Question
Hi I have an area under my home which is open by large arches at both ends - approximately 14 meters in length. I want to plant guzmania and other thin leafed bromeliads. The area gets no direct sunlight and is about as light as it is about an hour before dusk. (sorry difficult to describe) There is plenty of airflow and the soil I intend using will be a compost, volcanic rock sand and coco-peet mix. We live on a tropical island and during summer months have intense humidity. Please tell me if this is the correct spot or suggest better. Watering under these circumstances?
Many thanks
julie

Answer
Julie,

Guzmania's do not like alot of sun so it sounds like this would be fine. They prefer a well shaded enviroment with plenty of air circulation. These bromeliads do best in pots of bark chips. Consider that they originate from the rain forests and they grow in the wild by attaching themselves to nooks between tree branches. The roots are there to hold the plant in place, not to take in water. Bromeliads take in water through the top of the plant, catching the dripping rain water from the rain forest canopy. If you plant the bromeliad in soil (either in a pot or in the ground) as opposed to bark, the roots will eventually rot.

Here's the best way to care for bromeliads, according to a guy I once met who belongs to a bromeliad society:

Keep the plants in 1-gallon pots of bark with about 25% of potting soil mixed in. Orchid bark (the kind specially blended for potting orchids) is the best. The pot should be the draining kind with lots of holes, not a sealed pot. These can be shallow pots that you have cut down and you cn add chips around the pots so it appears that they are planted in the ground. Locate the plants in a shady area that, at most, gets a couple hours of filtered sunlight a day. Do not put them in direct sunlight. Water them by filling the crown with water. It doesn't matter if water goes into the bark or not. The excess drains out and the bark dries. Water regularly, such that the inside of the crown is never allowed to dry out (it's actually best to keep some amount of water in there all the time, particularly in very hot weather).

A bromeliad flowers once and then dies. Before dying, it sets out side shoots called "pups" that are new bromeliad plants. When the pups get about 1/3 the size of the parent plant, they are ready to be transplanted into their own pot. Use a knife to separate the pups from the parent plant (cut at the root level, not the plant level - that is, don't cut across the bottom of the plant, cut vertically into the root mass to separate the pups). Plant the pups as described above. They will eventually grow, flower, pup, and then die. I hope that helps. Good luck.

Darlene