Generally speaking, bromeliads are epiphytes. Their roots are more for anchorage than for feeding. Since these plants don't typically have much of a root system, you want to be sure to have them in well-draining potting mix. For mine I use 1/4 general purpose potting mix, 1/4 coarse perlite, 1/4 peat, and 1/4 medium douglas fir. I custom make all my potting mixes, and since I have hundreds of orchids, I always have the douglas fir available. I might add a handful of medium horticultural charcoal to a 2 quart mixture just because I keep that on hand, but its not necessary. I tend to "over-kill". :blushing:
I do occasionally mist my bromeliads IF they are mounted and IF they are inside, but for those in the greenhouses, I don't bother. I just spray them all down with a hose, using a fan-shaped watering head. (We have lots of humidity here in the deep south.) I do keep water in the "urn.cup" and every few months will add 1/4 tsp. per gallon of 20-20-20 fertilizer solution to the urns. During the late fall/winter months I probably don't water those bromeliads more than every two weeks. During the hotter months, they get watered weekly. Some say to empty the urn every few weeks. I never, and I mean never, empty the urn of water. The urns don't get emptied in nature, so why do this?
P. S. I have approximately 150 bromeliads in pots (two varieties of Neoregelia) and they all get the same care. I also have Vriesea and Billbergia varieties in pots and/or mounted. The mounted ones will get watering a bit more freqently since they tend to dry out more quickly.
