How to grow and total care guide for Air Plants (Tillandsia)?

I want you to picture a house plant. What do you see? A pot with soil and a plant in right?! Well, what if you don’t need a pot or even soil! Well, how could a plant live without soil? AIR PLANTS! 

Tillandsias are commonly known as Air plants because they get most of their nutrition from the air. Sounds cool right! They’re very unique and look very interesting as if they don’t have roots! They are Epiphytes which means they don’t need soil to grow. This makes them perfect for indoors.

So, if there is no soil does this plant have care needs? Of course! It’s a living being so it does need some care, but barely anything! 

You can keep air plants anywhere you want. The only care it needs is water misting or soaking. According to where you’ve kept the plant, decide how often you want to mist the plant. If your house is humid you can skip watering. Or you can soak the plant is water for an hour or so every week or 2. After you soak the air plant, be sure to let it dry completely.

Try to keep the plant in bright indirect light. Too much direct sunlight can make the tips brown and dry out.

Here are 2 tips to help you with watering.

If the ends/tips of the leaves start browning, you may be under-watering it. But if the base of the plant starts getting brown or mushy, you may be overwatering it.

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Now the common question; Do these plants really grow? Of course, they do! Slowly but surely! So, if you want a big air plant, I suggest you buy one that already big enough. To give you an idea, it takes around 2 to 4 years for an air plant seed to grow into a plant that’s of considerable size!

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Talking about propagation, if you see small pups growing from the base of the mother plant, slowly separate the leaves and snip the part where the pup is connected to the base.

These plants are really a statement piece! You can use them in your home as a very cool décor. You can place them in clear glass fish bowls or hanging glass bulbs to make a very cool eye-catcher!

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I hope you have a lovely day!

Until next time,

Gayatri Vaidya©