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Avs and Christmas cactus


-----Original Message-----
From: Vera Diehl <villager@slip.net>
To: indoor-gardening@prairienet.org <indoor-gardening@prairienet.org>
Date: Saturday, October 31, 1998 12:23 AM
Subject: Re: INDOOR-GARDENING digest 616


>How far should the fluorescent lights be from African Violets?  The lights
>are on for fourteen hours a day, but the new leaves on the variegated ones
>are not variegated.  Perhaps the shelves are too far apart?
>
>My Christmas Cactus is in full bloom.  Is there a Hallowe'en Cactus or
>should it have been kept in a dark place for awhile?
>
>Thanks for any advice.
>
>Vera Diehl
>villager@slip.net
>
Hi Vera:

My lights are 18" above the shelves and the lights are on for 14 hours a
day.  This is a little too much for violets but I need it for other
gesneriads.  The plants will tell you.  If the leaves are a flat rosette
you've got it right.  If they reach for the ligiht it's not enough.  Mine
are turning down, hugging the pot.   I find the dark leaved kinds need more
light than the  pale ones.  Put the dark ones under the center of the
lights.

Variegated violets often lose their variegation if too warm.  Also, a high
nitogen fertilizer will turn them all green.  I often have to use nitrogen
on babies that are all white.

Actually a Christmas cactus's natural blooming time IS at thanksgiving.
However it will bloom any time it's given short days, a dry period or cool
temperatures (50-60F)

Ruth Z
Freelance writer and gardening consultant zone 6 southern Ontario
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