Hi Sheila, I was just looking at my plants and trying to decide if I liked the results or whether I needed to adjust anything. I have a caput-madusea that has started to root into the twine. Maybe the species that come from drier habitats will be willing to root for me. I have also toyed around with the thought of trying seed on the twine as well as it should hold moisture better than a hard substrate. The best luck I have had with tilly seeds have been in dense-ish clumps of usneoides, so I thought the twine might be a good and more controlled substitute. And funny, I also was digging around in the garage this morning and found a larger rope and my mind was starting to spin the idea of trying to attach some plants and make a 'chain' that hangs a little more loosely than mounting on hanging sticks. Your post has quite the timing! I do like the look of that loose material. Is that tricholepis? I imagine smaller tillies like those would be perfect as it would take a loooong time to rot through without much weight on it.

I'm not sure if you can see the detail, but some of the roots are starting to work their way into the twists of the twine.
{{gwi:437503}}

{{gwi:437504}}

-andy

It will eventually rot. Better to use fishing line or thin gauge wire. It'd be a bummer to see a nice clump fall from rotted twine.

Thanks for the idea! Will try some to see how is the result going. If the rope is not treated with chemicals, I think it should be suitable as a source of fiber for the roots to grow into.

Hi everyone,

Although I don't/can't grow Tillandsias, I'm still fascinated by them and I'm always very interested in the various ways of growing any brom's from seed.

That's avery interesting pic. you have posted there Sheila and although you say you don't grow Till's yourself, you've clearly demonstrated just what the GW is all about, and that is sharing information with other brom. growing GW friends.

I seem to remember reading somewhere back in the dim dark past where someone was growing small Till's on rope but I don't remember where it was, but it's certainly an interesting concept.

Andy, your pic. also clearly shows the Tilly roots weaving their way into the twine so they are obviously happy where they're growing, but as Gonzer says, the only downside is, what happens when the rope rots? Is the twine you are using a natural or synthetic product?

This is just a thought, but is there such a thing as a rope made from a combination of natural rope reinforced with synthetic fibres, if so this could aid in holding everything together when the rope starts to rot, thereby minimising the problem. I don't know the answer, it's just a suggestion and I think it's worth an experiment if such a product does exist. Sheila, is it possible to ask the people who grew the plants you photgraphed, what sort of rope it is and if they have problems with it rotting?

Thank's Sheila for starting an interesting topic.

Any more ideas anyone?

All the best, Nev.

Hi again everyone,

While looking through some old magazines I came accross an article that was presented at the Bromeliad Conference held in Adelaide, Australia in 1987.

Below is the part of the article which is relevent to the above topic.

BROMELIADS WITH WEBBED FEET
(Growing Bromeliads in Fiji)
By: Dick Phillips

"So we come to the grey Tillandsias. I suppose that it is one of man's peculiarities that he tries to do the impossible. What idiot thought of growing grey Tillandsias in 120 inches of rain - thats 10 feet and means that 900,000 gallons of rain fall on my one third acre in one year. But in the Palm Society we have idiots in Finland, Switzerland and Alaska who grow palms, so why not a few idiots in the Bromeliad world?

I am very strongly of the opinion that the answer to my success lies in the fact that I grow my plants from seed. Most of you will know and I shall shortly show you how I grow Tillandsia seeds on rope (BSIJ 1980 pp68 - 73) where they stay quite happily for years, later being transferred to blocks of treefern to which they are glued. I used to use Aquadhere but some dropped off if the glue was not properly set so I have changed to the glue gun - the heat does not seem to worry the plants if they are a reasonable size and the glue holds them very well.

Most of the treefern slabs with their plants attached are hung on a wire mesh trellis or on cylinders of the same material about five or six inches in diameter. On these they drain very quickly but even after heavy rain some of the plants at the bottom of the trellis are still relatively dry. In dry weather both the seeds on rope and the plants on treefern slabs get full heavy drenching from the hose not less than once every two days. Yet I have had very, very little trouble with plants rotting out. All these plants are under 30% sarlon during the summer, the shadecloth being taken off for three or four months during the winter.

Part of the reason for this is that the sun is directly overhead in summer - remember that we are north of the Tropic of Capricorn and the sun spends some time south of us during the summer. During the winter my garden is sheltered by a number of trees and some areas get very little direct sun after about 11 a.m."

So to add what noid.guest has shown us, it seems that Tilly's have been successfully grown on rope before.

(Perhaps someone who is a member of BSI could dig through the journal archives and find the original article [BSIJ 1980 pp 68 - 73] and share it with us.)

All the best, Nev.

Nev,
What Dick Phillips is referring to is the practice of seed germination on rope where the plants remain only until they reach a suitable size to transfer to a more permanent growing medium. This process only takes a few years, not really enough time for the rope/twine to rot.

Andy, those roots are clearly going for the twine.

Pls also note that not only it is a rope in the forefront diagonally across the photo but also all those other type of tillys on the upper part of the photo above the Vr. gigantea are all on rope/twine.

It also makes a huge difference in weight whether to use a thin twine or a thick rope. As Nev suggests, I could imagine intertwining a twine with some wire (self made) such that the task of hanging is taken over by the wire.

Thanks for your kind words Nev!

I am going to check in with the Botanical Garden for details but it might take a while. I do not often drive there to pay a visit. It is an about five-hour drive one way.