What’s troubling your Bromeliad? Figuring out the answer may require a little detective work. Caring for houseplants is a little like caring for babies or pets: you might know that something is wrong without having any idea what. Your plant can’t tell you why it’s unhappy — you’ll need to inspect it carefully to figure out which common Bromeliad problems are behind its symptoms.
Many common Bromeliad problems can cause yellow and brown leaf discoloration, including overwatering, pests, or fungi. If the foliage is crispy and dry, lack of moisture or excess heat may be the issue. Soft, wet spots are probably due to rot or infection. Fading color or stunted growth may be due to lighting or nutrient issues.
There are many other possible causes for the issues described above. To make a firm diagnosis, you’ll have to assess your Bromeliad’s environmental conditions, look over the foliage carefully, and possibly even take it out of the pot and inspect the roots. Keep reading to learn the likely causes of the most common Bromeliad problems.
#1: Why Is My Bromeliad Flower Turning Brown?
Most likely causes:
- Natural aging
There’s no way to discuss common Bromeliad problems without acknowledging that these aren’t long-lived plants. Almost all members of the Bromeliaceae family are monocarpic — they flower only once in their lives. After that brief moment of glory, they slowly lose their vigor and die.
So if your Bromeliad seems to be fading and wilting and you’re not sure why, ask yourself how much time has passed since it bloomed. A Bromeliad inflorescence (flowering structure) typically lasts for an impressive three to six months before losing its color and fading away.
The remaining foliage can hang on for quite a bit longer if properly cared for. Three years is generally considered the maximum, though, and most Bromeliads dwindle much faster. It’s normal to see your plant begin to visibly decline a few months after the bloom dies. The leaves will start to turn a pale brown color, shrivel up, and die.
You can often distinguish poor health from natural aging by looking at the plant’s “pups”. Bromeliads generally send out vegetative offsets — clones — to keep the life cycle going after they bloom. They look like miniature copies of the parent plant (which is basically what they are). If they still seem healthy while the older “parent” is dying, you’re probably not doing anything wrong.
#2: Why Are My Bromeliad Leaves Turning Yellow and Brown?
Most likely causes:
- Overwatering
- Poor soil
- Cold damage
Are your plant’s leaves turning soft, yellow, and brown like an overripe banana? Is it slouching over and releasing nasty odors? It might be succumbing to one of the most common Bromeliad problems known to gardeners: root and crown rot.
This happens when a Bromeliad’s environment gets too wet for too long, depriving the plant of oxygen and allowing opportunistic fungi to grow. Your Bromeliad’s roots and leaves begin to decay while the plant is still alive.
Crown and root rot can occur because you’re watering your Bromeliad too much. It’s important to let the soil get mostly dry before giving your plant a drink (at minimum, the upper 2 inches should be dry when tested with your finger or a moisture meter). Your potting mix might also be too water-retentive, causing it to hold water longer than normal.
Another possibility is that water is standing too long in the “tank” at the center of your Bromeliad’s leaves. It’s fine to water your plant this way, but you should rinse it out at least once every two weeks (or every week if you’re including fertilizer) to avoid microbial growth.
If your Bromeliad is near a doorway or drafty window in the wintertime, its tissues may have been damaged by the cold. This can also lead to rotting leaves even when moisture levels are normal.
No matter why your Bromeliad is rotting, you’ll need to remove it from the pot and get rid of any decaying roots or leaves. Infected tissue will feel slimy, mealy, or squishy, and it will often be spotted or streaked with sickly brown. Clip them off, disinfecting your cutting tools with rubbing alcohol between snips. Repot your plant in a soilless potting mix that contains lots of chunky, solid elements like pumice, perlite, or orchid bark.
#3: Why Does My Bromeliad Have Crispy Leaves and Brown Tips?
Most likely causes:
- Underwatering
- Sun/heat scorch
- Fertilizer burn
- Low humidity
As you can see from the list of possible causes above, crispy foliage ranks among the most common Bromeliad problems. It results from dehydration. When the leaves are losing moisture faster than they can replace it, their cells dry up and die off.
There are many ways you can accidentally dehydrate your Bromeliad. The simplest is to forget to water it. You might also have left it in a spot that’s too hot or has too much exposure to direct sunlight. If the crispy brown spots on the leaves are mostly on the side of the plant facing the nearest window, the sun scorch is probably part of the problem.
These two issues can easily reinforce each other. The more light your plant receives and the hotter the ambient temperature, the faster it will lose moisture. Dry air can also contribute to this problem, so consider investing in a hygrometer to make sure the relative humidity stays above 50%.
Another potential reason for dehydration is an overdose of fertilizer. When you provide more nutrients than your Bromeliad can use, they’ll keep accumulating in the soil, potentially interfering with water uptake. This often causes the leaf tips to dry out and turn black before any other part of the foliage.
You can often address many of these problems by giving your plant’s soil a long, slow, thorough soak. Use several times as much water as you’d normally give the plant. This helps ensure that the roots get fully watered while flushing out any excess minerals. If your home’s air is dry, you might also want to think about getting a small humidifier.
#4: Why Is My Bromeliad Getting Leggy?
Most likely causes:
- Lack of sunlight
A Bromeliad that looks tall, skinny, and sparse may be deprived of solar energy. Plants raised with too little light typically respond by stretching out their leaves as much as possible. The goal is to push past whatever’s overshadowing them and reach some life-giving sunlight. But this can make for an unattractive houseplant with overly long, thin, flimsy leaves that are much more widely spaced than normal.
Casual gardeners commonly call this “getting leggy”, while botanists call it “becoming etiolated”. Whatever your preferred term, you can usually fix the problem by moving your Bromeliad to a spot where it can get more sunlight.
Make this switch a little bit at a time, though, or the extra illumination could stress out and scorch your plant. Start by placing it in the brighter location for an hour or two while the sun is up. Increase the amount of sun time by an hour a day until your Bromeliad can stay in its new location from sunup to sundown.
#5: Why Are My Bromeliad’s Leaves Losing Color?
Most likely causes:
- Natural aging
- Lack of sunlight
- Too much nitrogen
- Sun bleaching
Sometimes, a Bromeliad’s foliage can seem to lose its pizzazz. Varieties like Neoregelias, Billbergias, and Cryptanthus often have lively colors, but various problems can cause them to fade.
Assuming your Bromeliad isn’t on the tail end of its life cycle after blooming, the most likely explanation is that your plant is in an overly dim area. Take a look at this article for some suggestions on appropriate locations for your plant. Once you’ve picked a better spot, transition your Bromeliad gradually as described above.
It’s also possible you’ve been giving your plant a bit too much sun. Excessive light may wash out the bold patterns on more shade-friendly varieties such as Cryptanthus. Try to find a balance — a few hours of gentle, direct sun per day is usually plenty for a Bromeliad.
Finally, an excess of nitrogen may cause formerly multicolored plants to turn green. If you’ve been giving your Bromeliad frequent doses of nitrogen-rich fertilizer, you may want to ease up.
#6: Why Are There Weird Spots and Bumps On My Bromeliad?
Most likely causes:
- Pest infestation
- Fungal diseases
- Sun damage
A few of the most common Bromeliad problems come from outside the home, not from poor care habits. If your plant’s leaves are displaying lots of odd dots, blobs, streaks, or speckles, there’s a pretty good chance that it’s infected or infested.
This usually happens because you brought home a diseased plant. That’s why it’s best to quarantine any new purchase for 30-40 days.
No matter what specific organism is responsible, you should isolate your Bromeliad immediately to keep the problem from spreading to other plants. Pests can often be treated with repeated sprays of insecticides such as insecticidal soap or neem oil. More stubborn parasites like scale may have to be coated with horticultural oil or rubbing alcohol.
Be warned: houseplant pests tend to be very persistent. You’ll almost certainly have to apply any treatment multiple times, coating the entire surface of the plant, and sometimes it’s still not enough. Don’t hesitate to discard your Bromeliad if it’s too heavily infested.
For mild fungal infections, you can try sprinkling the leaves with a natural fungicide like cinnamon. If that doesn’t work, or if the disease is already widespread, use a commercial fungicide with propiconazole as the active ingredient. Never use copper-based fungicides on a Bromeliad, since this metal is poisonous to them.
Large patches of papery-brown tissue on your Bromeliad’s leaves are probably due to sun scorch rather than disease. That’s especially true if they’re mostly on the upper surfaces of the leaves and clustered on the side of the plant facing a nearby window.
Diagnosing Common Bromeliad Parasites:
Here’s a quick rundown of the symptoms of the pests and diseases most likely to affect Bromeliads:
- White, fuzzy-looking clumps: Mealybugs. The cottony fluff is a waxy coating they produce. They may also produce patches of sticky liquid and uneven yellow or brown blotches.
- Tiny sprays of yellow speckles: Spider mites. Their feeding leaves minuscule scars that look almost like scuffs from sandpaper. They also spin webs among your plant’s leaves.
- Smooth brown, red, or white bumps: Scale. Those things that look like warts on your plant are actually armored, immobile insects.
- Round yellow spots that turn into brown pits: Leaf spot. This disease can be caused by several different fungi, but the most common in Bromeliads is Helminthosporium.
- Gray or rust-colored pits in the leaves: Thrips. These tiny, winged pests may also leave black dots of excrement on your Bromeliad’s foliage.
- Patches of reddish-brown blisters: Rust. Another common fungal disease, rust generally produces smaller dots and blotches than leaf spot. These blisters fade to pale white patches once they’ve eaten most of the way through the leaf.
- Clusters of tiny pear-shaped blobs: Aphids. They will typically cluster around the newest leaves and suck them dry. Like mealybugs, they also produce sticky honeydew.
#7: Why Is My Bromeliad’s Growth Stunted?
Most likely causes:
- Lack of sunlight
- Overwatering/underwatering
- Lack of fertilizer
- Pest infestation
If your Bromeliad is simply slow to grow, rarely putting out new foliage, it’s likely low on one or more of the essential ingredients for plant life. That could be sunlight, water, or oxygen — see above for our advice on correcting lack of sun, dehydration, or overwatering.
A nutrient shortage could also be the culprit. Bromeliads don’t require a lot of extra nutrition, but they grow best with regular, low-strength doses of well-balanced fertilizer. An application every three to six weeks during the growing season should do it.
Severe malnutrition might cause your Bromeliad to produce small or misshapen leaves. The foliage might also look discolored — depending on what nutrient it needs most, the leaves might be pale green, yellow, or covered with discolored blotches.
Pests feeding on your Bromeliad could also cause stunted growth before the infestation becomes obvious. This is particularly common with tiny, hard-to-spot creatures like spider mites or thrips. Inspect your plant carefully for signs of bugs or the damage they cause. If you find any, treat them just as we described in Section 6.
Final Thoughts
Many common Bromeliad problems can be corrected fairly easily if you spot them early enough. Keep a close eye on your plant’s health and vigor so you’ll be able to see when it’s trending in the wrong direction. Bromeliads only need a few ingredients to thrive, but care and attention from their owners are indispensable.