My Bromeliads had Pups

I purchased a couple of bromeliads from Ikea over a year ago. They were so pretty and cheap...there was just no reasons not to get them.

Late spring of this year I got pretty upset when I saw my bromeliad's drying up in both of my plants. And for those who don't know, bromeliads only blooms once in their lifetime. To my surprise, both of them started producing pups. Pups are offsets of the main bromeliad plant. These pups are easy to spot because they are new offshoots of the original plant. Once there pups mature Iwill have blooms again. There were two pups on each of my bromeliads. One ofthem the pups tend to be growing much faster. So I decided it's time to separatethe mother and the pups for that particular plant. Once the pup gets around onethird the size of the mother plan, that the pup can be harvested.

One of my bromeliads with two pups in the back

So remove the pup I first took the plant out of the container.  I peeled away the outer leaf on the outside of the pup.  By doing this it would reveal the entire base of the pup.  You put your finger between the pup and the mother plant and push in between the plants part.  Once you hear a tear you can slowly break them apart. 

Took one pup off already and you can see I have one more left waiting to be taken off

My babies!

The pups had stayed with the mother just enough time.  As you can see it started growing their own root system

The mother plant goes back into her container and hopefullyshe would continue to grow more pups. Then you can plant the pups to their ownpots and they will start to mature on their own. The new plant needs to beplaced in a shallow bed of soil with room for the roots to grow down. Make sureonly cover the root and the hard part of the plant (the dark brownishpart...see picture above). If you cover the plant more than that it would rotthe plants. The pup will need water, but only enough to keep the moisture at a medium leve in the soil. 

The mother plant by herself again.  And now her pups are gone...hopefully she'll make more

Awwee!!  Mommy and the babies!

This was so exciting.  Now I have two new plants.  I can't wait for my other bromelaid's pups to get bigger so I can seperate them too.  So who out there has pups growing?  Please let me know!