Question
I have been growing African violets and recently have had a problem with dense, crowning leaves in the center of the plant. The leaves are so thick together that it almost looks like another plant coming up from the center.  The other problem I have is a white powdery substance on the leaves.  Any suggestions??  Thank you so much.

Answer
Darlene, First, the white powdery substance is most likely powdery mildew.  It often attacks varioius plants, especially AVs because they love moisture and humidity so much.  More on that in a sec...

The dense leaves in the center of the plant is common.  It a simply new growth.  Sounds as if you have your violet in a perfect location, so therefore it gets lots of morning sun, so therefore the new growth starts in the crown, while you will soon notice that the leaves on the outer rim of the plant start to turn brown-- not ALL of them, just a few.  This is a life cycle of healthy leaves, so to speak.

Go to this website for good info on powdery mildew: http://gardening.about.com/od/gardenproblems/a/PowderyMildew.htm

IF you cannot access this site for some reason email me back and I'll copy and paste it for you.