Hi everyone,
I have finally started to get some growth with my bromeliads and am wondering how to deal with new shoots coming out of my bromeliads. I am wondering what other people do in the hobby. Do you cut off new shoots or let them just grow. At what point can you cut off new shoots?
thank you!
Let em grow if you want. That's natural and broms look so much healthier and beautiful when there are numerous offshoots. The only time I consider cutting the brown stems of the pups is when the growth is so crazy as to 'outgrow' the vivarium and that usually takes 3-5 years.
I think the general rule is to cut when the pup is at least half the size as the mother. My usual routine is to cut the pups off when they get in the way (mine seem to have a talent for sticking a pup on a stem such that the pup ends up hitting the front glass and interfering with the door).
Thank you both chuck and Phil for the reply. Do either of you, or anyone else do anything special to maintain bromeliads? I was wondering if bromeliads can absorb nutrients from dead insects such as flies and isopods that fall into the centers of the plants? If so does anyone think it is beneficial to intentionally put ff's or springtails or whatever into the centers of a bromeliad to give it extra nutrients?
No need for added nutrients. There will be occasional FF and microfauna that will die in the axils on their own.
crayy8 Wrote:Thank you both chuck and Phil for the reply. Do either of you, or anyone else do anything special to maintain bromeliads? I was wondering if bromeliads can absorb nutrients from dead insects such as flies and isopods that fall into the centers of the plants? If so does anyone think it is beneficial to intentionally put ff's or springtails or whatever into the centers of a bromeliad to give it extra nutrients?
I don't keep much beyond the typical hobby neos, but for those I don't do anything other than mount them, and let them get the same light and humidity everything else in the viv gets, and generally they grow like weeds. They also seem to accumulated plenty of drowned FFs on their own, whether it benefits them or not. My usual mounting routine is to drill a hole to insert the stem, and then hot-glue them in to give them a chance to put down holdfasts.
For broms outside the viv, I've got mother plants usually on whatever potting soil they came in - those I wet the top of the soil once a week or so, and occasionally slosh a little water in the axil (mostly by accident); and pups I've cut which I keep in deli cups with an inch or so of orchid bark on top of hydroton. Those get topped off to the bottom of the orchid bark once a week or so. If I'm feeling particularly crazy I may hand mist them once in a blue moon. No other care to speak of.
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Thanks for the insight Chuck. Also, very nice plant collection. Looks great!