Bromeliad Care and Propagation - Guzmania

Bromeliad Guzmania like sunlight but not direct hot sun that will scorch the leaves, they can tolerate slightly shady areas but prefers warm humid areas and won’t tolerate the cold.

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USA: https://geni.us/HarvestKnife

They do have a kind of cup inside the stem where they catch water so you can water it by pouring a small amount down into the cup of the plant where the flower comes out but don’t put too much because if it sits in there for too long it will just rot out the plant. Ideally, rainwater.

Don’t overwater as they can rot if they sit in wet conditions for too long. Mist with rainwater or demineralized water to keep up the humidity.

The fertilizer is not really important as they only flower once in their life and then die, most will already be flowering when you buy them anyway and they don’t take up energy from the roots anyway, Bromeliads are epiphytes which means they grow on other living things like trees the same as Orchids and Tillandsia - what we call air-plants, so it’s not using the soil to take up nutrients, it gets it from the humid air around it. You can buy some houseplant mist that will have nutrients in the mist which are perfect for orchids and Bromeliads.

Not many people know that Bromeliad only flower once in their life and once the flower is done it dies. So many people buy one and are waiting for another flower and then it just dies!

But before it dies it produces pups from the base so you can take them off and you will get three more plants from the mother before it dies.

When the flower finishes you have two options, you could pot it on into a bigger pot and the pups will grow and flower and those pups will grow pups and it will get bigger and bigger over time which looks pretty cool, or you can remove the pups and create new single flowering plants.

I’ve got two here so I’m going to let one grow and see how it looks and I’m going to remove the pups from the other one and have some fun with them.

Orchid bark is best to grow them in, compost will stay too wet for it really.

Get your own multi-purpose Harvest Knife:
UK: https://tidd.ly/3LjP4f5
USA: https://geni.us/HarvestKnife