Bromeliad fail

[Simpo Two]

I'm usually quite good with houseplants but this one took me by surprise.

I bought it about six months ago and watered it as normal, but after a few weeks realised that the spike, which was red when I bought it, had died at the top and is going brown all the way down.

However the foliage around it looks quite happy. Should I cut the spike out and hope it regrows, or try to extricate a side growth and start again with a new pot? Any bromeliad experts here?

[Simpo Two]

Any takers?

[kiethton]

We have a few of these around the house and that's totally normal isn't it - the central one on ours has died, withers from the top down and the new shoots around it then come up.

I've cut the central stalk back, to the ground for one, and am now watching the new shoots grow up around the stump

[Simpo Two]

Interesting, I thought it was supposed to stay red and then flower perhaps. My guess was that I didn't water it enough (apparently you're supposed to add water into the crown) and it had died back as a result.

[Matt Harper]

Where I live, these are weeds. I struggle to get rid of the damn things!

[Simpo Two]

Matt Harper said:

Where I live, these are weeds. I struggle to get rid of the damn things!

'A weed is simply a plant in the wrong place' - send a few over

[AdamV12V]

That's completely normal, although the flowers do last a very long time as you have seen, they don't last forever.

We bought one exactly the same type as that and kept it going for 5-6 years but it sprouted babies around the edges and once of a decent size the new plants took their turn to flower, each flowering once then going brown before we cut out the dead bloom. The green leaves however kept growing even on the original central plant albeit occasionally the odd brown leaf needed to be trimmed away.

All in all Id say we had 10-15 new plants sprout and bloom before finally loosing the whole bunch when we moved house and I had to keep it in the greenhouse over last winter, which turned out to be too cold for it!

And yes, you do water them into the crowns not the soil around them, although a little overspill will do no harm.

Cheap plants overall and on the whole pretty low maintenance.

[Simpo Two]

That's very useful,. thanks.

Can I cut the brown section out now, because it looks ugly, or do I wait until it's died all the way down?

As for the bushy growth around the edges, do I need to re-pot? - ie does the thing get bigger and bigger?

[AdamV12V]

Simpo Two said:

That's very useful,. thanks.

Can I cut the brown section out now, because it looks ugly, or do I wait until it's died all the way down?

As for the bushy growth around the edges, do I need to re-pot? - ie does the thing get bigger and bigger?

Just cut away the brown flower and leaves to the line of where its still green. If more dies later, cut that away too....

I re-potted ours twice in the period of ownership. By the end the bunch of flowers was a good 30cm diameter in a large indoor tub. Give the plant a decent amount of space to grown new babies around it - way more than the tiny budget put it comes it. I used a bag of std compost, nothing special and it seemed very happy.

Here one of the few piccies I have - not the best really but you get the idea of size and multiple plants each with one bloom. This ex-goldfish bowl was its interim re-pot before it outgrew it a year or two later. Started out looking very much like yours did sizewise...

[Simpo Two]

Blimey, that's something to aim for!

Except mine is on a windowsill so hopefully I can persuade it to expand left/right, or I won't be able to draw the curtains!