it depends on the mix. if your sphag does not dry up it prolly means your mix does not have enough perlite. i grow my epi's in shallow tubs, about 1" of mix. if yours are in deeper pots they will dry up slower..as you say..it all depends :) as i go away for long periods ...my reservoir does not stay full for long ;). when wicks are unattended, the top layer tends to dry up while the bottom is still ok (when the pot is deep enough..but mine are not! hence sphag) i also always have some stuff in pure perlite rooting..on wick too. yes, perlite wicks but weakly. sometimes i add a bit of coir dust (coir peat) to it just on the surface to improve wicking. and in a hurry, sphag on top. both begonias and epi's will root into sphag nicely.

Luv, I've been using that kind of pot for several years and it works just fine for me. Like Ardy says, *definitely* check to see if there is a crack of any kind in the inner pot! If that isn't the problem, it is almost surely that the soil is too heavy. I had the same problem the first time I used one. The directions that came with it said to lighten the soil with perlite. However, lightening the commercial AV soil with *a little* perlite was not enough; I ended up mixing the commercial AV soil with about 1/2 perlite to get it light enough. Now that I know about the 1/3perlite-1/3vermiculite-1/3coir (or peat or AV soil)-see the FAQ 'Basic Care of African Violets'-, I take the 1/3-1/3-1/3 mix and add *extra* perlite to it for my self-watering containers. African Violets seem to need as much air around their roots as water. As an aside, the other thing I learned was that the pots I had were *way* too big for the violets I had in them. I lucked out and the plants I had bloomed anyway, but the top dimension of the inner pot should not be more than 1/3 (again with that pesky 1/3) the diameter of the plant's crown. If this is new information for you, check out the same FAQ as above for more explanation. If it is not new, sorry about the regurgitation!~smile~ Happy Growing, Feegle ~who had to put other kinds of plants in the 4.5inch self-watering pots.

excessfroufrou!! Hi there! Miss Frou Frou is still in a prime spot on my bookshelf. :) Pretty as ever! Please do take a picture. I know what you mean about feeling like a LOL. When I was about 20 we rented a house from this "old" lady and she had gorgeous African Violets. We had to go to her house once a month to pay rent and she'd go on and on about them. I was really into plants back then. She was also one of the very few female attorneys in Oklahoma..when she got her degree. If I can grow the four I ordered, I'm thinking about getting a tiered stand for them. We have so many trees around our acre and I may not have much direct sunlight come spring and summer. My only east window gets sun all year long except there's a floor vent close to the area. Not sure if that'd be good or not. I'm going to Walmart in the morning to scope out their plants, IF they have any. Can't wait for the pics!

For a miniature plant, usually a pot 2" in diameter will be fine. African Violets like to be root bound and should be repotted in fresh soil at least twice a year (i.e. soil replaced or only if necessary, moved to one size larger pot). I learned lots of useful tips from Baby Violets blog when I started to grow violets: https://www.babyviolets.com/ideal-conditions-to-grow-african-violets/ Hope this helps, Cooks