As you know, guzmania is a plant that, after its time, dies. However, with a little luck, it is possible that before that, he will leave you children. One of the usual guzmania questions to children is, how do they separate?
Well, this time we’re going to focus on that perfect moment and we’ll give you the keys to know how to separate them and the advantages and disadvantages that you may have by doing so (or by leaving them). You’re ready?
Contents
How to separate guzmania from children
If you had guzmanias you will know it, After flowering, the most normal thing is for the plant to dry out and the leaves to dry out. In fact, it is normal to lose it and not be able to do anything to avoid it (it is its life cycle). However, before that happened, you must have noticed how other small plants grew around her. These are the suckers and they are the ones that, after the death of the mother plant, will continue to provide you with new flowers and also new suckers. Thus, we can say that you will not lose the plant, but you will experience the whole process.
Now well, how are they separated from each other?
The first thing to remember is that to do anything, you’re going to have to take the plant out of the pot. You’ll need to remove all the substrate you can from the plant to be able to see the suckers you have (in fact, it’s normal for some to come out, but surely there may be others hidden.
Once you have located all the children, You will need to remove them carefully so as not to break the shoot or any small roots it may have.
The next step, once you have the sprouts, is to plant them in a pot. We recommend doing it in a substrate of peat, perlite and worm humus, in order to have a better chance of success and at the same time give them plenty of nutrients. In this way they will have an “energy boost” with which they can develop much better.
When should children be separated from Guzmania?
One of the doubts you might have when separating children from guzmania is when to do it. Some think it’s best to do this before the parent plant wilts, to prevent its rot from affecting the pups in any way.
However, others think that it is not good to remove them until they are well developed, even if the parent plant no longer persists.
What is certain is that experts recommend only separating when the children of guzmania are at least one-third the size of the parent plant. In this way, a knife is used to give a clean and precise cut with which to damage this new plant as little as possible.
How many children can guzmania have
In general, a guzmania It is a plant that can have up to six children. However, we cannot say this categorically because he may only have one child, or not at all; or on the contrary, who has eight or more.
Many are of the opinion that if you want a guzmania to have many children, you need to separate the young as soon as possible, because this way the plant is encouraged to grow more. But it also depletes the plant earlier, so you have to keep that in mind.
Yes OK guzmania care is something that will influence the offspring that the guzmania will leave you, the condition of the plant would also come into play, whether it has been well cared for since it was small or not, etc.
What is better, leaving the children or separating them?
And here is the big question. As you saw earlier, we explained the process to separate the children from the guzmania, but what if they are left with the mother plant? What if they don’t separate? What are the pros and cons of both separating them and leaving them alone? Well, let’s see.
Let’s first talk about the benefits of not touching guzmania hijuelos. And therefore develop and grow in the same pot. One of the first is that by growing up with their mother and being nurtured by her, they will develop greater resistance, in addition, their flowering will be faster during transplanting. In these cases, all you have to do is remove the dry foliage from the dying mother and keep the area very clean to avoid disease.
On another side, Leaving the children to the mother is like what happens in nature, in their natural habitat. In this way, you will get a wider and denser bush, and also more attractive. You even make all the plants bloom at the same time because they are born, grow and develop at the same time.
While these are the advantages you will find when leaving them, there are also disadvantages to be discussed. One of them is the fact of lack of space. If you have them in pots, sooner or later they will need more space to grow otherwise they they could quit, or worse, get sick because they can’t get the nutrients they need.
Besides, When children are left to guzmania, she will not throw any more, so if it only has one, you can only keep one (and if it’s a plant you like a lot, you won’t like it to be lost for nothing).
How long does it take for children to progress?
Once you plant them in their pots, with the substrate we have recommended, you have to keep taking care of them like the guzmania you had. However, it is only after about four months that it will be fully rooted and mature.
In the meantime, they will only be young plants and, as such, we must be a little more aware of them so that they do not leave us. If these months pass and you see that it is successful, be happy because it will mean that you are closer to enjoying your flowers again.
This, yes, We warn you that it won’t be as fast as you think. And it is that after these four months, in which you can already see your plant as a mature guzmania, It will take about two years before you see it in flower. So don’t be scared if you see it not blooming because that’s normal.
Of course, it can also happen that it flowers earlier, but this will depend on many factors, both specific to the plant and external to you.
Has it ever become clear to you how to separate children from guzmania?