I would not remove growing healthy leaves. They protect the roots from heat.

Even the dead leaves hold water and nutrients. But that's probably not a big deal.

I wouldn't remove live leaves unless it was for disease control.

I would remove only dry, dead leaves. Nothing else. I live in coastal Southern California and have lots of bromeliads outdoors and, as I said, I only remove dead leaves.

Hi everyone -

I always remove dead bottom leaves; in fact "dead leafing" is a regular ritual in my collection. Firstly it removes a breeding ground for scale, mealy bug etc. (I never spray with toxic substances and prefer to combat pests via natural methods mainly "good house keeping"). Secondly it improves the appearance of you plants.

One important thing I always do is, cut the leaf off just a couple of inches up from the bottom and then split the remainder of the leaf down the middle first, and then pull each half away from the centre in an outward direction. The leaf being removed will always come away easy and you won't damage any tiny pups just emerging from the base of the plant.

All the best, Nev.

The only time I will remove good leaves is to give pups a chance to grow. It is usually only the one leaf.

Hi everyone -

Yes Sunshine, I forgot to mention that, thanks for reminding me

Sometimes when a pup is growing it becomes restricted by one of the leaves on the mother and if left to fend for itself will sometimes be deformed. As Sunshine says, in these cases you can remove the restricting leaf on the mother to allow the new pup to "spread its wings" so to say.

I also remember some years back when Lisa posted pictures of how she folds offending leaves back and tucks them into the leaf base to solve the same problem; this also works well and I've done it successfully many times myself.

All the best, Nev.
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Oooooo, this is great information! And very timely for me, too. Thanks, everyone!

Carol in Jacksonville