Death of the growth point in violets

 
фиалка болеет

Sometimes you can observe the following picture: in the center of the outlet at the violet, the place from where new young leaves appear suddenly darkens, dries up, or blackens, young leaves do not develop or are greatly deformed. The death of the growth point occurs. There may be several reasons for this.

1. Incorrect application of mineral fertilizers

The lack of boron leads to the fact that phenolic compounds accumulate in the tissues of the plant, they poison it. The youngest leaves are most affected, they remain small, their edges wrap down, then the leaves turn brown and die. The growth point dies, the stalk and leaf blade become fragile. Flowers fade, young peduncles with buds also die.

The lack of boron can cause excessive potassium addition during top dressing, in this case there is also a violation of the normal absorption of calcium, magnesium, zinc. Lack of calcium also leads to depression and dieback of the growth point. If fertilizer with too high a concentration of potassium was applied during irrigation, and at the same time it got to the growth point, then there are no options - it will die.

If the plant is transplanted into a substrate with an excess of potassium, then symptoms of a high salt content will appear: the rosette becomes dark green, the leaves grind, and growth slows down. If you pay attention to this in time, then you can prevent the death of the growth point, if it is good to spill the earthen lump with a warm weak (slightly pinkish) solution of manganese (at least 0.3 l per plant), allowing it to drain from the pot, then put it on a dry pallet.

2. Attack and rapid reproduction of ticks

Young leaves in the center of the outlet deform, twist, become hard and brittle. With severe damage, the center of the rosette, the growth point of the violet, may die off. But this is not the only sign, if the violet was struck by ticks, then on the leaves you can see traces of snacks, the smallest light points. The ticks themselves may not be visible due to the smallness of their size. In addition, severe tick damage usually occurs in a hot and dry room.

3. Damage to the central part of the outlet by fungal diseases.

In this case, young leaves are not made hard and fragile, but, on the contrary, become lethargic, pale or brown. However, fertilizer poisoning and tick damage can cause illness. So gray rot - fungi of the genus Botrytis (has many varieties), in order to infect the plant, it must settle at least in a small area of ​ ​ dead tissue, feeding on which, it infects neighboring healthy cells with poisonous secretions, then the following, thus the affected area increases and increases. The gray putrid speck grows, covered with a gray fluffy coating - these are the mycelia of the fungus. For a long time they can live in the soil on plant debris, until they are brought from the street with the earth, vegetables and fruits brought from the garden, with cut flowers, and there they, together with dust, fall on violets. This also applies to other types of infectious diseases caused by fungi.

Contributes to the development of the disease: water entering the center of the outlet, low temperature (below 18 degrees) in the room, drafts, the center of the outlet is closed from the influx of fresh air by thick raised leaves of the middle rows or abundant bouquet blooms.

For treatment, it is necessary: remove all the affected parts of the plant, spray the violet with a solution of some fungicide (Fundazol, Skor, Vectra, Chistotsvet, etc.). For prevention: spray all plants in the same room with the patient, remove leaves with signs of decay in a timely manner, control the number of ticks, prevent the spread of other pests, do not store vegetables and fruits in a room with a collection of violets, introduce a quarantine regime for all new specimens. Practice has shown that steaming the earthen mixture before planting does not give results in the fight against fungal infections, it is better to add the Trichodermin biological product to it or pour a solution of drugs such as Zaslon, Barrier. Before budding, spray violets to increase resistance to Zircon or Epin diseases.

4. Wrong violet transplant

If you plant a violet incorrectly, bury it too deep into the ground, then when watering the water will fall on the growth point, it will rot and die, then the whole plant may die. There are some tricks to help avoid the death of transplanted plants. When planting children in an earthen substrate, make a hole, fill it with wet river sand washed many times (the last 2-3 times with boiling water). Then make a hole already in the sand, lower the roots of the separated baby there and sprinkle them with the same almost sterile sand. The roots will then sprout through the sand, and they will take food in the earthen soil, but with such a landing, even if there is a burial, the water will simply flow down through the sand, while the children will never die. The method is especially good when the pot is too big. If you need to transplant an adult violet or add soil to a pot, and the trunk has already been exposed, you had to remove the rotten leaves from the lower row. It is necessary to separate all the "stumps" from the leaves with a fingernail, sprinkle the trunk with crushed coal, make a small bandage from moss-sphagnum moistened in a weak solution of manganese or the drug Maxim, only after that add soil.

What to do if violets have lost their growth point

If the growth point died in a child seated from a leaf, then the forecast is not comforting, the plant will most likely die.

If the growth point died in an adult violet, then after all amputations, treatments with drugs, you need to try to root a healthy leaf, better than the second from the bottom of the row, cutting off 2/3 of his petiole. Several growth points may appear on the section remaining after removing the tip. Wait until they grow to 4 leaves, remove all but one, then it will grow. If you have experience, then you can grow stepsons a little, break them out by giving them your own nail, and then root them in sterile river sand, as they do when breeding chimera violets.

It may turn out that the disease has spread through the vascular system deep along the trunk and no fungicide can help, the leaves in the center will continue to die, turning black at the very beginning of the petiole, it is better to throw out such a plant, boil the pot for 20 minutes. If the variety is very valuable, you can still try to root the leaf.

The author of the article Rusinova T.A.

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