plants, the advice is to go up an inch in pot diameter each time you repot the plant. However, this doesn’t apply to African violets. A standard African violet (not a mini) will do best in a 4” diameter pot. When repotting your plant, you’ll simply be repotting it in the same pot.
Repotting African violets is messy. It just is, so prepare a space with a towel or one of those fancy foldable potting mats. Because the leaves and the stems they grow from snap easily, extra care is needed when handling the plant.
African violets need incredibly light soil that drains quickly but retains some moisture. There are many good African violet-specific potting mixes on the market. (And some bad ones, too.) When choosing a potting mix, the bag should be light and airy. Anything that feels heavy or is pre-moistened (like all-purpose potting soil) is not what you want.
Here's a simple table of ingredients for making your own African violet potting mix:
| Ingredient | Purpose | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Perlite | Improves drainage and aeration | 5 parts |
| Coconut Coir or Peat Moss | Retains moisture and provides slight acidity | 4 parts |
| Vermiculite | Holds moisture and nutrients | 1 part |
Peat moss is usually used in African violet mix because it drains easily and makes the potting media slightly acidic. However, those concerned with the destruction of natural habitats that occurs in peat harvesting can find blends that use coconut coir instead.
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After years of trying different blends, I made my own African violet potting mix. I liked knowing what was in it and having it on hand whenever I repotted my violets. This “recipe” is a ratio of three core ingredients. Perlite, coconut coir or peat moss, and vermiculite mixed in a ratio of 5:4:1. I use a cup or my trowel and measure the ingredients by the cupful or trowelful into a small storage tote. Then, I add any amendments and mix it all up by hand. I don’t get too crazy with the add-ins.
You don’t need a fancy self-watering African violet pot, although some people like them. However, whatever you choose, it needs to have a drainage hole.
Native Habitats vs. The African Violet, or Saintpaulia, is a member of the Gesneriaceae family of plants. The wild versions of this highly cultivated plant grow exclusively in Tanzania, deep in the Usambara Mountains. Decades of deforestation have threatened the existence of these native plants.
In the wild, African violets are lithophytic, which means they cling and grow on the surface of rocks. The nutrients they need to thrive are constantly replenished with every rain, which washes new organic matter down the rock’s surface to collect among the other flotsam and jetsam the plant is growing in. Compared to plants that obtain most of their nutrients below ground, African violets have quite small root systems. In the wild, it’s the perfect self-renewing potting system.
In the wild, the plants grow lush and verdant under the dark canopy of the rainforest, but they don’t bloom often. That’s because the plants need long periods of bright, filtered light to set flowers - not something they get regularly when growing far beneath the jungle canopy.
New growth comes from the center of the plant, like a fountain. To “prune” African violets and encourage new growth, remove the lowest and oldest leaves from the base of the plant periodically. Remove any suckers as well; these are small clusters of leaves growing on the stem of the main plant. As you prune, more of the “neck” is exposed above the soil. It’s much easier to repot a violet with a short neck than to restore a plant let go for too long.
Take the violet out of the pot and gently snip off the root ball at the base with clean scissors. Working carefully to protect the growing crown, remove all the old growth leaves, starting from the bottom of the stem and working your way up until a dozen new leaves are left at the top.
Now, using a clean, sterile knife, you want to gently scrape away any stubs left from the leaves you just removed to expose the stem. Scrape the outermost surface of older, scabbed-over stubs as well.
Prepare your pot with new, well-moistened soil. When restarting a violet, I find it best to pre-moisten the soil before adding it to the pot. Add soil so that it comes to within a half inch of the top of the pot.
Carefully push the stem into the soil. You’re not trying to bury it or press the soil around the stem. You simply want to insert it so the stem is lightly surrounded by soil. It’s much easier for the plant to correct the direction of the growth of the leaves above the soil than the stem below.
For now, you may need to have the crown growing sideways to ensure the stem grows straight down. Now for the most important part. Cover the plant in clear plastic and set it where it will receive bright indirect light. Do not uncover the plant, and do not water it. In about a month, the stem will have put out new roots.
Reacclimate the plant to the dryer conditions of your home by opening the bag a little more each day over several days. Repotting houseplants always feels like a major undertaking. However, when it comes to African violets, they’re small enough and don’t require a new pot each time, which makes their semi-annual repotting needs easy to manage. And you’ll be glad you’ve made the effort with an African violet that blooms all year long.
If there is an excess of nitrogen fertilizer in the soil, too many leaves will be produced at the expense of flower formation. Your African violet can produce dazzling blooms year-round with the right care.
African violets have several notorious quirks: they don’t like getting wet; they’re sun-sensitive; and they struggle in standard soil-just to name a few.
Using dry African violet potting mix, lightly press enough into the bottom of the pot so that you can set the plant in it and have the crown resting at the top. Gently tip the plant to one side and add more potting mix. I like to use a spoon as it’s much easier to maneuver around the plant than larger gardening tools.
Now tip the plant to the opposite side and do the same. The potting mix will be mounded up around the base of the plant. Gently press it down with your fingertips, working around the edge of the pot, just below the leaves.
When watering in new potting media, I suggest adding two or three drops of liquid dish soap to your water and stirring it well before watering the plant. The soil should flatten out and settle after a few applications of water. You want all excess water to drain freely out of the bottom.
Voila! Everyone looking dapper in their new pots. Now that they have room, the leaves will relax and grow out rather than mushed up together. You must follow a different approach if it’s been a while since you repotted your African violet.
Far too often, people decide the best way to deal with a long neck on a violet is to bury it below the soil.
Any potted plant has a lot of chemistry going on in its pot. Water, fertilizer, and potting mix components interact and change chemically over time-usually for the worse. Fresh quality potting mix provides an ideal environment for the roots, but after just a few months that environment may be much less satisfactory. The effects of these chemical changes are more dramatic in smaller pots.
Whenever the fibrous roots of violets are disturbed, the roots tend to stop functioning. This may cause open flowers to collapse, and developing buds may open much smaller in size than usual. To preserve flowers and buds, lift the entire root ball from the pot and set it into a larger pot (this may be easier if the plant has been watered a day or so ahead of transplanting.) Add fresh potting mix around the edges as needed.
Sometimes it is necessary to pot a plant down (into a smaller pot) or to refresh the soil (removing all of the old mix). Disturbed roots will not function well until new roots are generated. Because flowers, buds and outer leaves will die from lack of water, simply remove them during the repotting process. This also allows you to bury the neck that is (or will be) exposed by those lost leaves.
In average or dry climates, leaves will often wilt suddenly after a hard transplant. This is because the process of transpiration (the natural process of releasing water to the air through the leaves) continues whether or not roots are functioning. Transpiration may be reduced by increasing the humidity around the leaves. This can be done by enclosing the repotted plant in a closed environment (once the violet has been watered). Possible enclosures include clear domes, disposable plastic food containers, or large inflated clear plastic bags. Violets may stay safely inside these enclosures (out of direct sunlight) for a month or more, often without additional watering or need for attention.
Here are a few important tips to consider when repotting:
- Tip #1 Choose the right potting mix for your climate. A quality African violet potting mix should provide good water-holding capacity and ample air pockets to guarantee healthy roots. Growing violets in a humid climate will require a higher percentage of large-particles such as coarse perlite and/or coarse vermiculite. In a very dry climate, it is helpful to use more water-holding components such as sphagnum peat moss, coconut coir, and coarse vermiculite. In simpler terms: 1) If you have many problems with root rot, add more perlite to your mix.
- Tip #2 Begin by moistening the potting mix. Very dry potting mix may become air-borne and cause coughing. Dry potting mix draws moisture out of delicate violet roots, causing the roots to wither. Pre-moistening your potting mix will eliminate both problems. Add approximately 1 part warm water to four parts of potting mix and stir vigorously to force the peat to absorb the water.
- Tip #3 Never pack the mix as you repot. Always pile the mix loosely around the cutting or plant. Packing down the soil eliminates air pockets, increases the chances of root rot, and will actually stunt the violet’s growth. Air pockets in the mix will discourage rot diseases and allow roots to flourish. Adding water after repotting will compact the soil to some degree, but this is unavoidable.
- Tip #4 Keep the pot small and shallow. African violet roots generally do not grow deep or wide. In nature violet roots grow into the cracks in limestone or in mossy areas above the rocks, epiphytically. Violets grown indoors do not require a lot of room for the roots, so the pot should always be smaller than the plant. A confined area for roots provides a mild threat to the violet’s existence, and as such it triggers blooming. At full bloom, show violets are expected to be three times wider than the pot in which they are grown.
REPOTTING & REVIVING YOUR AFRICAN VIOLETS: Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
How do YOU navigate African violet repotting? We want to hear your tricks, tips, and lessons learned. Whether you’re just starting out or are a seasoned grower, African Violet Resource Center has everything you need to help your plant grow vibrant and strong.
