Bromeliad Care & Maintenance
Light Level: Requires medium to bright light
Water: To water fill the cup at the base of the leaves. The water that collects in the pot should be emptied out weekly to remove debris and dead insects that stagnant water tends to lure into the cup. Set the pot in a saucer of gravel filled partially with water to increase humidity and help provide a moist atmosphere. Make sure the roots are not submerged in the water or this might invite rot.
Fertilizing: Bromeliad plant care is easy and requires no special tools or fertilizers. Feed the plants with a half strength fertilizer every month in the growing season.
Your bromeliad plant will start to die within a year or two. These epiphytes are not long-lived but will generally start to die back after flowering. Although interior bromeliad plants will fail after a while and cease growth, they will produce offsets, that you can remove and start as new plants. Watch for offsets at the base of the plant and nurture them until they are large enough to break away from the parent plant.
To remove them, cut them away from the parent and then plant them in sphagnum moss mix or any well-draining medium. Then sadly, it’s off to the compost pile with the original bromeliad plant, but you will be left with a little carbon copy that you can tend to its full maturity when the cycle starts all over again. These baby bromeliads require the same care as the parent plant. As soon as the offset forms a cup, it is important to keep it filled with water so the new plant receives adequate moisture.