After a long period of non-growth due to shock, my Brocchinia reducta is starting to grow again, my lovely plant loves the sun so I had it in my mother's bedroom in a west facing window and watered the urn, fed it a couple of bugs a month, the plant was growing beautifully, vigorous and quite fast, it even needed repotting because it looked so crowded.... until my younger brother and sister were horsing around and they knocked out my plant (you bet I was mad but afterall theyre still siblings 
), since the leaves were stiff and brittle they broke and the plant looked plain ugly with sand and dirt all around it, so I took off the severely broken leaves which constituted all but the bottom growth near the apical meristem; unfortunately I had to remove my brocchinia from my mom's window and moved it to my balcony. Since I was also awaiting to repot it prior to the accident, I decided to take advantage of the situation and just repot it so the plant could start new growth again in a larger pot. I felt bad for what had happened because once I repotted it, I noticed a baby pup was on its way but it had been smashed too. It wasn't even one week after placing my brocchinia in the balcony when my younger sister again threw her heavy backpack on her way home from school and it landed no where else but exactly on the spot I had my brocchinia and again even the smaller leaves were broken. Now I just had nothing left just a tiny trunk and roots, I felt really hopeless and didn't see any growth on the plant. I literally thought It was going to die from shock because I saw no growth after 3 months!! I moved it to another smaller pot and nothing happened, growth was so slow almost unnoticeable. Then what happened next was after a period not watering the urn, I finally remembered that the plant loved to have the urn filled with water, since then I began to see GROWTH AGAIN!!! I think the shock and the dry urn must of made the plant go into some kind of dormancy. As I watered the urn more and more I noticed water didn't evaporate as fast as it used to and now a small tank was beginning to form again and I also noticed that the apical meristem for some strange reason sunk deeper into the urn. Being excited to see new growth I googled information about bromeliads and remember reading that bromeliads with little fertilizer grow very slowly! that's it!! I fed it a grub I found and an earwig and almost immediately I've noticed the leaves are growing up fast again!!!!
this first picture is to scale of the actual life size plant and pot, it faces an east window for now (in my room)
you can see in the bottom of the trunk the remnants of what was once all leaves now its just a boring trunk
the dry parts on the leaves were areas that broke from the shock of the accident, now the plant is resuming growth
a dead earwig being digested by microbes- before the accident I remember seeing hundreds tiny little white things swimming in the urn like baby sea monkeys but smaller I hope they come back
(actually after researching i found out these are called rotifers)
If you're wondering what sundew was living under my brocchinia here's a closer look, its living happy under my brocchinia and catches springtails readily.
), since the leaves were stiff and brittle they broke and the plant looked plain ugly with sand and dirt all around it, so I took off the severely broken leaves which constituted all but the bottom growth near the apical meristem; unfortunately I had to remove my brocchinia from my mom's window and moved it to my balcony. Since I was also awaiting to repot it prior to the accident, I decided to take advantage of the situation and just repot it so the plant could start new growth again in a larger pot. I felt bad for what had happened because once I repotted it, I noticed a baby pup was on its way but it had been smashed too. It wasn't even one week after placing my brocchinia in the balcony when my younger sister again threw her heavy backpack on her way home from school and it landed no where else but exactly on the spot I had my brocchinia and again even the smaller leaves were broken. Now I just had nothing left just a tiny trunk and roots, I felt really hopeless and didn't see any growth on the plant. I literally thought It was going to die from shock because I saw no growth after 3 months!! I moved it to another smaller pot and nothing happened, growth was so slow almost unnoticeable. Then what happened next was after a period not watering the urn, I finally remembered that the plant loved to have the urn filled with water, since then I began to see GROWTH AGAIN!!! I think the shock and the dry urn must of made the plant go into some kind of dormancy. As I watered the urn more and more I noticed water didn't evaporate as fast as it used to and now a small tank was beginning to form again and I also noticed that the apical meristem for some strange reason sunk deeper into the urn. Being excited to see new growth I googled information about bromeliads and remember reading that bromeliads with little fertilizer grow very slowly! that's it!! I fed it a grub I found and an earwig and almost immediately I've noticed the leaves are growing up fast again!!!!this first picture is to scale of the actual life size plant and pot, it faces an east window for now (in my room)
you can see in the bottom of the trunk the remnants of what was once all leaves now its just a boring trunk
the dry parts on the leaves were areas that broke from the shock of the accident, now the plant is resuming growth
a dead earwig being digested by microbes- before the accident I remember seeing hundreds tiny little white things swimming in the urn like baby sea monkeys but smaller I hope they come back
(actually after researching i found out these are called rotifers)
If you're wondering what sundew was living under my brocchinia here's a closer look, its living happy under my brocchinia and catches springtails readily.
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