Two of my African Violets have stunted, misshapen leaves in the middle of the rosette. I have encountered the problem in the past, and often, I give up and throw the plant away. This time, I decided to start new plants from leaf cuttings, but first, I wanted assurance the leaves were not diseased or infested.

Plants with this type of stunted growth can be infested with spider mites. Oh my! I have battled these little pests on other plants. I inspected the violet in question with a magnifying glass but didn’t find any spider mites.

A few other possible causes:

Cool temperatures – Yes, we keep our house cool in the winter.

Too little light – Yes, I did move them to a window with very little afternoon sunshine.

Too much fertilizer – A possibility, but the problem would be caused by pre-fertilized African violet soil, not from anything I added. From now on, I’ll try to water from the top with a squirt bottle. Using this technique, I will avoid getting the leaves or crown of the violet wet, and salts and other toxins in the soil will be washed out of the bottom.

A normal violet below: