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Bromeliads
heathen1

Billbergia care

21 years ago

Okay... I have a total of 8 different bromeliads of varying types. All are doing splendid, growing happily, except for my 2 Billbergia. I have checked, no fungus, no slugs, nothing obvious, they just aren't growing. They are in a greenhouse, never dry out for long periods, and I don't think they are too wet, considering we have almost no humidity here (hence the greenhouse) Could it be they need more light? I was afraid to give them more than early morning sun here, cuz most tropicals, especially the serious understoreys can't take much Sacramento sun. Any suggestions?

Featured Answer
  • 11 years ago

    Hi everyone.

    I live in Australia so can only comment on what I've found with Billbergias here in my own conditions. The temperature range here is 18 degrees C (64.4F) to 28 degrees C (82.4F) in summer and 8 degrees C (46.4F) to 17 (62.6F) degrees C in winter. There are exceptions where the winter temperature has dropped to 0 (32F) occasionally and summer temperatures have reaches heatwave levels of up to 44 degrees C (112F), but these are rare.

    I live just one street back from the ocean so we have reasonable humidity all year around.

    I grow my Billbergias beneath 75% beige shade cloth either suspended or in racks (See pic.)


    at a height of from .5 - 1.0 metre below the top of the roof.

    Originally I grew my plants on benches in similar size pots to other growers but could never achieve the colour I wanted, I've since re-potted them in smaller pots and suspended them all from the roof and since then the colour has improved dramatically. The only fertiliser they get is when they are initially potted up and from then on, nothing.

    This is what I do under my conditions and may not suit yours but you may be able to use some of this information to improve the colour of your plants.

    Remember Good Light = Good Colour and high Nitrogen fertilisers will take it away.


    All the best, Nev.

    Comments (13)

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