Reptile & Amphibian Forums

do you feed your epiphytic broms liquid fertilizers or anything? where do they get their nourishment from? im sure every single plant doesnt get pooped on, so how do those plants get their nutrients?

Epiphytic bromes seem to live well on nearly nothing that one can see. A little detritus that lands in the axils, perhaps. The areal roots, when they occur, may pick up some nourishment from the air or from what they touch. The anchor stolons, don't seem to be a source of nourishment, but they survive, bloom and prosper non-the-less with sufficient light, and no artificial source of fertilizer. I'm sure there are more complex studies out there somewhere to explain this phenomenon, but I've never bothered to look them up. They do survive and prosper when you anchor them to a background of just about any sort that will support them physically, and keep the central vases and axils full of misted natural, (not sterile or distilled) water. They never seem to suffer from the symptoms of various nitrogen and mineral deficiencies that one sees sometimes in house and agricultural plants. They just appear to be very efficient and well adapted plants that virtually live off of the water and air combined with what ever organic matter comes along in the form of organic particles, and are able to convert the elements they contain more directly than other plants or animals.

In any event, you don't have to provide your epiphytic bromes with fertilizers.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
6 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
7 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
6 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
6 P. terribilis mint and organe
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus
2 P. lugubris

thankyou very much for your answer.

i have lots of broms in my tanks and i just mist them, the soil is pretty nutricious from the froggy dodo and such. just make sure they have a lot of light.