African violet Suckers? What are those? Suckers are small plantlets that arise from the main plant. These suckers make your plant appear fuller but these multiple crowns should be removed. They are identical to the parent plant.

On March 11, 2020, we had our last African Violet Society meeting before the state lockdown. One of the members had cleaned up her plants that day and brought all the suckers she took off her plants. She generously shared them with the members and I received two suckers. One is ‘Brass Band’ and one is ‘Beachcomber’ and below are pictures of the suckers.

African violet suckers

When you discover your plant has suckers, you need to take action. Separating them from the mother plant is the best thing to do. Often you can tease them from the mother plant and they may have a few roots intact. You may have to cut them from the mother plant and at that point they won’t have any roots.

We aren’t going to “plant” them but place them on top of a pot of moist potting medium. It is hard to see in the picture, but I made a small indentation to hold the plant.

Keep the humidity high

If your plants have no roots or only a few, the humidity needs to be high so I place mine in a plastic bag. I put them on my light stand where they bask for 7 hours under LED lights every day. Putting them in the natural light would work as well, making sure the enclosed plant doesn’t get too hot.

African violet suckers two months later

Here are those plants less than two months later. I noticed that they had taken off last week, with new leaves. So after approximately 6 weeks they both had rooted and started growing.

 Tools needed

To separate the suckers from each other, I have some tools I use. The “sucker plucker” is a ceramic tool that people in the African violet world use. Many take the suckers off the plant when they are very tiny. The curved end works well to “scoop” the small sucker off. If it is a larger plant, I use a knife. I always label my plants with the date and the name, if I have it. A pencil works best. Markers seem to fade. If the plant dies, you can erase the information and use the label again. The makeup brush is used to brush the potting medium off the leaves. (I’m messy)

A plant with three crowns

I bought this violet a while ago and at that time it had one crown, but now it has three, so I decided to cut it apart. Using a sharp knife I cut between the crowns of the plants. I carefully pulled them apart as the leaves were intertwined. These suckers have roots, so I will plant them into individual containers.

All potted up

Here are the three suckers all potted up and labeled. Don’t worry if you break a leaf or two, because you can make even more plants!

A mini violet with four suckers

This beautiful little African violet revealed four crowns when it was finished flowering.

The plant is small so I used the sucker plucker to “scoop” the suckers off the main plant and potted them up individually in 2″ pots.

After care

I watered them in well and brushed off any dirt with a soft brush. If the plants have no roots, I will put them in a plastic bag to keep the humidity up until they start growing. The large plants that had roots, will be fine without being bagged.

Below are all the plants I potted up along with the two suckers that were gifted to me. Yesterday I went from two plants to 7 plants and 1 leaf put down. It was a good day! Hopefully, they all take off, and then I will be able to share some plants with others. Pass along a plant to someone this week. We could all use a little happiness and kindness right now. Stay safe!

If you want to see me splitting the suckers you can watch my You Tube video here.

 If you need more information about African violet plant care, check this out. Have a great week, plant friends.

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