Hi andreaszlg,

It's good to see another new member joining the GW, this time from Germany, "WELCOME". Perhaps you already know that we have another three members from Germany here also and they are, "neoregelia", "noid.guest" and "westerman", so you may even be able to make contact with them and "talk brom's in Germany".

Regarding your question, I too have done a similar thing to that mentioned by Bryan with the exception that I didn't remove the old flower and I didn't re-pot the plant. I first read about this little trick here on this forum and thought I would try it out.

The plants types I used were Vriesea, Neoregelia and Aechmea and the fertilizer I used was Osmocote slow release. It was appied the same way as described by Bryan and it gave me multiple pups on all the plants I tried it on. I just forget the exact number now but I think it varied between four and seven all at the same time.

My advice would be to do try what I did, but try it first on a common plant you have more of.

Good luck, and I hope you have a happy association with us here on the Garden Web.

All the best, Nev.

Hi Nev,

I`m friends with alot of other enthusiasts in Germany, but to me it seems like I can learn alot more if I look over the Pond(s) :-)
Most of my bromeliads already are from Bert Westerman, but I recently got a shipment from Michaels Bromeliads.

Mainly I want to try the method on my Guzmania butcheri, its such a beautiful plant. But with one pup at a time I wont be able to stock up ;)
After I take off the pup in the next months I will try the fertilizer method.

I`m not sure if I can get Osmocote here in Germany, do you think other slow release fertilizers work aswell?
And which one exactly do you use, as there are diffenent types with varying NPK-amounts. Or doesn`t that matter in the end?

Thanks alot!

Greetings,
Andreas

Hi Andreas

I really can't say if another slow release fertilizer would work the same as the Osmocote that I used but if all of the ingredients were exactly the same, I don't see why not.

The Osmocote I used was called Osmocote Plus - Controlled plant food plus trace elements. It is recommended for pots, planters and indoors.

NPK is: Total Nitrogen 15.0%
Total Phosphorus 4.4%
Total Potassium 10.0%

It also contains: Sulphur 2.5%
Magnesium 1.2%
Boron 0.02%
Copper 0.05%
Total Iron 0.40%
Manganese 0.06%
Molybdenum 0.02%
Zinc 0.15%

Organic Resin Coating based on Vegetable Oils 6.0%
Cadmium 0.51mg/kg
Lead 0.59%
Mercury I hope this goes some way to helping you sort it all out.

All the best, Nev.

Hi Andreas,

Bryan69Âs result also impressed me and I also thought about trying it myself.

The good news is Osmocote is available in Germany. There is a product called Osmocote Exact Tablets and are available in 5g or 7.5g sizes per tablet with a useful life of 5-6 months or 8-9 months. Prices are as follows:

Tablets 5-6 Monate (5-g): 70,62-Euro/7,5-kg
Tablets 8-9 Monate (5-g): 75,10-Euro/7,5-kg
Tablets 5-6 Monate (7,5-g): 56,95-Euro/7,5-kg
Tablets 8-9 Monate (7,5-g): 59,40-Euro/7,5-kg

Add 3.5 for handling and about 6 euro shipment costs. Delivery time was about 3 weeks because it was not on stock.

Well, I did not consider worthwhile buying 7.5 kg (!) for those few bromeliads I have. Seller said he does not break up a package.

Its NPK value is 14+8+11 and a few other elements that I just skip now. Tablets sold there are available only with this NPK value. There are off course several other NPK time-release fertilizers which are not in tablet form.

Nutricote, which is claimed by some on this forum to be better, is also available in Europe but not in tablet form. The min. quantity I have found was "only" 5 kg, and available in NPK forms of 13+13+13, 18+6+8, and 15+9+10. The advertizing sheet said other Nutricote products were also available but in fact they were not.

I did try one local product but it burned some of the leaves of my Vriesea ospinae var. gruberi. I bought this product b/c it was available in manageable quantities and was the only one it did not say on the package it could not get in contact with plants and I explicitly asked about it in the store and they said all was fine. All other time-release fertilizers had written on the package direct contact with plants should be avoided. The one I tried was not in tablet form, it contained small balls. They swam out of the plant easily at watering. I believe tablets could be handled easier. They are bigger and could be placed more controlled to target areas by pressing those down to the leave axis. The balls broke up easily when I was using my forceps.

I tried it one more time, this time used one of those no-name, small rod-like fertilizer bars broken it into pieces and added to a Billbergia (in the cup only) and it worked very well with no problems whatsoever. Go figure!

Give it a try and let us know how it goes!

Sheila

Hi Andreas

Welcome to the site. There are two forms of Neo. mooreana a green and a brownish maroon one. The green one will not change in bright light.

I would not try the osmocote trick on Racineae crispa. It is very sensitive to fertilizer salts. I use fish emulsion the Alaska brand at a very low rate of 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of water on sensitive plants. don't use fertilizers with sea weed or kelp in them. They have high concentrations of heavy metals in them that will damage or kill your plants.

Best Bob

Ok, I will go and see what I can get here. Will try probably one of the noname brands on some hardy broms and see what will happen.

@ Bob

Well I will try it without fertilizer on the Racinaea now, saw that it rooted in its new pot, so I`m pretty confident it will do better now.
Don`t want to risk anything because its the last one I have left :-)

Greetings
Andreas

@ Noid

found a source of osmocote exact. It is 18 euros for one kilo, which is not that bad because shipping is included. If you need some aswell maybe we can split the kilo, bet I don`t need that much for this season :-)

@bob

ok, so I got the green form :-) Never seen the red form for sale, gotta keep my eyes open. Is Michael Kiehls mooreana black the same (as the red form) or a different cultivar? (see link below)

Greetings
Andreas

Here is a link that might be useful: mooreana black

Hallo Andreas,

Können Sie ...Kannst Du? :-)... bitte mir eine E-Mail schicken? Du hast ja keine in GW eingetragen. 1 kg zu teilen klingt wesentlich besser als 5 oder 7,5kg zu teilen :-)

Ich habe noch Peters Professional Combi-Sol No B/Zn (Scotts) abzugeben, wenn Du Interesse hast. Es ist eines NPK 6+18+36 Nährsalz zur Flüssig- und Blattdüngung. Ich benutze es vor dem und im Winter um die Pflanzen vor Kälte zu schützen. Auch noch, es soll für Borempfindliche Kulturen wie z.B. für Guzmanien und Vrieseen gut sein, weil es kein Bor enthält.

Viele GrüÃe

Sheila