Bromeliads - Crazy Science Experiment Creating Consumers

Can you remember back when you were in elementary school or junior high and did some kind of science experiment? I can!

At times I wonder what planet I came from when I come up with a statement like… "Growers should offer some bromeliad plants without flowers!" Often I listen to growers talk about "how" they can increase awareness of the plants they work so hard to produce. Their solution usually comes down to coming up with a new variety or planting in a different pot or finding new customer… something "extreme" like that.

Bromeliads are known for delivering great color both as house plants or in the landscape. In case you are not aware, probably about 99.9% of all the bromeliad  varieties  sold in the chains like "Home Depot", "Lowe’s"  and "Walmart"  find themselves "forced" into flower.  Once the plants reach a size the plants then "get gased" which forces them into flower about 6-12 weeks later depending on the time of year, light, heat and other factors.

So where am I going with all this?

A great way to "grow" some consumers is by bringing together the growers and big box retailers. How you say? I’d love to see one of those retailers … or all of them… use bromeliads as a way to teach some science and get kids interested in house plants.  They can do this "creating" a bromeliad science experiment.

You may want to try this for yourself, if you have a nice size but old "unflowered" bromeliad around.

You can be the "grower" and force the plant to flower! It’s not that hard to do!

Simply take a mature bromeliad (Aechmeas and Guzmanias are great for this) put the whole plant, pot and all, into a large plastic bag. Now toss in a ripe apple  and set the "bagged" plant in a low-light place and out of any direct light. Leave the plant in the bag for few days, and then pull out the apple and plant. This should force the plant to "flower". Put the plant back into it’s usual growing area.

Remember to give it some time… 6-12 weeks minimum to see some bloom happenings.

Although this science experiment is simple to do, the problem lies in students, in fact most people do not have any option to pick up an unflowered bromeliad to do the experiment.

My hope is that somewhere along the line one of these retailers will take the idea and run with it.