Tillandsias, often known as air plants, are a common and simple to grow plant. They’ve become incredibly popular and are frequently utilized in homes and workplaces. They naturally grow on another host, tree, or item and are considered an epiphyte, along with orchids and bromeliads, without taking nutrition from its host. They need water, light, and nutrients but no soil to flourish. Through microscopic capillaries on their leaves known as trichomes, air plants can absorb moisture and nutrients from the atmosphere. What a cool thing!
Despite being incredibly easy to maintain, air plants nevertheless require some care in order to flourish. Tillandsias can live for several years with proper care and give birth to “pups” (baby air plants) for added enjoyment. We’ve provided highly detailed care advice that is supposed to be helpful. We merely want to arm you with the knowledge you need to take excellent care of your tillandsias. Keep in mind that air plants are quite simple to maintain.
Light
- Any plant needs light to survive, but fortunately, air plants may survive with filter sunlight or even artificial light.
- Place your air plant between three and five feet from a window or close to a source of artificial light.
- An air plant should not receive too much sunshine, even inside. Choose a spot that is only somewhat shaded if you are growing outside. Few plants can withstand full-day sun.
Watering
- The most crucial thing to keep in mind is that each air plant will need a different amount of water depending on its variety, size, and environment of growth. These are recommendations, not unalterable laws.
- Watering air plants at least once a week is beneficial when growing them inside. The location’s humidity affects frequency. In comparison to a plant grown in a more humid environment, an air plant grown close to a heater will dry up considerably more quickly and require more frequent watering.
- Place your air plant face down in water, in a container or in your sink, and let it soak there for 10 to 20 minutes to hydrate it. Alternately, you might repeatedly submerge plants in water. To avoid rotting or damage, gently shake off extra water after soaking.
- Water should ideally be applied early in the day so that moisture can evaporate. After four hours, they should be dry enough to be put back in a container or on display.
- While spraying your tillandsia sometimes can be helpful, it is not always advised.
- Use a houseplant or orchid fertilizer with a low copper content if you want to feed your air plant because they are extremely sensitive to copper. Don’t fertilize your plant too frequently because it’s quite easy to overfeed it; diluting your fertilizer can help.
- You can soak your air plants in water (in a bowl or sink) for several hours or overnight if they ever appear “thirsty” or like they are having trouble. This frequently aids in reviving your tillandsia.
- Rainwater or pond water work best for watering tillandsia. Never use distilled or artificially softened water to water your plants.
- Dehydrated plants’ leaves are closed and coiled, while healthy air plants have wide, open leaves.
- An air plant’s flower or blossom should never be submerged because doing so can cause rotting.
Environment
- Your air plants will thrive in a bathroom or kitchen window, where the steam and moisture will make them extremely content.
- The growth and water requirements of air plants can be impacted by temperature. Between 10 and 32 degrees Celsius, air plants thrive (50F-90F). Since tillandsia are extremely sensitive to cold, freezing temperatures are one thing they do not enjoy.
- It makes sense that air plants need clean, healthy air to grow. They require considerable air movement after watering so that they can dry out in 4 hours.
- Although it is fairly common to place tillandsia in containers or terrariums and they have thrived there, it is not advised that they be completely enclosed in them. No air circulation means your plant won’t have any moisture or nutrients.
- Keep your plants away from heater and air conditioner vents so they don’t dry out too quickly and require additional watering.
Other Tips
- Do not ever submerge an air plant in soil. They don’t need soil because it will just make them decay.
- In addition to gaining new leaves, your air plant will also shed some. You can use scissors to clip off any brown or dead leaves for aesthetic purposes. Cut at a sharp angle so that the leaves still have a natural appearance to “conceal” this trimming.
- Although they are not necessary and just serve to anchor the plant to a host, roots may already be present or continue to grow. Depending on your preference, you can either leave the roots on or chop them off.
- You can use E3000 super glue (other glues can come loose over time/when wet or harm your plant) or string to secure your air plant in place on decorative “hosts.” With your air plant, stay away from pressure-treated wood and copper.
- As air plants develop, they can produce both blooms and pups, which are their young. Pups can either be removed when they are 1/3 the size of the mother plant or left on the mother plant to form a “clump” that hangs in a longer string.
The source of nitrogen for air plants.
To maintain life, humans need enormous amounts of food and liquids. In order to survive and thrive in harsh settings, air plants have evolved to do the same. Tillandsia has developed special evolutionary characteristics that enable it to control and store nutrients and moisture.
We will divide air plants into two distinct climatic groups—Xeric and Mesic—because they originate from various biological climates. Like Xerographica and Harisii, Xeric tillandsia inhabit dry, drought-prone areas where water is frequently in short supply. Like Bulbosa Belize and Streptophylla, mesic tillandsia thrive in humid environments with frequent downpours of rain, fog, or mist. Tillandsia have evolved in various ways since these are very distinct habitats. Check out more information on Mesic and Xeric Tillandsia.
Transporting Nutrients From Air to Plant
Both types of plants contain comparable structural elements. Each individual’s epidermis and hypodermis, which together make up their “skin. The skin’s outer layer, the epidermis, guards the water-storing hypodermis. Mesic plants often have thinner hypodermis, whereas xeric plants must store more water like a camel. The Xeric climate category includes the majority of air plants now used in commercial production. Because they must rely on them more for collecting food and water, xeric tillandsia likewise have more trichomes than their mesic counterparts. Mesic tillandsia rely more on accumulating water and nutrient-rich debris in their axils, therefore they have fewer and more dispersed trichomes (spaces between leaves at the base of the plants.) Then, a very intricate system of transporting nutrients and moisture “Vascular networks. These obvious variations serve as an excellent example of the remarkable adaptations that have allowed air plants to survive in harsh and constantly shifting environments.
What Do They Do with the Food & Water?
Like other plants, Tillandsia require energy to preserve existing plant cells and produce new ones that make up the plant’s physical structure. Most plants employ a process called photosynthesis to create energy from inorganic materials like sunlight, water, CO2, and minerals. Through a multistep process, the plant’s epidermal cells absorb photosynthetically active radiation, or PAR, and turn it into sugars. These sugars can be digested, saved, and utilised by the plant as energy. To produce new leaves and preserve its health, energy is used. Added energy is required for blooming or reproduction. When a plant is living in the wild, the minerals and nutrients from the trees, wood, or rock on which it is growing seep off. These nutrients are delivered to the plant through water, where they are absorbed. This system is always active in a home or greenhouse, but we can speed up the process by adding fertilizer.
What Does My Plant Need to Thrive?
Nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus are just a few of the nutrients that air plants crave. These are present in regular plant fertilizers, but not in the proper amounts or ratios. For the majority of plants, soil must first break down fertilizer’s nitrogen component before plants can eat it. Since air plants don’t grow on soil, they need to find other ways to get nitrogen. Nitrogens from ammonia and nitrate can be consumed right away and without the soil having to break them down. The precise ratio of minerals that directly benefit air plants is only present in fertilizers for epiphytes.
Air Plant Fertilizer
Our fertilizer for water-soluble plants was created especially for air plants. Our special air plant fertilizer was created with the help of a community of growers and enthusiasts across the Americas. Trials were run to gauge the growth, blooming, and pup-production cycles. It only takes a tiny bit of fertilizer concentration. If you employ the soaking method for watering, all you need to do is combine one-quarter teaspoon with one gallon of water; it will last you for several months. For ease of usage, some individuals choose to pour this mixture into a spray bottle. Just make sure the fluid is thoroughly diluted before using the sprayer. The greatest strategy to promote blooming and blushing in your plants is to fertilize them while also providing them with lots of water and bright light. Additionally, it is the finest method for growing pups or new plant buds.
What do plants in the air eat?
More like pets than other plants, air plants are adorable. It doesn’t matter if a variety is fuzzy, furry, spiky, or trailing—it is impossible to resist. Usually very little, soilless air plants are simple to grow. As their name suggests, air plants use scales on their leaves to absorb nutrients and water from the atmosphere. Because they are simple to maintain and don’t require a lot of light to thrive, they are popular as indoor plants right now.
Where do air plants get their water?
Tillandsia air plants use their leaves to absorb water. Not their roots; they mostly use them to affix to things like wood or other plants.
Trichomes give most air plants their velvety appearance. They have structures that resemble hairs and use them to absorb water. Some air plants’ trichomes give them the appearance of being dusted with white powder.
Why do air plants require fertilizers to grow?
Tillandsia, often known as air plants, are soilless and grow by floating in the air.
- Air plants, which are epiphytes and a member of the Bromeliad family, cling to other plants for support yet are independent of their hosts.
- They use their leaves to collect moisture and nutrients rather than their roots, which are only used to affix themselves to other plants or objects.
- In the wild, they could live alongside a tree or establish an abode atop a rock. As long as they have enough light and air, air plants don’t have many preferences on where they live at home. They are content living on anything as tiny as a wine bottle cork, within a glass globe that is suspended, or even growing from a piece of driftwood.
- These hardy plants offer adaptable home decor additions because there are more than 600 species with different sizes, shapes, colors, and forms.
How are air plants able to eat?
Let’s take a quick look at what air plants are in order to better understand how to care for them. The following air plant care advice makes a lot more sense after you understand how and where these plants naturally develop.
Members of the bromeliad family include air plants. They are a sizable group of plants belonging to the Tillandsia genus, which has hundreds of distinct species. As epiphytes, air plants adhere to the branches of trees and shrubs using their tiny roots rather of growing in the ground. Air plants are not regarded as parasites because they do not steal nutrients from their host plant. They merely use their host as a mooring and a place to dwell, as opposed to that.
Instead of using their roots, air plants collect moisture and nutrients through their leaves. Members of the Tillandsia genus have roots that are used to anchor the plant to the tree it grows on. While some air plant species have huge, strap-like leaves, others have tiny, thread-like leaves.
Air plants can survive in a variety of temperatures and are indigenous to the southern United States, Central and South America, and Mexico. However, no species can endure winters with low temperatures of much less than 40 degrees F. Because they take up moisture through their leaves, air plants love warm, humid environments. In most homes, especially during the winter, the humidity level is insufficient for air plants. Therefore, taking care of air plants entails giving them regular waterings.
Should air plants be fed?
Fertilizer: Are Air Plants Necessary? Although feeding air plants has some advantages, it is not necessary to do so. A lifetime of flowering for an air plant results in the production of “pups” or tiny offsets from the mother plant.
How can I speed up the growth of my air plant?
You’ve had your air plant for a few months, but despite your tender care and attention, it seems to be doing nothing. What is happening? How quickly do air plants actually grow? Don’t give up just yet; air plants called tillandsias actually grow quite slowly. They will eventually grow and blossom if given the right care; it just takes time!
Although certain species of Tillandsia grow more quickly than others, on the whole, they grow quite slowly, which makes them all the more unique when you have a huge specimen plant to exhibit! The growth rate of an air plant will also vary depending on whether it is a tillandsia seedling or an offset from propagation. The first two years of a seedling’s existence are spent growing slowly, rarely exceeding one inch in size. After the first few years, they begin to grow slightly more quickly as they reach bigger in size. Even though plants grown from seeds grow more slowly, they often are larger and better specimens than plants grown from offsets. In comparison to plants grown from seeds, plants developed from offsets or “propagation” grow far more quickly and typically blossom within the first few years as the cycle continues and they create offset of their own!
It can take a long time for the Tillandsia fasciculata tropiflora to reach this size.
Consider the locations where your species of air plant grows in the wild when caring for your air plants. Does the species come from a dry, arid desert with little water (xeric), a cloud forest at a high elevation, or a humid, rainy rainforest (mesic)? Due to the changes in climate, plants located in these particular climates will exhibit particular features and grow accordingly. Plants may develop more slowly in dry climates than in more humid, moisture-rich conditions.
Look at our blog entry (Mesic Vs. Xeric Air Plants) for more information on the distinctions between mesic and xeric plants, as well as what conditions each will require in terms of water and light.
Your ability to accurately recreate the plant’s natural environment will have a significant impact on how quickly it grows. Patience is essential because it might take years for a small air plant to develop and blossom. Although it’s not an exact science, your plant can surprise you and grow and blossom more quickly than usual!
If your plant hasn’t produced pups or offsets yet, don’t worry; it might just be a slower-growing plant. Most air plants will produce pups or offsets during the first year of their existence, after blooming. Just keep giving your plant the attention it needs and making sure it gets enough water and light.
This puppy is developing slowly. It can take a long time for T. xerographica to reach maturity.
T. xerographica is one of the Tillandsia species that grows slowlyest; it can take years for it to reach a size where it can bloom and produce pups. Small T. xerographica plants, which have a diameter of 4-5 inches, may be 3-5 years old! The T. capitata and T. harrisii are two other slow-growing plants that get rather big.
These large-growing Tillandsia plants, which are all slow-growing (top to bottom, left to right): T. harrisii, T. xerographica, T. xerographica in bud, and T. capitata
The T. ionantha variant, T. stricta, T. aeranthos, and T. brachycaulos are some of the air plants with the fastest growth rates. These plants are all categorized as mesic varieties, which implies they prefer more water and filtered indirect light.
These Tillandsia species that develop more quickly bloom and produce pups than other species. (From top to bottom, left to right) T. ionantha, T. stricta, T. brachycaulos, and T. aeranthos
In addition to routine watering, you can give your plants a boost by fertilizing them once a month. This will promote quicker growth, blooming, and pup production. To encourage the growth of your air plant, check out and buy our specially designed Tillandsia fertilizer!
Be patient with your plants; they will grow best with the right amount of light, water, and airflow. When the seasons change, such in the summer or winter, you need alter your care routine. You should have a healthy air plant that eventually blooms and gives birth to pups! You could even manage to cultivate a sizable specimen air plant!