Broms growing more broms?

[Jasonwade02]

I have been trying to post pictures on here for a little while but haven't been able to get that figured out yet, I will post some soon though. I noticed last night that a couple of my broms are actually growing a second brom which juts off to the side, is this common?

[andyrawrs]

Yes, this is perfectly natural. The process is called pupping, it is the primary means of propagation for most bromeliads and some succulent species. In fact, pups are much faster to grow from a mother plant than baby plants from seed. As a general rule of thumb, should you wish to do so, you can remove the pup when it is about half to two thirds the size of the mother.

[Jasonwade02]

Sweet, that's good to know. When I set up this tank I had (and still have) no clue about plants. I have three broms in there now, the two that are growing the baby broms are the same kinf and then I have another one. I have one more question for you, this other brom had little purple flowers growing in the center of it, is that normal too?

[Jasonwade02]

nevermind, I was just looking in the "what have you got blooming" thread and saw pictures of some broms with the flowers in the middle.

[andyrawrs]

Chances are that your broms are of the genus Neoregelia especially if you got them off one of the board's sponsors. Yes, bromeliads are angiosperms, and as such flower; many neotropical bromeliad genera have magnificent and exotic inflorescences as flower stalks, but Neos (maybe Aechmeas/Billbergias too, though I don't remember) simply have small flowers in their axil filled in water. When a brom flowers, it is to say basically blooming and should be soon receptive to pollination (this is very difficult I've been told with Neo's) After this point, the brom may still grow but is slowly dying, sending much of its nutrients to support the growth of the new generation (pups).

Andy

[Deli]

As stated, Pups (as they are called) are perfectly natural. That's one of the ways Neos and some Billbergias propagate.

[RarePlantBroker]

Actually, the vast majority of all Bromeliaceae will reproduce asexually by developing offsets or "pups". Some species will produce a stoloniferous offset (long "woody" branch between the offset and the parent), some produce offsets near the root-crown, while others will develop offsets between extant leaves. There are some members of the genus Tillandsia and I believe a couple of Pitcairnia that only reproduce sexually (via seed). While the majority of the bromeliads you would grow in a vivarium will produce an offset that appears to be a miniature of the parent plant, there are some bromeliads (i.e.--Alcantera sp.) that produce small "grass-like" offsets that are designed to be carried in the air from their naturally cliff-dwelling parents.

As stated before, should you wish to divide the plant wait until the pup is about 1/2 the size of the parent, then cut as close to the parent plant as possible without damaging the original bromeliad. The newly divided pup doesn't need to have roots, just keep water in the 'tank' (center of the bromeliad) and keep in the humid vivarium--and roots should develop rapidly.

[Jasonwade02]

Sounds good, thanks for the help. With the two broms that are growing pups, do I just peel them off at the base of the plant when they get old enough? Also, if the one brom that has the flowers in the middle is on it's way out, when should I remove that or how should I handle that if it's dying?

[andyrawrs]

Hey,

Sorry I wasn't more clear about the "dying" brom; what I mean to say is that it has reached the height of its life as a plant, and slowly starts deteriorating; leave it where it is and it will die over the course of a few years or so, so you don't have to remove it. It will still be pretty though. For the most part, as stated above, the pups you have sound like they may be stoloniferous (actually there are other types of broms that emerge from within the mother's leaves, but I will call it stoloniferous for now); if so you will need mechanical aid in removing them (knife, shears, sweat haha) Actually it's not that bad.

Andy

[Jasonwade02]

Thank you so much for helping me out. I just know nothing about plants, it's completely foreign to me.