Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR NOVICES AND ADDICTS - JULY 2014, 1 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone - It looks like the weather is on the change here; the freezing southerly breezes have stopped and the we now have a warm nor westerly breeze with a lot of dark cloud cover, who knows, maybe a bit of the rain they have promised us for the past two weeks is on the way.

Teresa - I don't know much about Tillandsias or "air plants" as they are commonly called. They probably got this name because they are so very low in care requirements and even I have a few that grow and flower every year and they are just hanging from a rafter on a bit of plastic coated wire, the only care they get is a bit of misting whenever I water the brom's beneath them.

I've seen pictures of them growing naturally on the overhead telephone and power lines in Mexico (See pic's 1 and 2). In fact they are so prolific in some areas they have to be poisoned by the electricity authorities.

Colleen - I didn't mean to put the "frighteners" into you about the pups in the lawn clippings; I was just relating what happened to me and I know that others can grow them this way successfully.

A few years back there was a thread on an international forum where growers from various countries explained different methods of dealing with Neo and Aechmea pups to get them to root more quickly (especially in the colder months).

Below are some of the methods described in that thread:

1. Stand the base of the pup in the neck of a glass milk bottle with an inch of water in the bottom.

2. Plant all pups together so they support each other in a bed of course propagating sand. Alternatively use Peat Moss or Coco Peat .

3. Grow in lawn clippings (as already described)

4. Use a polystyrene broccoli box (with a lid) and after making holes in the lid large enough to take the base of the pups, put three inches of damp Peat Moss or Coco Peat in the bottom, put the lid on and poke the pups into the holes you've made in the lid.

5. Using a polystyrene broccoli box with a lid (as above) only this time put three inches of water in the bottom instead of the peat.

6. Plant pups in fresh Sphagnum Moss in the normal type pots you use.

7. Plant pups in the same mixture as you plant the adult plant in.

8. Plant pups in the old mix taken from the pot in which the mother plant was growing.

9. Plant pups in a mix of 50/50 new potting mix and old mix from the pot of the mother plant.

10. Plant in a mix of 50/50 potting mix and Sphagnum Moss

11. Plant in a mix of 50/50 Perlite and Sphagnum Moss

12. Plant in a mix of 1/3 Potting Mix, 1/3 Sphagnum Moss and 1/3 Perlite

13. Plant in various mixes after first treating the cut end of the pup with Hormone Rooting Gel

14. Plant in various mixes after first treating the cut end of the pup with Hormone Rooting Powder

15. Plant in various mixes after first treating the cut end of the pup with Honey.

The list went on and on and was a much longer than what I've listed above, in all cases it was important to keep some water in the central cup of the pup..

I guess the bottom line is that there are as many different methods of growing pups as they are growers, and everyone claims to have the best method when in fact the best method is the one that works for you.

I tried many of the above methods as a trial and found they were no better than the method I currently use.

I just wrap some fresh Sphagnum Moss around the heel of the pups (That's the area where the new roots will emerge from) and pot them in my usual mix which is 50/50 Brunnings Orchid Potting Mix and Coco Peat chunks.......It works for me.

That's a nice looking plant of Ae. ‘Ensign' you've posted Colleen; I've always loved the contrast between the colours of the plant and the scarlet bracts of the inflorescence I don't know if you know this or not but it was named after Mr. E.W. Ensign of Orlando, Florida. A single variegated plant and three albino plants were first observed in a flat of Aechmea orlandiana seedlings in May, 1960. The albinos died as would be expected and the variegated plant went on to be registered as Ae. 'Ensign' and is the forefather of all of the Ae Ensign plants we know today.

Time to go, but first a couple of pic’s of Tillandsias growing on power and telephone lines in Mexico followed by three more pic’s of these unusual plants. Pic.3 Til. pohliana, Pic.4 Til. gardneri and Pic.5 Til. tenuifoia

All the best, Nev.