What is wrong with my Bromeliad Pups?

15 years ago

I've had a guzmania bromeliad for over a year now. I've cut off the dying flower and it has produced several pups. Almost fifteen. I seperated the first batch and potted them up.

They did well for awhile but the third leaf set inward broke near the base while still wrapped up and choked all the new growth so that it wrinkled and basically never opened up any more than that.

I figured I separated them from mom too soon so I let all the new pups stay on the plant. But they're the same size as the first batch was and they're doing the same exact thing. They're wrinkling up and choking the inner growth. I opened the outer leaves and saw that the third to fifth leaf set in were cut off close to the base.

I've got five more babies shooting out of momma and I don't want them failing like all the others. What am I doing wrong?

I meant to bring some home to take pictures of them, but I left them at work. If you need to see em' I can upload them saturday.

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Comments (6)

hotdiggetydam
15 years ago
good plan ...photo's
alibaba_2008
15 years ago
Did you cut the pups off the mother plant? If so you may perhaps have cut off the pups too high up. The growing point is very low down on a young plant and it is all too easy to miss it, which means you end up with a bunch of leaf cuttings all tied together by the outer leaves. Broms, being tough will look quite happy like that for a bit until the leaves start to give up the ghost. You can tell by looking at the bottom of the pup, if it is cut too high up, instead of seeing a solid bit of stem you will just see lots of concentric circles which are the leaf bases wrapped around one another.
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manda3
Original Author
15 years ago
No, because the pups that stayed on the plant did the exact same thing.

Here is a picture. Unfortunately, it's been cut off from the mom a week before I managed to take this pic.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:480308}}
hotdiggetydam
15 years ago
Pups removed from most broms should be atleast 50% the size of mom or have its own roots showing. Guzmania are one of the hardest to remove pups from. I generally just cut mom away as she declines and then seperate the pups
LisaCLV
15 years ago
Your pups are quilling. This is a common problem with many broms, particularly when the cups get too dry, but in other cases the tendency to do this can be genetic.

The best thing to do is to gently wiggle the leaves back and forth as soon as you see it starting to do that. You may have to repeat this several times as it grows out, or shoot some water (again, gently) between the leaves. If the base of the leaf is completely wrapped around itself you may have to slide something down there to pry it open, but too much force will snap the leaves, as they tend to be brittle when they're doing this.
sdandy
15 years ago
Ah, timely. I thought one of my neos looked a bit odd and bunched up with the last couple of emerging leaves forming a tube. Good to know what's wrong and hopefully I was able to wiggle the leaves free early enough.

Thanks for the info Lisa and good luck manda.
-andy

What is wrong with my Bromeliad Pups?

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What is wrong with my Bromeliad Pups?

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