The name “air plant” is a little deceiving. Members of the Tillandsia genus are named after the fact that they may grow without any soil at all. In reality, one of the most common misconceptions we encounter in air plant care is assuming that Tillandsia just require air to survive.
Air plants are epiphytic (meaning they grow on other plants without harming them) and emerge from the curves and branches of trees in their natural habitat of South and Central America’s forests, mountains, and deserts.
Air plants are among our favorites; they look great on their own and are included in many of our Plant Craft items, such as aeriums and mounts.
The following are the best methods for air plant care that we advocate. We’ll start with an overview of how to care for air plants in general, then move on to specific adaptations for aeriums, terrariums, and mounted Tillandsia.
Air plants require strong, indirect light to grow. Rooms with southern or eastern facing windows are ideal because they will be brilliantly lit by the sun for the majority of the day. North-facing windows also perform well, as long as the plant is close to the window and the window isn’t obscured by trees or a neighboring apartment complex. Western light arrives late in the day and can be extremely hot and strong. You don’t want to fry your air plant, so be careful!
As a general rule, the more light the air plant can tolerate, the higher the humidity in your environment. This implies that if you’re going to put your air plant somewhere where it’ll get a lot of light, you’ll need to spray it more frequently – twice a week, if not everyday. Because the humidity from your shower will take care of most plant misting, a sunny bathroom provides a great home for an air plant.
Many customers question if they can keep an air plant in an office or basement room with no natural light. Yes, however there are a few guidelines to follow in order to assure your plant’s success.
It’s essential to use full spectrum (fluorescent) lighting. Regular incandescent bulbs do not produce the quality of light required for photosynthesizing by these plants. Your Tillandsia should be no more than 3 feet from the source of light. Also, if you’re using fluorescent lighting, the plants will need at least 12 hours of light per day.
If you live in a basement or want an air plant in your office, we recommend purchasing a dedicated bulb for your plant (such as a Gro-Lux, Repta-Sun, or Vita-Lite) and placing it on a 12-hour timer to ensure that your plant receives all of the light it need.
Watering an air plant is the most difficult aspect of air plant upkeep. Some individuals swear by misting, while others swear by soaking, and still others combine the two in their air plant care routine.
Watering air plants is difficult in our experience because the plant’s needs vary drastically depending on the location in which it is situated. The first step in watering your air plant is to assess its surroundings. What kind of light does your plant get? At this time of year, what is the temperature in your home? Is the environment excessively dry (does your plant have access to a heater or fireplace?) Is it hot and humid?
After you’ve answered these questions, you can tailor the air plant watering schedule to your specific requirements. As a starting point, we recommend the following:
- Soak your air plant in room temperature tap water (or rain/pond water if you can find it) for 5-10 minutes every one to two weeks.
- After soaking, gently shake your plant to remove any extra water. In a light area, turn it upside down and place it on a towel. This is vital information! If you leave your air plants in too much water, they will quickly rot.
- The plant should be able to dry completely in no more than 3 hours after the soaking is finished. If your plant is left wet for an extended period of time, it may rot. To help things dry faster, try putting it in a brighter area with better air circulation.
- Mist your plant thoroughly once a week to ensure that the entire surface is wet (but not so much that there is water dripping down into the plant).
- The more water you need to water as the weather gets hotter and dryer (summer, early fall). The less water your air plant needs the cooler and more humid the air is (winter and spring). But keep in mind that heaters and fires dry out the air!
- Do all of your watering first thing in the morning. Evening soaking or misting interferes with the plants’ capacity to breathe overnight, resulting in a longer drying time.
The browning or crisping of your air plant’s leaf tips is a sign that it’s been under-watered. When air plants are under-watered, their inherent concave shape becomes more pronounced.
Unfortunately, it’s generally too late to salvage your air plant if it’s been over-watered. Your plant has likely succumbed to rot if the base of the plant turns dark or black, and leaves are dropping out or off from the center.
When it comes to temperature, air plants are relatively laid-back. They thrive in temperatures ranging from 50 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures should be around 10 degrees colder at night than they are during the day.
Once or twice a month, incorporate orchid or Bromeliad fertilizer into your watering routine to keep your air plant happy. Simply sprinkle a pinch into your water and carry on as usual. Fertilizing your air plant promotes blooming and reproduction (or pup more on this later)
Air plants only flower once in their lives, did you know? These blossoms can last anywhere from a few days to a few months, depending on the species, and can come in a wide range of vibrant colors, including pink, red, and purple. Flowering is the highest point in an air plant’s life cycle, but it also signals the start of the plant’s old age: after flowering, the plant will die.
But don’t give up! Depending on the species, your air plant will reproduce by putting out 2-8 flowers just before, during, or after flowering “Puppies.” These tiny air plants will eventually grow into their own mother plants, despite their modest size. When the pups are about 1/3-1/2 the size of the mother plant, they can be securely separated. Take care not to pull them out too soon, since they are absorbing nutrients from the mother air plant!
Above: A brass mister is a stylish and classic Tillandsia Xerographica companion.
While larger air plants look great on a windowsill or tabletop, we prefer to incorporate their smaller siblings into our living art “Aeriums” are a type of terrarium that is solely dedicated to air plants! Here’s everything you need to know about air plant care in glass.
- Simply take your plant from the aerium, terrarium, or glass to mist/soak it, then allow it to dry before putting it in the glass, as directed above.
- Keep in mind that maintaining your air plant in glass will produce a microclimate in which the glass vessels will be more humid and hot than the surrounding space.
- Avoid placing glass vessels too close to a window. The sun’s beams are amplified through glass. You don’t want your plant to cook!
- You won’t be able to soak your plant because it won’t come out of the glass, so you’ll have to rely only on misting. This is perfectly OK.
- Smaller glass means less air circulation, which means longer drying time for the plant and less misting.
- Larger glass = more air circulation = faster plant drying time = more misting.
- When misting your air plant, make sure to mist around it rather than directly into it. You don’t want to overwater it; instead, you want to keep it moist.
- We recommend starting with weekly misting and adjusting as needed, depending on the vessel.
You won’t be able to wet your mounted air plant like you can with air plants in small glass pots. Mounted air plants, on the other hand, will require more regular misting than aeriums because they are not enclosed in a humid microclimate. Starting with twice weekly misting and adjusting as needed, depending on how long it takes your plant to dry in your location, we recommend starting with twice weekly misting.
If you follow these air plant care instructions, your Tillandsia should thrive in no time! Do you have any queries or tips regarding caring for air plants? Let us know in the comments!
How do I know if my air plant is healthy?
Tip: Keep an eye on your plants’ leaves to see whether they’re thirsty. Curly leaves are drier, and a healthy white fuzz on your plant indicates that it is healthy, not that it is drying out. Under-watering is also indicated by brown leaf tips and a withered appearance. Take note of how your plant appears following a nice soakhow does it compare to how it seems now? Because each plant is unique, pay attention to what it is teaching you right now.
Do air plants die easily?
Although there is no clear answer as to why any given air plant perished, here is a list of points to consider when considering the health and care of your tillandsias.
Over & Under Watering
An air pant can be killed by too much or too little water. It might be difficult to keep a plant hydrated at times. Soak your plant for 20-30 minutes, shake it off, then let it air dry for a few hours before repotting it. We’ve had the best luck making our weekly water baths a habit. The state of the leaves the day following a good soak is a decent rule of thumb. Curled or folded leaves should be avoided in favor of open, flat leaves. After each watering, aim for this look and adjust the frequency as needed so that your air plants look this way the majority of the time. Aeranthos Major is an excellent hydration indicator for air plants. Depending on the plant’s moisture, the leaves of this species coil and open drastically. In smaller species like Ionanthas, the distinction is more subtle.
When plants are not allowed to dry out fully for several days between water baths, they will die from over-watering. When the air plants are misted with water while inside a terrarium or enclosure, this happens frequently. The enclosure’s tightness retains moisture, which might cause rot at the plant’s root.
Exposure to Salts & Chemicals
Water softener salts may be good for our skin and hair, but they are bad for air plants. Have you ever had a house plant that developed a white crust on the top of the soil after a few waterings and allowing it to dry? These are salt deposits that are particularly detrimental to plants that live in the air. Because air plants don’t have soil to filter their salts, they wind up accumulating on the ends of their leaves. This will eventually suffocate the plant since the trichomes will be unable to absorb water and nutrients. Chlorine, which can be found in certain municipal water, is bad for plants and should be avoided if at all feasible.
Rain, well, pond, lake, or non-carbonated mineral water are the best options. Although free of hazardous salts, most minerals are removed from store-bought bottled and filtered water. Although bottled water will not hurt the plant, if it is the only source of water, it will deprive it of essential nutrients.
Extreme Heat and Light
Plants will dehydrate more quickly if they are exposed to direct sunshine. Sitting near to a hot window or in a hot room has the same effect. Direct sunlight can occasionally cause plant leaves to burn. Air plants should not be kept in glass enclosures with direct sunshine since the enclosures can become very hot (like a miniature greenhouse) and the glass can function as a magnifying glass, concentrating the sunlight on the leaves and causing them to burn quickly. Most air plants like temperatures that you prefer, as a general rule. If you wouldn’t sit near your window for several hours at a time because it’s too hot, your air plant is likely to dislike it as well. The majority of tillandsias like temperatures between 55 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
Several species of air plants, however, are adapted to extreme temperatures in their natural habitat. Xerographica, Harisii, and Stricta are all xeric plants that grow in hotter lowland climates. These species can thrive in hotter temperatures and brighter environments as long as they have access to water. In general, the hotter the weather gets, the more watering is required.
Too Little Light
Air plants require many hours of indirect natural light or intense artificial lighting every day. Air plants that are kept in dim restrooms or dark inner halls will soon wilt and perish. Because the lights are on for several hours each day, office settings usually provide adequate lighting. If you have enough light for other typical houseplants like potho vines, spider plants, and philodendrons, then tillandsias should thrive.
Cold
Although many types of air plants thrive natively at high heights, frost or freezing temperatures are extremely unusual. Most air plants are sensitive to frost and temperatures below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Spanish moss and various forms 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 survive nights in the teens and twenties Fahrenheit, as well as a few days a year when the temperature does not rise above freezing. This, on the other hand, would be a death sentence for most air plants, especially those that are commercially available.
We continue to give our 30-day guarantee for plants that arrive DOA due to the cold over the winter. We don’t utilize heat packs to ship the plants right now because they run out quickly and aren’t particularly effective near the conclusion of their life cycle, when they’re most needed. We’ve also discovered that they can actually burn the plants. When ordering plants in the winter, the best option is to have them delivered to wherever you are when mail is delivered (for example, your place of work or school) to limit their exposure to the cold.
If your air plants are exclusively outside during the summer, we recommend bringing them inside as the temperatures drop below 45 degrees. Indoors, any air plant will thrive. There are certain key winter care issues to evaluate during the winter months, especially at higher latitudes. Here’s a link to a different blog post about air plant winter care.
Fertilizer Burn
Higher fertilizer concentrations in the water and more frequent fertilizing may cause your air plants to burn. If you prefer to water by misting, you may want to include fertilizing in your routine as well. However, it is critical that you thoroughly combine and dilute the fertilizer before spraying the plants (at the same one-quarter teaspoon per gallon of water).
Moisture & Poor Air Circulation
Arid deserts and chilly, dry, and windy highlands are home to the majority of air plants. Some air plants, but not all, thrive in extreme humidity. After you’ve soaked your plants, make sure they dry quickly. When they’re drying, we prefer to place them in front of a ceiling fan. This will help to avoid wet bases, which are prone to root rot. We still recommend that you remove your plants out of their enclosures for watering, even if you mist or spritz them. Spanish moss should be hung in an open area with plenty of air. If placed flush against a wall or used as stuffing in a terrarium globe, it will eventually brown.
Their Natural Life Cycle
Nothing lasts forever, and air plants are no exception. Growth, blooming, and reproduction through pups and seedlings are all part of the life cycle of air plants. Although flowering is one of the high points in most air plants’ life, things do not always go worse after that. Smaller air plants, such as Ionanthas, have bloomed for us a number of times every year. The mother plant, on the other hand, will eventually devote the majority of her resources to producing little offsets. The offsets will be the same size as the mother by the time the mother plant has totally given up, and the cycle will resume. Some species appear to prefer producing pups before the mother plant has bloomed, therefore a pupping plant does not always imply that the mother plant’s bloom has been misted! When an air plant begins to produce offspring, you have two options: divide the young air plants or allow the air plants to organically clump together. For further information, see our blog on Dividing Air Plant Pups.
How do you bring an air plant back to life?
Why are my air plants dying so frequently? If your Tillandsia isn’t looking its best, especially if it’s shriveled or discolored, it’s likely that the plant is dehydrated. Although spritzing the plant is frequently recommended, it rarely provides enough moisture to keep it healthy and hydrated.
If this is the case, reviving a Tillandsia entails getting the plant back to a healthy, well-hydrated state. The best way to do this is to immerse the entire plant in lukewarm water in a bowl or bucket. To keep the plant from floating to the surface of the water, you may need to attach it to a hefty item.
Allow the bowl to soak for 12 hours in a warm location. Remove the plant from the bowl, place it on a layer of paper towels, and let it air dry before putting it back in its position.
If the plant remains dry and sickly, repeat the method, but just submerge the Tillandsia for around four hours this time. Shake the plant lightly upside-down to remove excess moisture from the leaves.
How often should I soak my air plant?
On our Facebook page, we get a lot of queries on how to water air plants, so I wanted to elaborate a little. While Tillandsia (also known as air plants) are easier to care for than many other plant kinds, they do require some upkeep and TLC, and water plays an important role in their overall health. Here are some of the most common questions we hear about watering air plants, along with our answers:
This is mostly determined by your climate and where you keep the air plants, as well as the Tillandsia species (learn more about mesic vs. xeric air plants here) and the type of environment in which it grows in nature. We reside in Tampa, FL, so it’s very humid here for the majority of the year, and we don’t run the heat in our house during the winter like our friends up North (I’m not trying to rub it in!). We water our plants twice a week on average, but individuals who live in drier climes will need to water more frequently. Depending on the time of year, you may discover that you need to water your plants less. It also depends on where you keep them in your house or office. A humid bathroom will keep the plants moist, but those near an air vent or heat source will need to be watered more frequently. (Please note that keeping your plants near heat sources is not recommended.)
Note that, while humidity might slow the drying process, it is not a suitable watering method in and of itself!
Again, you’ll want to adapt your watering methods based on your climate and air plant species, but we recommend soaking your plants in water at least once a week for MOST air plants and settings. You can use anything that allows you to totally submerge the air plants, such as a bowl, bucket, or your sink. Soak them for 30-60 minutes at least once a week, and every other week if you live in a dry area, give them a longer soak for an hour or more. If you live in a humid environment or have a xeric air plant, you may want to cut the soak time in half.
After bathing, make sure the air plants are completely dry. Turn them over and softly shake them, or lay them out to dry with the leaves down. Allowing water to remain in the leaves can cause the plants to decay. The plants should be placed in an area with sufficient air circulation and should be able to dry entirely in 4 hours. If your plants are housed in a globe or terrarium, ensure sure they are thoroughly dry before bringing them back home!
You’ll notice how wide and open the leaves are after soaking them, and how much more “happy” they appear. This is how a properly hydrated air plant should seem! If the color turns slightly dull and the leaves begin to close/curl over time, this is an indication that your Tillandsia is thirsty, and you should give them another soak. If your air plant is in desperate need of water, soak it for several hours or overnight to see if you can rehydrate it. Before soaking or spraying them again, make sure they have a chance to dry thoroughly.
It’s also a good idea to spray the plants in between waterings. If you live in a dry area, this might be a terrific method to keep plants healthy and offer them some additional attention. Unless you have one of the few varieties of air plants that like low moisture, such as the T. tectorum (which we only propose misting) or the T. xerographica, misting is not a substitute for a proper soak (which we recommend dunking instead of soaking).
When it comes to water, air plants aren’t picky, and most tap water is good, but it all depends on the water quality in your location. Because these waters are more nutrient-dense, the best water to use is rain water, aquarium water, or pond water (note: if using one of these waters, don’t add any additional fertilizer). If you’re using tap water, let it out for a few hours to allow the chlorine to disperse (maybe 24 hours in some areas.)
Do not use distilled water because it is too “clean” for these plants and will deprive them of the nutrients they require. Also, avoid using artificially softened water because it contains too much salt for Tillandsia.
We recommend soaking your air plants in the morning to ensure that they dry completely throughout the day, as well as because air plants utilize the evening to breathe carbon dioxide and will be unable to do so if they are wet in the evenings.
This is known as CAM, and you can learn more about it in our page on how air plants breathe. You can check on them before going to bed and put them back in their terrariums or displays if you expose them to some indirect sunlight.
These are the most frequently asked questions about watering air plants. Did we respond to your question? If you’re not sure, just ask! Are you looking for more information on how to care for air plants? Visit our Air Plant Care page for more information.
How can you tell if an air plant is overwatered?
Overwatering Overwatering kills more air plants than underwatering. Your air plant will look brown at the bottom and slimy, which is a telltale indicator. Instead of immersing or submerging your air plants in a bath, use a spray bottle. Between waterings, make sure your air plant is completely dry. Only mist your air plants 1-3 times each week. Less is more in this case. It’s critical to dry your air plant within four hours because they can become overwatered if they don’t. If your air plant doesn’t dry within 4 hours of being watered, turn on the fan and water it less the following time.
What causes air plants to die?
If your air plant died recently, it was most likely due to rot. It is the most common cause of death in Tillandsia plants. The main cause of this harmful problem is overwatering your plants. Air plants, like succulents, store water in their leaves, which can keep them alive for up to two weeks.
What does air plant rot look like?
Detecting Rot Rot or fungus may have infected the base of your air plant, which appears brown and feels extremely soft/mushy to the touch. A rotting air plant may frequently lose leaves at its base and may begin to fall apart, or the air plant’s center may come out.
How long do air plants last?
Blooms of air plants have a variety of lifespans, ranging from a few days to 2-4 weeks. However, the flowers of certain larger air plants, such as t.xerographica, can endure for up to a year.
If you want your air plant’s bloom to remain longer, avoid soaking it or watering it at all. The bloom of an air plant cannot absorb water, therefore watering it will cause it to wilt quickly.
Tillandsias only flower once in their lives, after which they produce pups and die. Blooming usually occurs within 1-2 years of receiving it, but this can vary.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Please see this resource page if you want to learn more about air plant care.
Does air plants need sun?
Air plants make excellent office plants since they demand indirect light, which they can get either through a window or artificially with full spectrum fluorescent lights.
Of course, there are exceptions to everything in nature. Some silver-leafed air plants can withstand more direct sunshine than others. One of the few tillandsias that can tolerate full light is the enormous Xerographica air plant (read more about the Xerographica here).
We propose that you experiment with varied lighting circumstances for your air plants to observe how they respond. Where have you seen the best success with your air plants? What hasn’t worked for your air plants in terms of lighting?
Should I soak my air plants?
We’ve discovered that soaking air plants in water works best for them here at the Air Plant Supply Co. It’s vital to keep in mind that air plants get all of their nourishment through their leaves rather than their roots. The roots are simply used to secure the air plant to a host tree, rock, or even the ground. Every week to ten days, soak your air plants in a bowl of water for 20 minutes to an hour. Completely submerge the plant. If your plant is blooming, you may want to maintain the bud above the water to avoid disturbing it, even though they are constantly wet in nature. To avoid shocking the plant, make sure the water is lukewarm or room temperature.