African Violets And Pinball

So, once a week I go to pinball night at this guy JR's house. A few of us get together and play his zillion machines (Ok, like 100) and just have a blast. Not like a formal club, but I might as well call it that for lack of a better word.

When I first started going a few months ago, I noticed an African violet that needed repotting. JR informed me it was his girlfriend's, and I asked him to ask her for permission to repot it. At a later visit, he said that would be fine--I was thrilled! I'd really love to get it to bloom for her.

This weekend we all met up to do cleaning and maintenance on the machines to get them ready for the upcoming PinMaineia tournament. I brought my repotting supplies too, of course!

Cleaning Pin*Bot.. "Now I see you.."

After doing a thorough cleaning of Diner, Bad Cats, Cyclone, and my personal fave, Pin*Bot, I played a few games (gotta make sure they work after being cleaned, after all) and then finally got around to working on that plant!

Here's it is! It was potted in a heavy mix (I guarantee the soil mix it came in from the store), and a cute outer decorative pot.. Quite pretty, iridescent. All those yellow leaves need to come off, They're just not contributing anything to the plant at this point, and it needs to get free of that heavy soil.

The plant and plastic pot taken out of the decorative pot.

I plucked off the yellowest leaves and also removed ALL that old heavy store soil and left only the roots.

I repotted it into a smaller pot using my mix (1/2 African violet mix and 1/2 perlite), and set it up for wicking to make life easier for JR and his girlfriend.

All done! The wicking jar and new smaller pot all fit inside the pretty iridescent decorative one! (Yes, that was my goal) Much smaller now, but it will grow fast, and I think it'll be blooming in no time!