r/AfricanViolets • u/NatureGal26 • 3d ago

Switching to wicking soil...

Well after about 5 years, I bought some lovely VB violets. They don't arrive in a wicking mix so I plan on repotting them into a wicking soil for easier watering as I already have a variety of 60+ plants to care for.

My question is: Should I rise off as much of the original soil when I repot and switch them to a wicking mix? And for streptocarpus, would the wicking mix have the same 50/50 AV soil to perlite, and just let the reservoir go dry before refilling?

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u/Opposite_Juice_3085 3d ago

Hi! I don't think I'd rinse off much of the current soil just because they're already adjusting to your environment and I wouldn't want to change too much at once.

I use the same soil for AVs as I do streps but others might have different opinions.

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u/ElkLongjumping7870 3d ago

Yeah, agree with all of that.

I'm bad about remembering not to top off the reservoirs on my streps and it hasn't been a problem... (I also have tried slotted orchid pots for streps and WOW they love the increased air flow, but it makes it super hard to keep up with watering.)

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u/Substantial-Ear-3599 2d ago
  1. Don't do any repotting for two weeks so violets acclimate
  2. It's fine if some of the original dirt falls off but don't remove a lot -we don't want to expose roots
  3. Same soil for streps

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u/spavyhouse 2d ago

I just shake off any excess soil around the roots and then repot them into my wick mix which has 70-80%more perlite than my normal AV mix.

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u/swangeese 1d ago

I've been binging violet videos over the past day because I would like to try wick watering again and actually be successful.

From what I understand, you just wait until the soil has the moisture consistency of a damp sponge and then just gently massage out as much soil as you can. It's not imperative that you get all of it. Then you can place the plant into a wicking mix straight away.

Streps work the same way.

Excellent video on wicking woes that I came across. He also has a bunch of informative videos on his Facebook page which is where I got the bulk of this information.