Soak your air plants in a bowl of water for 20 minutes to an hour every week to 10 days is best. Submerge the entire plant. If your plant has a bloom, you may wish to keep the bud above the water to not disturb it, although in nature they get wet all the time.
There is an exception to this rule though, air plants with bulbous bases, even those with bright green smooth leaves, often should not be soaked for long periods of time either. Water can get trapped in their bulbous bases and could cause the plants to rot from the inside out.
To water your air plant, place it face down in water, either in a container or your sink and let them soak for 10-20 minutes. Alternatively you can dunk plants several times in water. After soaking, gently shake off excess water to prevent rotting or damage.
A light application of water, such as misting, will not fully absorb through the plant's leaves and the water will most likely evaporate before it can nourish the plant. A deeper, more thorough method of dunking or soaking is recommended for most plants every week to ten days to ensure proper hydration.
Here's what we recommend as a starting point: Every one to two weeks, soak your air plant in room temperature tap water (or rain/pond water if you can find it) for 5-10 minutes. After soaking gently shake excess water from your plant. Turn it upside down and place it on a towel in a bright space.
The best water to use for air plants is rain water; pond or aquarium water will also work, because they all contain some nutrients. Regular tap water is okay, too; but first let it sit in an open container overnight.
Roots: Air plants anchor themselves to objects by their roots and need to be attached to something in order to grow.
A healthy air plant will have leaves that remain firmly intact. If the plant is rotting then the center leaves will easily pull out and the plant will often fall apart. A soft and soggy base can also indicate rot.
Watering an air plant by soaking
They recommend the soaking method for mesic air plants (many of which have shiny, waxy leaves), but do not recommend it for xeric air plants that are more drought tolerant and used to dry climates – check with your supplier which variety yours is.
How long can air plants go without water? Some of the fuzzier Tillandsia varieties with the most trichomes can last 2 weeks or more without water, but most air plants should go no more than 2 weeks without water.
Signs of not enough water include curling leaves, and drying tips, while signs of too much watering could be some browning (rotting) on the bottom base of the plant. Inspect your plant to see if any of the signs are present.
An overwatered air plant will have signs of rot, 'which will appear as brown, soft patches around the base of the plant,' explains Lindsay Pangborn of Bloomscape. The leaves can also turn brown, and look and feel soft and a little soggy, rather than dry.
Here are some signs of underwatered air plants: Dry or brown leaf tips. Edges of the leaf are curling.
Air plants use tiny vessels located throughout their leaves called trichomes to capture nutrients and moisture from the air. Because they do not require soil (and most Tillandsia should NOT be planted in soil), it allows them to thrive in a wide range of settings, vessels and spaces.
It is best to soak your air plants for 20 minutes to an hour every week to 10 days, with a supplemental misting depending on current climate and time of year. The water should be lukewarm, as cold or hot water will shock the air plants.
Provide Bright Light
If your climate is warm, try placing your mature plant outdoors with filtered light and adequate moisture and it should jump-start the blooming cycle. Avoid placing air plants in windowless rooms or bathrooms as they will not receive enough sunlight to produce the energy needed to bloom!
The base of an air plant should feel firm when you squeeze it. If it is mushy or soft, this may be another indicator of rot or another issue such as lack of water or inadequate sunlight. Most air plants have bases that are the same color as the rest of the plant.
Tip: Tillandsia don't love to be handled. Besides our clumsy hands snapping the occasional leaf, the oils in our fingers actually clog the air plant's sensitive leaves. All Airplantman designs keep this in mind so that it is easy to give your Tillandsia the water it needs without touching it directly!
Because they don't need dirt, you can put them in creative places. Place one in a shallow bowl or vase filled with rocks or sand, place one in a tiny container with a magnet and put it on the fridge, or tie them to driftwood with a translucent fishing line. Don't put them in an enclosed terrarium.
The average lifespan of an individual air plant is between two and five years depending on the type, propagation method, and level of care—but a single plant can produce enough offshoots (or “pups”) to live indefinitely.
Mist your plant every 4-5 days with one spray for tiny globes, 2-3 sprays for globes 3-5 inches, more if the plant is in a large open globe. 3. The key is to judge the drying time, the smaller the globe, the less circulation, the longer the plant will hold the moisture. If you over water the plant will die.
Do Air Plants Grow Bigger? If your air plant is a pup (baby air plant) then it will grow to full size depending on its species. As stated above, air plants range in size from two inches to seven feet so research your variety to find out more about how big it will grow.
You can either twist and pull new pups off the mother plant or leave them on as they begin to clump together and the mother plant will slowly die and be replaced by the pups. Be sure to wait until pups are 1/3 to half the size of the mother plant before you remove them.