I have never, ever fertilized my broms here in S. Fl. I have hundreds and they are beautiful. I'm sure I should but they seem to be doing just fine. They are in pots, some buried, some not but were potted up with a good enriched potting soil. I flush the cups out about every other month. I'm sure someone will chime in with whats the best fert method. Just know that if you forget for like a year they will be a-ok LOL.

Hi everyone.

Matthew – I
understand where you’re coming from as I too am reluctant to use chemical
sprays and always look for a more natural alternative where ever possible.
Although I haven’t tried all of the remedies below, I know of growers who have
had success with them and have no hesitation in passing them on to you.

First let
say that the old saying of “prevention is better than cure“ could well be
applied to plants, and if you can keep the insects away, the problem goes away
with them. I found out when using a very safe and low toxicity insecticide
called Clensel”, that one of the ingredients (citronella) is a very good insect
repellent and by simply spraying this insecticide or citronella oil around the
rim of the pot, the usual flying insects just seemed to vanish, and this is the
method I’ve been using ever since.

The other
insects that sometimes infests bromeliads (especially in over-crowded
situations) are Scale and Mealy Bug. These I find can easily be controlled
safely with Rob Smythe’s Canola Oil Spray -
See http://fcbs.org/articles/canola.htm. 

As for
fertilising; if bromeliads are grown in the garden they will usually find their
own nourishment. As for pot grown plants, I find that they will grow quite
happily without added fertiliser as there are usually sufficient additives in
good quality commercial potting mixes. If you make your own mix, to feed them
naturally, just the addition of some type of animal manure will usually
suffice. They are very resilient plants and are natural survivors.

Although I
say this, it doesn’t mean bromeliads won’t respond much better when appropriate
fertilisers are used at the correct rate. Indeed many commercial growers over
fertilise in my opinion and apply fertilisers each time plants are watered, but
these growers have the experience and know the exact rate the plants will
tolerate.

For an
inexperienced “backyard grower” to over fertilise, they are often courting
disaster and if for example the recommended dose makes the plant grow well,
doubling or tripling that dose won’t necessarily make the plant grow two or
three times better and can in fact sometimes lead to its demise.

In habitat,
most of our commonly grown brom’s grow on trees and the only fertiliser they
get comes from a “soup” (very dilute natural fertiliser) in the central vase
which is manufactured from a breakdown of water, fallen leaf litter and bird
and small animal droppings. As these things break down they make a very dilute
natural fertiliser which is available to the plant on a continuous basis.

Many of the
old time vegetable gardeners would (and some still do) successfully copy this
“little and often” method by using very dilute poultry and/or animal manures on
a weekly basis, (Weakly and weekly) in their quest to stay away from chemical
fertilisers.

When I was a
boy (a very long time ago) the accepted method of making poultry manure was to
tip a gallon tin of poultry manure into a hessian bag and suspend it in a large
garbage bin full of water. This was allowed to steep for about three weeks and the
subsequent liquid was diluted with water until it was the colour of “weak tea”
and applied each month.

If it was
applied more often to conform to “little and often” standards, this weak tea
was diluted even further by mixing one part to four parts of water which
resulted in an almost clear liquid. This could then be safely applied each week
and many gardeners said it produced a much better result than the monthly feed.

I hope the
above goes some way in helping you to grow brom’s using natural methods.

All the
best, Nev.

Hi Matthew,

A healthy well fed plant generally won't be susceptible to disease and bug attack.

If you balance sunlight/heat and water and nutrients/fertilizer you will get maximum growth, remove one of these components from the equation and you won't get optimal results.

Small outbreaks of soft scale and mealy bug is easily hosed off with a jet of water, larger outbreaks or hard/fly speck scale can be controlled by submerging your bromeliad for 24hours in a pond or bucket (when temps are warm).

Scale tends to attack weaker plants, softer plants are often targeted first as are variegates with lots of white in the leaf (due to no chlorophyll being produced by white pigments) - you can use this to your advantage, find a plant that is susceptible and use that as your trigger to manage your disease regime.

Seasol is a seaweed extract in Australia which is a good tonic to strengthen plants and prevent disease - I'm not sure if there are similar seaweed/seawater type extracts in the US but they would be worth trying.

Fertilising (organic or non-organic) when done properly will generally produce stronger plants and greatly increase the number of offsets produced.

Potash will help make plants stronger and will encourage the development of flowers.

Cheers,

Rick