Quote:
Originally Posted by kg5
Have had a lot of trouble with growing Tillandsia velekiana. This is one of my bad choices.
Summer or winter it hates being wet. Only very light waterings or they just go soft and fall apart.
Have taken to turning them upside down after watering to totally dry the (root) area of this plant. It also seems to hate humidity.
One has finally flowered. A very light pink colour
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Nice job on the flowering! Although I have only grown these indoors under artificial lighting, I have noticed this species does well with regular/consistent watering routines. But (from my experience with growing this plant),
T. velickiana will definitely fall apart and become very soft if not allowed to dry out (completely) between waterings. My nighttime temperatures *indoors* hover around the low to mid 70F mark, with daytime highs occasionally hitting the mid/upper 80F range (and humidity levels are all over the map).
Synonyms, especially in regards to
Tillandsia names, will oftentimes fuel confusion (eg.,
matudae, velickiana, oaxacana, feldhoffii). Two very good links (good reads pertaining to
T. velickiana) are listed below, if interested.
Tillandsia velickiana
http://journal.bsi.org/PDF/V43/BSI_V43%282%29.pdf (cover photo, pg.59, 60,61,62 & 63)
On page 63 in the BSI journal listed above (the last couple of sentences are interesting): "In closing, I believe I should warn horticulturists that both
T. velickiana and
T. matudae may present problems in cultivation. Both are native to moist pine/oak cloud forests of ca. 2000 m elevation. This means they require cool nights. They are usually impossible to cultivate in hot, lowland areas.
I especially like the words Harry Luther uses in his article: "
may present problems in cultivation" & "
usually impossible to cultivate in hot, lowland areas".
Hybrid Mode
