Tillandsia Fertilizer

[kg5]

Now that is Big estación seca.

Thank you so much.

Two of my strong interests at present are tillandsia's & lotus. Nether are native to Australia so info about these two type of plants I have very little of especially about the who & why of them.

Found a great contact for water plants in the US. A very kind, down to earth person. Their ID knowledge saved me from some really bad situations now and to come.

I have not been so lucky with tillandsia until now.

Message sent...Awesome!

[kg5]

Now this thread is coming up in my searches.

Be very careful of info on this thread. This is amateur country concerning gal shelving for tillandsia's.

If I search tillandsia nurseries images a lot of growers are using galvanized shelving + some images of gal trays as well.

Found more info on old gal is not toxic. It seems to depend on how much lead is in the galvanizing.

I am going ahead with the gal shelving but will use my town water that is treated with chlorine to age the gal. Have aged gal this way, it takes longer but no signs of any white powder plus no tillandsia's have had any issues with gal treated this way for me.

The white vinegar produces a white looking powered on the galvanized surface after a couple of days. After Ray's info I am now calling this treatment very suspect as being to quick and very likely destroying the life of the mesh from rusting and releasing more toxins than needed.

So I will keep the tillandsia's in plastic trays for a couple of months to let the galvanizing age a bit before getting rid of the plastic trays and use the galvanized shelving to grow my plants.

[Ray]

1. There should be no lead in a galvanized meter. Zinc coating only.

2. As a pretreatment, the vinegar might be "passivating" the metal, and providing a barrier later.

Just a comment about nurseries using galvanized shelving: if it's a good, viable nursery with a lot of product turnover, the plants may never be exposed for long enough to be poisoned. That, and it's likely old metal...

[kg5]

Now I have emails going out all over the place about galvanizing and tillandsia.

Have just been under my house and pulled out a fishing net that does not rot. The mesh is about 12mm square or 1/2". There is enough of it to cover 120m x 1m or 135' x 1+'. It has been soaked in tar and the tar is the 2nd reason it does not rot.

But it is difficult to work with as the tar makes it shrink width ways and is heavy to work with as well. You have to stretch it into shape. I used it on my oyster leases in the mid 90's until I got smashed. If it does not break when a stainless steel staple is used to attach it the shelving frame it could be an answer. Maybe could use those new plastic ties. A 5 day job is now going to take weeks.....

This fishing net costs a fortune and it still in great shape and it is 25 something years old. Tried to do a search but can not find or remember the name of the netting. But it is a cow to work with. It was not so bad when I was fit and younger but now........

[kg5]

Looks like I have an answer to galvanizing shelving so long as you use a plastic tray on top of the galvanized shelving there is no worries. This comes from a large and only tillandsia wholesale nursery in Australia with plants that have been growing in the long term in this manner.

Coal tar as a roof waterproofing has been reported as growing lichen with no worries.

I can not find anything about tar being toxic to tillandsia unless it has creosote in it or if it or it burnt or the petroleum based tar on roads being toxic to people. But I do not have anywhere near the knowledge that others here have.

One pitch or tar is a petrol derivative the other type is a coal based derivative.

Coal tar is what I believe has been used to treat this netting. It was industry approved for marine and had no creosote in it.

The coal tar present has also been used over 30 years ago to coat the netting and now is a brown/black colour.


Please! Any comments on coal tar and tillandsia's would be a great help?Your help has been huge already. Thank you!

[estación seca]

How many are you planning on growing? They grow like weeds suspended from trees with thread. Dental floss or ultraviolet resistant fishing line serves well. Or tied to the trees with thread. Is it windy there?

The largest clump I ever saw was at a shop called The Plant Man, in Old Town San Diego. (The shop is gone now.) This T. palacea clump was over six feet tall and four feet wide. (1.8m x 1.2m.) It hung on a metal chain with links six inches long (16cm.) In bloom it could be smelled easily around the corner, before becoming visible.

T. purpurea grows in mats on the sand in coastal Peru north of Lima. It is not anchored. There must be no wind there, ever, because there are enormous mats that must be hundreds of years old. People arrange the plants to write graffiti on hillsides near the road.

[kg5]

It is strange for people in the America's as air plants are so common. They are not common here.

So in the US one of the common tillandsia ionantha costs US35c each in some sort of bulk. In Australia at present it cost me US$4.50 each for 1 or 100. Before customs shut down imports it cost US$2.25 each if you purchased over US$300 worth. Imported air plants made up about 95% of the market here.

estación seca In my main tillandsia bush house the hanging shelving is in place and covered with tillandsia's that do well being hung.There are about 450 small clumps hanging with 20 different at very reasonable spacing. The hanging plant growth gives me 2 options and one is to prune them and sell the small plants or to sell a 3 to 4 year old clump and anything in between.

Have noted that some tillandsia's hate being hung or hate being in trays.

So the tillandsa's that do well in trays I have been purchasing 20 to 30 small plants to cover a 900mm x 900mm or 3' x 3' of shelving space to grow them on into a hedge like growth so as to keep cutting the growth tips to sell on. Have 47 different waiting to go out on the shelves to be in my new bush house. Have another 12 or so tillandsia's in my mind to purchase. So now I need 60m or 65 yards of shelving and that fills my bush house.

But yes there is other areas to grow tillandsa's in around my place.1st I have got to get the shelving right.

The shelving front runner at present is the galvanized mesh with shade cloth over the top of it.

[kg5]

estación seca. Nice bit of info for me. I have the large and small form of the T. palacea. Interesting that they are scented. Very much looking forward to scaping with tillandsia's and other plants in a year or so.

Have not come across this one yet! The T. purpurea.

The largest clump I ever saw was at a shop called The Plant Man, in Old Town San Diego. (The shop is gone now.) This T. palacea clump was over six feet tall and four feet wide. (1.8m x 1.2m.) It hung on a metal chain with links six inches long (16cm.) In bloom it could be smelled easily around the corner, before becoming visible.

[kg5]

Two emails in from long term tillandsia growers on old galvanized mesh shelving.

Both stack shelving. Never had any trouble. But one grower had a leaking guttering inbetween greenhouses and the drip from these rots bromeliads incl tillandsias. "So I have had experience with gal burn and death from guttering, but not from benches. This of course is just a series of observations."

[kg5]

Last couple of days of a very mild winter.

Most of the tillandsia's are starting to pup or have head growth.

2 more weeks and our growing season will be well under way again. Have a very weak fert programme already on the tillandsia's. A little bit early for the orchids still.

It is also germinated lotus seed season now for me as well. Started soaking the seed last Monday. Most of the toxic tannin's are cleansed from the seeds now and germination will start buy the end of the weekend.