As we’ve previously indicated, air plants thrive in indirect sunlight. Your air plants will lose moisture due to too much sunshine, and if they are kept in the sun for an extended period of time, they will burn and eventually perish. Tiny scales on the leaves of air plants—properly referred to as trichomes—serve two main purposes. They first aid the plant’s absorption of nutrients and water. They also aid in reflecting sunlight off the leaf surface.
Tectorum Ecuador’s tall, white, and bright trichomes aid in reflecting the intense light in its open, natural habitat. High elevation cliff sides in Peru and Ecuador are home to this species.
In general, you want to keep all of your air plants as far away from direct sunlight as you can, however depending on the plant’s species and climate, certain tillandsia can tolerate more sun than others. Your plant won’t likely fare well in direct sunlight if its leaves are thinner and wispier. This form of air plant may be better able to handle some direct sunlight for sections of the day since its thicker, broader leaves can hold moisture better. Direct sunlight is typically best handled by silver-leaved air plant species like xerographica.
Avoid exposing your air plants to direct sunlight if you live in a southern state or a desert region where the sun is very powerful. Take extra care in arid environments like the desert because the lack of humidity may cause your plants’ damage and drying out from the sun much faster.
We advise placing your indoor air plants near windows if you intend to keep them there. They could also be maintained close to a window that receives shade from a tree or any other form of solar protection. Many people also choose to maintain their air plants at an office with either bright fluorescent lighting or indirect sunlight from windows.
The same rules apply if you keep your air plants outside; just make sure they are totally covered from direct sunlight or in a location where they won’t receive more than an hour of direct sunshine every day. It should be fine to sit on your porch, lanai, or under a tree.
Air plants thrive in shaded patios and porches that only receive light in the early morning and late afternoon.
Brown stains, dried-out patches that emerge on internal growth, and highly unhealthy splotchy appearances of exterior leaves where completely wet are all symptoms of sunburn. If you see any of these symptoms, remove the plant from its current place right away, and ready to perform some little care. Remove the completely damaged exterior leaves by gently pulling them off. If they are difficult to remove, use a pair of scissors to cut away any damaged sections. After removing the plant’s worst damaged areas, give the air plant a nice soak before moving it to a better, shaded location. Continue watering the air plant as usual and add a few daily, light mistings; do not fertilize it until it is fully healthy again. Avoid oversoaking since if the plant is left wet for too long, it may fall apart. Your air plant should quickly return to its happy, healthy self if you are persistent and patient.
Can air plants become overheated?
Here is a list of things to consider while thinking back on the conditions and upkeep of your prized tillandsias, even though there is no conclusive explanation for why any one particular air plant perished.
Over & Under Watering
An air pant can be killed by either too much or too little water. Watering a plant correctly might be challenging at times. Before placing your plant back into a container, soak it for 20 to 30 minutes, shake it out, and let it dry for a few hours. We’ve had the best success making our weekly water baths a tradition. A decent rule of thumb is to observe the leaves’ state the day after a thorough bath. The leaves ought to be open and more flat, not folded or curled. Aim for this appearance with each watering and adjust the frequency accordingly so that your air plants exhibit this appearance the majority of the time. Aeranthos Major is an excellent indicator of hydration in air plants. Depending on the plant’s level of hydration, the leaves of this species significantly curl and open. In smaller species like Ionanthas, the distinction is more pronounced.
When plants are not given enough time to completely dry out in between water baths, they will succumb to overwatering and die. This frequently happens when water is misted over the air plants while they are housed in a terrarium or other enclosure. The enclosure’s tightness retains moisture, which can lead to plant base rot.
Exposure to Salts & Chemicals
Salts from water softeners may smoothen our skin and hair, but they can also damage air plants. Have you ever watered a home plant a few times and then let it to dry before seeing a white crust forming on the top of the soil? These salt buildups are particularly damaging to air plants. Salts end up being deposited on the ends of leaves in air plants because they lack soil to filter the salts. This will eventually choke the plant because the trichomes won’t be able to absorb nutrients and water. Additionally bad for plants, some municipal water contains chlorine, which should be avoided if at all feasible.
The ideal water to use is non-carbonated mineral water, rainwater, water from a well, pond, or lake. Store-bought bottled and filtered water actually lacks the majority of minerals despite being devoid of hazardous salts. While using only bottled water to water a plant won’t kill it, if that’s all they ever get, they’ll be starved of essential nutrients.
Extreme Heat and Light
Plants quickly become dehydrated in direct sunshine. Sitting in a hot room or close to a hot window will have the same effect. On rare occasions, the plants’ leaves might even become burned by the sun. Air plants shouldn’t be kept in glass containers with direct sunshine because the containers can grow extremely hot (like a miniature greenhouse) and the glass may function as a magnifying glass, concentrating the sunlight on the leaves and rapidly causing them to burn. The majority of air plants prefer temps that you prefer, so that’s a solid generalization. Your air plant probably won’t appreciate it if you wouldn’t sit near your window for several hours at a time since you’d be too hot. The majority of tillandsia prefer temperatures between 55 and 85 degrees.
Nevertheless, a number of air plant species are tolerant of high temperatures in their natural habitats. In hotter lowland areas, xeric plants including Xerographica, Harisii, and Stricta can all be found. These species can survive in warmer climates and brighter environments as long as water is available. In general, the need for watering increases as the temperature rises.
Too Little Light
For several hours each day, air plants need powerful artificial lighting or indirect natural light. The health of air plants kept in dim bathrooms or inside hallways will deteriorate, and they will finally perish. In offices, the lighting is typically adequate because it is on continuously for a number of hours each day. Tillandsias shouldn’t be an issue if the area is bright enough for other common houseplants like pothos, spider plants, and philodendrons.
Cold
It is extremely uncommon to observe frost or freezing conditions, despite the fact that many kinds of air plants natively grow at high heights. Most air plants cannot survive in temperatures below 32 degrees or in frost. Spanish moss and the several varieties of ball moss, which can be found naturally from Texas to Florida and up into coastal Virginia, are the principal exceptions to these guidelines. Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) can tolerate days with highs below freezing as well as nights in the teens and twenties Fahrenheit. However, this would be a death sentence for the majority of air plants, especially the ones that are readily available in stores.
For plants that arrive DOA due to the cold in the winter, we continue to provide our 30-Day Guarantee. Since heat packs frequently run out and are ineffective at the end of their useful lives, when they are most required, we no longer use them to ship plants. Our research has also revealed that they have the ability to burn the vegetation. In order to limit their exposure to the cold, it is better to have plants brought to wherever you are when mail is delivered (your place of employment or educational institution, for instance).
If your air plants are only kept outside during the warm months, we advise bringing them inside once the temperature at night drops below 45 degrees. Any air plant will thrive indoors. There are certain crucial care issues to go through for the winter months, especially at higher latitudes. Our second blog that covers winter care for air plants is located here.
Fertilizer Burn
Your air plants may burn if you fertilize them more frequently and at higher water concentrations. You could want to include fertilizing in your routine if you like the misting technique of watering. But before you spray the plants, make sure the fertilizer is thoroughly mixed and diluted (using the same one-quarter teaspoon per gallon of water).
Moisture & Poor Air Circulation
The majority of air plants originate in chilly, windswept highlands or arid deserts. Not all air plants prefer extremely high humidity, but some do. Make sure your plants quickly dry out after bathing. When drying, we prefer to place them behind a ceiling fan. This will lessen the likelihood of bases being too wet and developing root rot. Even if you mist or spray your plants to water them, we still advise taking them out of their cages. Spanish moss needs to be hung in an area with plenty of fresh air. If used as stuffing in a terrarium or against a wall, it will gradually become brown.
Their Natural Life Cycle
Nothing lasts forever, and air plants are no exception. The growth, blooming, and reproduction processes that occur during the life cycle of air plants involve pups and seedlings. Even while blooming is one of the peaks in the life of most air plants, it is not usually a downward spiral after that. A few times a year, we have experienced the blooming of tiny air plants like Ionanthas. The mother plant will eventually focus the majority of her energy on creating little offsets, though. When the mother plant totally gives up, the offsets will have grown to the mother’s size, and the cycle repeats. A pupping plant does not necessarily indicate that you misted the mother plant’s bloom because certain species appear to prefer generating pups before the mother plant has blossomed! You have two choices when an air plant begins to generate offspring: You can divide the new plants or you may let them cluster organically. For more details, see our blog post on dividing air plant pups.
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This knowledge has been really beneficial. Since May of this year, I have probably invested around $1000.00 in air plants. I had never heard of them before that. I believe that I am in love with them. They are the most exquisite and distinctive things I have ever encountered.
How Much Light Does an Air Plant Need?
Air plants require strong, indirect light to grow. Good possibilities are rooms with windows that face the south or east because the sun will shine brightly in these areas for the majority of the day. As long as the plant is put close to the window and the window is not covered by trees or an adjacent apartment building, rooms with North-facing windows also perform effectively. Western light typically arrives later in the day and has a tendency to be quite warm and powerful. Take care not to burn your air plant!
The air plant will generally withstand more light as the humidity level in your area increases. This means that you should plan to spritz your air plant more frequently, such as twice a week or even every day, if you’re placing it where it will get a lot of light. An air plant will thrive in a bright bathroom or bustling kitchen since the humidity from your shower or boiling water will take care of the majority of plant misting for you.
Air Plants and Artificial Light
A lot of customers ask us if they can put their air plant in a basement or office where there won’t be any windows for natural light. The answer is yes, but there are a few particular guidelines to follow to guarantee the success of your plant.
Fluorescent light must be full-spectrum. These plants can’t photosynthesize in the kind of light that regular incandescent bulbs produce. Place your Tillandsia no more than three feet from the source of light. Additionally, if you plan to use fluorescent lighting, the plants will require at least 12 hours every day.
We advise purchasing a dedicated bulb for your plant (such as a Gro-Lux, Repta-Sun, or Vita-Lite) and setting it on a 12-hour timer if you live in a basement or wish to keep an air plant in your office to ensure that it receives the proper amount of light to survive.
Sand, rocks, and dried wood arranged in a shallow dish make a wonderful air plant display.
How can I cheer up my air plant?
Here are 5 easy guidelines to remember when taking care of tillandsia:
- 1) Give your air plant regular waterings. Your air plant will require routine watering.
- 2) Supply light to your air plant.
- 3) Allow your air plant to breathe.
- 4) Maintain a Pleasant Temperature for Your Air Plant.
- 5) Don’t harm your airplant by doing this.
Where ought I to store my air plant?
Your environment should be taken into account while deciding how to care for air plants. While we have provided a generic set of care instructions for air plants, it is essential that you take your environment into account when choosing things like watering technique and frequency. If you live in a dry region, you might need to water your plants more regularly or mist them every day in between soaks; however, if your air plants are in an area with high humidity levels, you could need to water them less frequently.
There are various Tillandsia species, each with its own own form, size, pattern of development, and requirements for maintenance. While most Tillandsia will benefit from some air plant care advice, it’s crucial to take the air plant itself into account. In general, plants with silvery leaves and those with more trichomes will thrive in more light and require a little less water, but plants with darker green leaves may need more water and may be more vulnerable to sun damage.
Light is one of the most essential things that all living organisms require, and air plants are no exception. You should place your indoor plants next to a suitable light source if you wish to maintain them there. This may be 3-5 feet from a window or next to a source of artificial light. Avoid exposing your air plants to too much direct sunlight because even indoors, it can be damaging. Make sure your plants are in a shaded spot away from direct sunlight if you are keeping them outside. Only a few kinds can withstand direct sunlight.
The indirect light and steam from a bathroom or kitchen window is perfect for air plants, and the moisture will keep them content.
If the plants aren’t too far from it and get enough of it each day, artificial light can also be a good source of energy.
The fact that air plants require less upkeep than many other house plants is one of their best qualities. The three essential factors that might affect their health and lifespan are air, water, and light. This does not, however, imply that they require no maintenance.