The above image is what was typically seen on the shelf after shelf in my growing area of African violets. After I applied what I believe is the fungicide that stopped the infestation, Dithane M-45.
Once the problem appeared arrested on a few, just a few of the plant’s new signs of life appeared (above). Now if these newly forming crowns will be true to the parent plant chimera remains to be seen. But never the less I will take what I can get. I will remove these tiny crowns in a few weeks and will see what the outcome is.
On some of the plants that were not as severely damaged, where the main infection were the leaves below the crown, they will fair much better. In this above image you can see the yellow green deposits of the fungicide that have accumulated on the leaf.
I had about 5 plants I had just rooted from tissue culture and my standard operating procedure is to invert a plastic bag over the pots with the tiny plant and wick water until the rooted (above). That was just prior to the first small infestation that impacted a few plants. I just underestimated the seriousness by spraying some Neem oil them. Next thing I realized it was a raging outbreak that appeared to impact every single plant to some degree. In 3 months the damage was so great I felt I had nothing to lose and sprayed heavily the Dithane 45. Now, these plants (below image) that were covered the entire time were totally unaffected. Not so much as a single leaf was impacted. An indication the fungus is airborne and spreads that way, either by insect or air. The Image below is of one of the plants that remained covered, now 7 months since this infestation, covered the entire time and it is blooming, yes it is a Yukako.
And to end this month’s blog on a positive note, on a shelf all by itself sat Neptune’s Treasure (below), unaffected and as if it was indifferent with the infestation that took most of the plants. I noticed it when I went down to start cleaning up the carnage of the infestation. I took it as a sign of survival and defiance.
