More air plants perish from overwatering than from underwatering. The telltale indicator is when the bottom of your air plant appears brown and slimy. Instead of submerging or soaking your air plants, try misting them with a spray bottle. In between waterings, make sure your air plant has completely dried out. Only mist your air plants 1-3 times each week. Less can be more. It’s crucial to dry your air plant within four hours because they can become overwatered if they don’t. Get a fan for your air plant if it doesn’t dry after four hours of watering, and water it less the following time.
2. Insufficient air causes air plants to lack nutrients. It results in “dry rot.” There won’t be enough food if there isn’t enough air movement around air plants. Keep in mind that air plants consume nourishment. Terrariums and small, quiet locations like toilets shouldn’t be used to house air plants because there isn’t enough airflow in these areas. Instead, pick a place with lots of natural light and fresh air, such as close to an open window, in a large room with other rooms adjacent to it, in a courtyard or on a veranda. Lack of air flow can also lead to overwatering because it delays the air plants’ ability to fully dry up. The problem with air plant holders is dry rot. Your air plant may develop dry rot on the area of the plant that has poor air flow from the planter if the base is placed in a planter, such as a pot, hanger, or pouch, that has no ventilation. Before you notice the rot, it will have spread and your air plant will be dead.
3. Lack of Light – To produce their own nourishment, air plants require light. If your air plants are indoors, make sure they are one meter or less from a window. They’ll definitely perish from lack of sunshine if you put them in a dark hallway.
4. Too much direct sunlight will burn your plant or severely dry the foliage. Generally speaking, 45 minutes of moderate early morning or late afternoon direct sunshine is acceptable. However, it is advised to use filtered sunlight or total shade.
5. Frost – Because they are sensitive to the cold, air plants. They dislike temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius. If you live in a chilly climate, you might want to think about bringing your air plants inside during the winter.
6. Humidity – some types of air plants like it when the humidity is high. If the leaves of your air plant are too curled, the air may be too dry for the plant. Spraying or soaking air plants in water just isn’t enough moisture if the air is too dry. Consider soaking your air plant for 30 minutes each week in addition to your regular spraying if you believe it died from low humidity. or daily spray your plant. Additionally, you can put the air plant on a piece of driftwood or any object that can hold moisture. Another choice is to make a bed using a mixture of 50% perlite and 50% orchid potting mix. Spray the mixture every time you spray your plants. Your air plants might even drop roots into the mixture since they are so content.
7. Rust – Your air plant will develop dead areas as a result. Keep your plant away from anything that is rusty. Regular wire might rust in the future. For mounting air plants, use plastic-coated or galvanized wire.
8. Copper wire is well recognized for killing air plants. Copper is poisonous to air plants, particularly when it is regularly moist.
9. It’s typical for the mother air plant to pass away. Air plants develop, blossom, give birth to pups, and then go extinct. If your air plant has already bloomed and produced pups, it’s entirely possible that she is about to die. Don’t get rid of her just yet. Before she leaves, she might surprise you by bearing even another pup.
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How to Water an Air Plant
The most challenging aspect of caring for air plants is watering them. Some individuals use misting religiously, others immerse their air plants, while yet others utilize a mix of misting and soaking.
In our experience, watering air plants is challenging because the plant’s requirements differ significantly depending on the environment. Additionally, some species need particular care. Assessing your environment is the first step in watering your air plant. How much light is reaching your plant? What’s the temperature like inside your house right now? Is there a lot of dry air there (is your plant close to a heater or fireplace)? Is it also really humid?
Following your responses, you can modify the air plant watering schedule to meet your specific requirements. Here is what we suggest as a place to start:
- Every one to two weeks, give your air plant a 5- to 10-minute soak in room-temperature tap water (or, if you can get it, rainwater or pond water).
- Once your plant has soaked, gently shake off any extra water. It should be placed on a towel upside down in a well-lit area. This is very crucial. If extra water is allowed to stand, air plants will quickly decay.
- The plant should be able to dry completely in 3 hours once the soaking process is finished. More time than this could cause your plant to decay. Try putting it somewhere brighter with better airflow to encourage quicker drying.
- Mist your plant well once a week (instead of watering it). Make sure the entire surface is saturated (but not so much that there is water dripping down into the plant).
- You need to water more when the air is hotter and dryer (summer, early fall). Your air plant will require less water during the cooler and more humid seasons (winter and spring). Just be mindful of your plant because heaters and fires dry out the air.
- Water everything in the morning. Evening sopping or sprinkling interferes with the plants’ ability to breathe at night and prolongs the drying process.
Is My Air Plant Getting Enough Water?
The tops of your air plant’s leaves may turn brown or crispy if you’ve been neglecting to water it. When an air plant is under-watered, its leaves’ inherent concavity tends to become more pronounced.
Unfortunately, it’s frequently too late to save an overwatered air plant. Your plant has certainly succumbed to rot if the base of the plant turns dark or black and leaves are falling out or off from the center.
Regarding temperature, air plants are fairly tolerant. They thrive between 50 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The ideal temperature difference between daytime and nighttime is roughly 10 degrees.
To maintain your air plant healthy, include orchid or specific air plant fertilizer in your watering routine once or twice a month. Simply sprinkle some in your water, then carry on as usual. Your air plant will blossom and propagate if you fertilize it (or pup — more on this later)
How can I tell if I’ve overwatered my air plant?
It’s bad news when you overwater air plants. It is the main cause of death for them. Therefore, it is essential to act quickly to stop any potential lasting harm from happening if you see that their bases begin to become dark and the leaves begin to fall out from the middle or if they have mushy roots and yellowing leaves. And here’s how you can prevent overwatering from killing your withering air plant:
- To prevent it from spreading, get rid of any decaying or diseased components.
- Your air plant should be dried as soon as possible. Using a fan is recommended.
- Make sure to place your air plants on a dry surface, like dry rocks. Make sure the terrarium is dry and has a big entrance for the most airflow possible if they are on show there.  
While it is feasible to revive a dying air plant, it is preferable to learn how to avoid such issues in the first place. And this is how:
- Never submerge an air plant in water for an extended period of time. Keep in mind that some air plants should not be submerged in water, especially if you live in a humid environment.
- After you’ve watered your air plant, be careful to shake out any extra water or turn it upside down so that it can dry entirely in around 4 hours. This should prevent the extra water from accumulating on your air plant and allow it to flow down instead.
- Avoid letting your air plant rest on a wet surface; rather, wait until it is entirely dry before putting it back on display.
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The bases of some air plants, such as melanocrater tricolor, will be naturally darker. Due to the naturally brown leaves of such plants, you might not notice any rot for a long time, therefore you should err on the side of less water rather than more. Additionally, some leaf dropping is common in healthy air plants, so you should be aware of other symptoms as well.
How frequently do I need to water my air plant?
For the best care, your plants should be watered 2-3 times each week in addition to once every week. Every 2-3 weeks, a 2-hour bath should be taken. You will need to water or mist your plants more frequently if you live in a hotter, drier region. Your plant’s leaves will start to feel heavier and more wet after watering, and they will be softer and lighter in color when they require more water. Dehydration may be indicated by leaves that are wrinkled or rolled.
Why is my air plant becoming shriveled?
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.