Air Plant Problem

8 years ago

Hey everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster.

I came on cause I have a bit of a problem! I currently own several dozen air plants, and they've been doing really well in my bedroom and kitchen. One of them though is starting to look rough, and I can't seem to figure out why.

About two months ago, I bought this new air plant. It seemed like it was thriving while sitting in a stand on my desk. In the past two weeks though, these weird brown spots have started appearing in the middle of some of the leaves. I figured it can't be rot, cause rot wouldn't start mid-leaf. I thought at first that it might be sun damage, but it's on leaves facing away from the sun, and the areas seem too specific. It almost looks like the leaves have been damaged from being bent or something... But I haven't been rough handling it. It's affected about 50% of the plant's leaves and always in the middle of the leaf.

If anyone has any advice, I'd be more than welcome to it! Thank you <3

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Comments (4)

bcbk
8 years ago
You know, unfortunately, I don't have an exact answer for you. I started growing tillandsia this past March, so I still have a lot to learn. My initial thought was sunburn as well, but those "burn spots" all look about the same size to me. You mentioned it sits in a stand, what is the stand made out of? Could it be that those leaves were rubbing on the portion of the stand that gets heated from the sunshine? Do you have good air circulation where the plants are?

If those spots bother you, you can just cut them away, the plant will continue to grow out and soon you won't notice the cuts anyway:)

Perhaps growers with more experience here would have a better answer for you. Good luck.
Lars
8 years ago
Sometimes when the leaves are coming out, they get stuck together at certain points and get disfigurations like you have shown, but if this is what is happening, it would have happened when the leaves were opening up. Did this appear suddenly? It looks like the result of some sort of binding or restriction.
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Harris Hallowell
Original Author
8 years ago
@bcbk it's a tall plastic stand about the width of a shot glass. My plant sits in it with only the lower inch-ish of the base of the leaves touching it. That way the rest of the leaves can grow and dangle freely. Nothing touches the rest of the leaf, and definitely not anything near the spots.

Over 3/4ths of the plants sits out in the open air, so it's getting pretty good circulation.

The spots don't really bother me! But it seems like the leaf is dying in those spots, which means everything from the spots to the tips will die too. And with these spots on around half the leaves, that means it'll be losing about 1/4th of itself :/
Harris Hallowell
Original Author
8 years ago
@Lars yes, this happened suddenly. And the spots have appeared on old leaves at the bottom as well has relatively newer leaves towards the top. I haven't bound the plant or restricted it in anyway. Other than the very base of the leaves that touch the rim of the stand it's in, nothing touches the plant :/