Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads - Autumn 2015, 1 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi to anyone who's looking in - I guess there's no one posting this early so I'll just be brief (if that's possible) and share a little information.

We all know that when using fertilisers which are too high in Nitrogen, the colour will be drained from the foliage of your Neo’s and Bill’s, so I’ve always aimed for a fertiliser (when I have time to use one) with an N:P:K which is higher in “K” (Potassium) than “N” Nitrogen.

Here’s a little bit of information I read about to improve the foliage colour in Neo’s and Billbergias by adding Potassium in a liquid form; I’ve used it myself and it does work for me .

I read the following article in a Bromeliad Society’s newsletter some time ago:

“CONDY’S CRYSTALS - (Potassium permanganate)
Use Condy’s Crystals to provide Potash (Potassium) in a liquid form. Just add to water until water is dark pink in colour and water the whole plant. A few drops in a bucket of water, will turn the water pink. Controls powdery mildew and is used by some gardeners to kill ants in potted plants. It is toxic to worms!”

As I’ve always been very wary about vague measurements such as above (“a few drops” in a bucket of water) and I couldn’t get it in liquid form so I couldn’t add “a few drops”.

As all I could find was in crystal form and after much experimenting I have found the following to be successful. I use a plastic type measuring spoon of the type provided with “Manutec” products. It has a 1gm measure on one end and 5gm measure on the other and is extremely handy (See picture). Using this, I measure out 1.5gm and mix it with 100litres of water.

This is then sprayed all over my brom’s (saturating the foliage and into the potting mix as well) using the garden hose with a watering wand attached. The hose is connected to a swimming pool pump which draws from 100 litre tank. You obviously don’t need to make up 100 litres and you can break it down by reducing the amount of water and crystals.

When looking for Condy’s Crystals, you would be better off looking for it under its chemical name which is Potassium Permanganate or Permanganate of Potash. It is available at chemist shops and some produce stores or places that sell equine supplies.

To read more about it go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_permanganate

Condy’s Crystals has several other uses to those I have mentioned and you can read about them at:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/life-style/9095074/Bu...

The picture shows the type of plastic measure I use and which is found in "Manutec" products such as Bloom Booster.

All the best, Nev.