Tools
POTS - Plastic or ceramic? Go with your preference. Violets don't care. They grow in rock crevasses in the wild. I like plastic cups and violet pots myself, or recycled see thru deli containers for leaf starts. Personally, I have never been able to keep a violet alive for long in a self-watering african violet ceramic pot. The unglazed earthenware is porous but gets clogged with minerals and salts. Clogged pots need to be cleaned regularly or they will no longer provide water to the soil.
The violets you get in most of the stores are grown in a medium to retain water because of the environment they will be in before they get sold. They need to be repotted when you get them home or at the very least - if they are sopping wet (and most are) you should place them on a folded stack of paper towels that will suck the water out of them until they are just damp, not soaking wet. Repotting in your growing medium is best. This is how to repot a violet.
SHELVES - I use the natural light in my south and east windows so I put brackets on the windows and cut six inch boards into 3 foot pieces to screw onto the brackets. I paint them white and/or glue aluminum foil to some of the shelves to reflect light. You can hang shelves on any wall and use lighting for your violets too.
RACKS - Many people use wire racks to grow their violets. It's easy to attach grow lights to the racks.
TRAYS - Trays provide humidity for the plants. They can also be used to wick water groups of plants. I use individual round trays with aquarium gravel in them for my violets. I water the gravel and what the plant doesn't take into the soil stays in the gravel to provide humidity.
LABELS & MARKERS - You can be innovative and cut up old plastic mini blinds or as modern as using a label maker to make your labels. I sometimes just write on the plastic pots with a sharpie for babies and leaf pots. To re-use the pots, I just wipe off the writing with fingernail polish remover. For violets that are in their permanent pot, I tape a hand written sticker on the pot. I use to use plant sticks but they sometimes get in the way of growth and distort my leaves so I quit using them. Whatever works for you is the best way. If you want to get fancy or you're displaying them, you could use tiny little plastic cocktail forks and use cards like they do in the shows. You might also want to write on the pot somewhere in case the card falls off. :)
PLANT LIST - You don't really need a working database unless you are growing a large collection, showing, are hybridizing or selling but it's nice to have a list of all your plants in case you want to trade with someone or sell an extra plant. I like to take pictures of my plants in bloom and put them into a file folder on an external hard drive so I keep a picture database (and blog) organized by alphabetical order. I am not a scientist so I don't use dates, conditions, size, color descriptions, numbers, etc. but you can be as organized and detailed as you want. Most people at least have a list of their varieties once they get past a dozen or so plants.
LITTLE PRETTIES - (OK, these are not technically tools, but) I love to display little pretty nic-nacs on my shelves between my plants. Like a love charm, I think it helps them grow. I love gnomes, ceramic birds, wizards, dragons, semi-precious stones, solar butterflies, angels, prisms and I even have a little pair of ruby slippers displayed!
The violets you get in most of the stores are grown in a medium to retain water because of the environment they will be in before they get sold. They need to be repotted when you get them home or at the very least - if they are sopping wet (and most are) you should place them on a folded stack of paper towels that will suck the water out of them until they are just damp, not soaking wet. Repotting in your growing medium is best. This is how to repot a violet.
RACKS - Many people use wire racks to grow their violets. It's easy to attach grow lights to the racks.
LABELS & MARKERS - You can be innovative and cut up old plastic mini blinds or as modern as using a label maker to make your labels. I sometimes just write on the plastic pots with a sharpie for babies and leaf pots. To re-use the pots, I just wipe off the writing with fingernail polish remover. For violets that are in their permanent pot, I tape a hand written sticker on the pot. I use to use plant sticks but they sometimes get in the way of growth and distort my leaves so I quit using them. Whatever works for you is the best way. If you want to get fancy or you're displaying them, you could use tiny little plastic cocktail forks and use cards like they do in the shows. You might also want to write on the pot somewhere in case the card falls off. :)
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LITTLE PRETTIES - (OK, these are not technically tools, but) I love to display little pretty nic-nacs on my shelves between my plants. Like a love charm, I think it helps them grow. I love gnomes, ceramic birds, wizards, dragons, semi-precious stones, solar butterflies, angels, prisms and I even have a little pair of ruby slippers displayed!
