Feeding it will give you the Linda Blair effect. I give mine nothing but water and lottsa sun. There are quite a few of us here that have this plant (there better be!) who can chime in with their cultural habits. I'm in Z9b.

The only way I can grow mine is no fertilizer(hard) from the time it is a young pup or its ugly with even a smallest amount of fertilizer

It's cases like this that makes me wonder who the heck grew out this cross and put in enough time with it to figure out the requirements to have it look good. I've been hearing nothing but "cull, cull cull" and yet I have to wonder if that rule really is followed. Do you grow some of the grex hard and some soft and hope that you get a good idea of the potential?

BTW, I gave away my first batch of seedlings to a grower with a modest sized nursery. He gets 21 decent sized (1 year old) aechmea seedlings in 3 pots and I'll get back 3 of those plants in a year. I really don't want those 3 back since I have 28 more of them on hand. I'd just like to see them grown out and not get culled (unless they deserve it). He does landscaping so he can always use the plants if they aren't note worthy. What kind of deals is anybody else making?