Is your bromeliad turning brown? I will respond to this concern in two ways. The first covers the flower, while the second covers the golden plant.
Your bromeliad flowers will definitely turn brown, as this means they have reached full bloom. Although these flowers last a long time, they eventually bloom and die.
And since no flower can bloom forever, we have to accept that about bromeliads. It is a natural process. So can you do anything about it?
You can speed up the process by cutting the flower off at the stem. After all, the flower eventually falls off after it dies, and browning is just the start of the process.
If you prefer to get rid of the visual pollution, take a sharp, sterilized knife and cut the flower. And that solves our first concern.
But what if the leaves of the plant have turned brown? Cutting golden leaves is not ideal.
So, is there another way to handle this shift in tone? Yeah! Turning brown means the plant is unhappy with its surroundings.
And it can be due to insufficient access to moisture (through immersion or low humidity) or too much exposure to light.
The reasons your bromeliad plant turns brown are due to flooding, excess water, old age, poor choice of potting soil, high temperatures, low humidity and excessive light exposure. .
The main reason is old age, the little ones usually grow out of the mother plant before the mother plant dies.
I’ll explain how these factors affect your plant and how you can give it the optimal care it deserves:
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Why is my bromeliad plant turning brown?
In general, bromeliads are one of the easiest plants to care for, even beginners will agree.
But even low-maintenance plants still need a little TLC to thrive. And when they are neglected, they do not hesitate to express their dissatisfaction. So why has your bromeliad changed its mind?
1) underwater
Have you ever come across a tropical plant that doesn’t like wet soil?
Most tropical plants have become accustomed to moist, humid environments and prefer similar conditions. And bromeliad is one of those plants. When you go without water for this long, you notice changes such as:
- Gilding in its leaves, and
- Dryness in the leaves, which feel and look crunchy.
Such changes are the plant’s call for help. It desperately needs moisture to support its activities, including transpiration and evaporation.
Without water, it cannot produce enough food for its growth, and if you leave it in that condition long enough, it can wither and die.
But what causes under water? Some of the causes are immediately obvious and others may not be:
Not following a regular watering schedule
The problem here may be that you go a long time without watering the plant. You can go weeks without thinking about bromeliads.
Or you water it frequently, but not enough to soak the soil. In these cases, the roots of the plant do not have much to absorb and the plant suffers.
Change your watering schedule
If you do not want to water the plant regularly, now is the time to think about it. Bromeliad needs water whenever the topsoil is dry to the touch.
When you water the plant, be sure to soak the potting mix until you see excess water dripping from the drainage holes in the bottom. This ensures that every inch of soil has absorbed enough moisture.
weeks of bromeliads
If your plant looks brown and wilted, it’s always a good idea to give it a good soak before adjusting your watering schedule. This is what you do:
- Fill a container with about four inches of room temperature water,
- Place the pot of bromeliads in the water so that the potting soil absorbs the water through the pot’s drainage holes.
- Leave the jar in the water for about half an hour,
- Dig into the top layer of soil and check if it is wet. If it still seems damp, water the potting mix from above,
- Empty the water from the tray and empty the excess water from the pot into the tray, and
- Move the pot to a location with adequate lighting and optimum temperature.
Often people think that overwatering is a danger to bromeliads. And they are right to think so, as these plants have little tolerance for waterlogging.
But that doesn’t make flooding any less harmful to plants. The best way to avoid these extremes is to follow a regular watering schedule and invest in a moisture meter.
You May Also Be Interested In: 6 Incredible Benefits Of Having A Bromeliad In Your Home
2) A very draining soil
While waterlogged soil is not good for bromeliads, dry soil is not suitable for them. Such soil does not create ideal conditions for nutrient uptake and should therefore be avoided.
How to Fix Bad Soil
Your bromeliad should be in moist rather than dry or wet soil. And the way to create that balance is to mix one part sand with two parts peat.
This allows enough water to drain without depriving the soil of moisture to support plant activities.
3) High temperatures
Do you change your watering schedule when temperatures rise? Maybe it’s time you thought about it. When summer arrives, temperatures are often unbearable, even for plants.
They therefore lose a lot of water to the environment, just like your potting soils. You need to increase your watering regimen and give the plant more water in such conditions.
Are you interested in one of these causes?
Confirm registration temperatures
Although you can’t stop the summer heat, you can change the way you protect your plant.
Move the plant to a cooler room, water it more frequently, and keep it away from heating ducts and hot drafts. This will help the plant retain more moisture.
You may also be interested in: Why Are My Bromeliad Leaves Turning Yellow?
4) Low humidity
It’s always good to understand a plant’s original habitat because you can avoid placing it in unfavorable conditions.
Bromeliads are tropical plants that thrive in high humidity conditions. When the levels drop, the plant quickly dries out and changes like:
- darkening of leaves and
- Soil drying.
Browning is usually minimal at first. It only appears on the margins of the leaves and is barely noticeable. But if you ignore it, the color change becomes more aggressive to the point where the leaves even start to curl.
How to Fix Low Humidity?
Bromeliads prefer a humidity of at least 60%. So the first thing to do is to test your humidity using a hygrometer. If they are below 60%, you can improve them by doing the following:
- Install a humidifier in your home
- Spray the bromeliad regularly (a few times a week should be enough),
- By leaving the kitchen and bathroom doors open,
- Boil water on the stove more often,
- Place a container of water near the plant and
- Move bromeliads near other plants.
Please note that the humidity changes with the seasons. You will therefore probably have to adjust them in winter and summer.
5) Too much light exposure
How much light is too much for bromeliads? It is difficult to answer this question because it depends on the type of species you have in your space.
But one thing is certain: too much light can cause bromeliads to turn brown. Below are the types of browning you might notice on your plant:
- General leaf browning: This change is due to too much light or direct exposure to the sun. It’s true, even too much indirect light can harm your plant.
- Golden at the end of the leaves: Although light is essential for bromeliad growth, too much light can damage the leaves. And you can see it in the form of gold leaf tips.
- Brown stains: This problem comes from exposure to direct sunlight or too much light.
Direct sunlight burns bromeliad leaves, turning the leaf surface brown. Read on to find out how to fix this problem before it kills your plant.
How to deal with lighting problems
Bromeliads are often sensitive to direct sun exposure. As such, leaving them out is not ideal. Instead, place them in a location with medium to bright indirect light.
If your bromeliad shows signs of its leaves browning, move them to lower light. Keep in mind that lighting needs vary by species and it’s always best to meet your plant’s needs individually.
Be careful not to leave the plant in low light conditions, as this is also bad if it robs the plant of its ability to produce food.
If you need more information on how to get the right light for your bromeliad, we have an article on the light requirements of bromeliads.
final thoughts
Tanning, unlike yellowing, comes down to a few factors. So it’s pretty easy to find out what’s going on with your plant and fix the problem before it gets worse.
Remember to give your plant the care it needs to avoid further problems.
Happy gardening!
Before you go, here are some other related articles that I encourage you to read below to solve more of your gardening problems:
How big is a bromeliad?