If you’ve recently read our post ‘How Do Air Plants Grow Without Soil?’, then you may have been a little confused by the section on watering air plants. That’s because we said that preferably you’d bathe them once a week by submerging them overnight in water to keep up their water reserves.

Which is completely fine, but what if your air plants are glued into a terrarium or hanging vase? You can’t exactly submerge the whole thing, and if you did, the glue might break down. So, how do you water air plants that are glued?

Where Do Air Plants drink From?

Thankfully, watering glued air plants isn’t as stressful as it first sounds.

Why?

Because often the terrarium or vase they’re glued into will create a lot of natural moisture anyway from the heat (since these will probably be hanging in direct sunlight).

Air plants get almost everything they need from the sun, and condensation formed within the container the air plants are in will usually be enough to keep the plants themselves happy.

What does that mean?

The once a week bath we spoke about at the start isn’t necessary, and instead you can simply mist them with a spray bottle of water once a week or every few days depending on the climate where you live.

That way, you don’t need to worry about submerging your glued air plants at all.

Of course, you’ll have more questions than just that, and we have the answers below, so stick around to learn more!

Do Air Plants Need Water?

Absolutely! Despite their name, air plants can’t survive on just air alone, and water is vital in order for them to grow, stay healthy, and survive. As with all indoor plants, watering them right is essential for their survival, since they don’t have access to natural rainfall like outdoor plants do.

Water, air and light are essential for air plants to photosynthesize, which allows them to take in more nutrients. This process is especially important with air plants, because their roots aren’t used in the traditional way.

How do air plants survive without roots?

Rather than taking nutrients from soil, air plants’ roots are only used to attach themselves to an object and hang in place. In order for them to get the nutrients they need to thrive on, they rely on photosynthesis.

So, yes, air plants need water, because it’s essential for their survival by helping them get the nutrients they need.

How To Water Air Plants That Are Glued

Typically, air plants need to be bathed in water overnight once a week. This allows them to store water and moisture for the week ahead, and guarantees they’ll be fine hanging in direct sunlight. When your air plants are glued in place, though, things get a little more complicated.

Can air plants live in glass?

However, air plants that are glued typically hang in a self-contained vase, terrarium, or glass container/dome, right?

And these are actually perfect for them because these glass structures get hot in direct sunlight, and as it begins to cool when the sun goes down, condensation often forms.

This condensation is the perfect natural moisture for air plants, and they’ll use this water to top up their reserves for photosynthesis, helping them get the nutrients they need to survive.

Although glued air plants have a natural solution to their watering woes, you’ll still need to water them once a week at least, but every few days if the temperatures are particularly hot (more on this in the sections below).

So, What Do I Do?

• Leave your air plant in the container it’s glued to.
• Fill a spray bottle with bottled, filtered, or rain water (you can also use tap water, but head to our last section to tell you how).
• Set the spray bottle to the finest setting it has, so it mists, not soaks.
• Mist the air plants’ leaves only.
• DO NOT SOAK – too much water can cause air plants to rot.
• The gentle mist of water will be taken up by the trichomes on the leaves.
• Do not mist the plants again until they are completely dry. Usually within a few days to 1 week.

Follow the above guide, and your air plants should have plenty of water reserves to keep them happy and healthy.

How Often Do You Water Air Plants In Summer?

How often you water your air plants will depend on the time of year, as well as the weather in your particular area at the time. We can’t give you a foolproof guide here, but we can give you general advice.

So, let’s start with summer. You may need to water your glued air plants more frequently in summer than in winter, especially if the heat is dry and hot.

Humidity is better for plants, since there’s often natural moisture in the air, but when the heat is dry, you’ll need to pay closer attention to your air plants’ watering needs.

Can you water air plants everyday?

We’d recommend checking your air plants each day. Just look at the plants (and feel their leaves if you’re unsure), to determine if they’re dry or not. If they’re dry, then a light misting will be needed.

Check each morning rather than in the day time, as it’s during the cooler hours of the day that condensation will form in the terrarium or container, and this might be more than enough to keep your plant happy.

By checking in the morning, you can see if the plant is actually dry and in need of misting or not.

In summer, you probably won’t have to water air plants every day, but every 2-3 days is likely.

How Often Do You Water Air Plants In Winter?

Now, in winter you might think that your air plants won’t need watering as often, and you may be right, but you’ll need to think about one key thing: your air plant’s location.

In winter, we often put the heating on in our home to stay warm, and whilst that’s good for us, heating is terrible for air plants, because it makes the air drier.

And as we know from our section on summer, dry air and heat are not good for air plants, so you may actually still need to water them every 2-3 days.

However if your air plants are in a more natural environment without interference from heating (or you don’t often put the heating on), then the cooler temperatures (and air that is more moist) means you can water your air plants less.

So misting once a week will be fine.

Again, this isn’t foolproof, so we’d still advise checking your plant’s leaves often to see if they’re dry. If they are, mist them. If they’re not, don’t. It’s really that simple so there’s no need to stress about watering air plants, no matter the time of year.

Can You Water Air Plants With Tap Water?

Now that you know how to water air plants that are glued and when, we want to finish by talking about tap water. Yes, you absolutely can use tap water to water air plants, but you’ll need to take an extra step before filling up those spray bottles.

You see, tap water has small traces of chlorine in it, which is harmless to humans and actually helps make the water safer for us to drink since it kills bacteria. However, even small traces of chlorine can be harmful to plants.

Do air plants need special water?

Air plants aren’t too picky when it comes to water.

So, before you water your plants with tap water, it’s best to fill up a bowl with tap water, and then leave it to sit out for 24 hours.

This process effectively kills the chlorine, so the water you’re left with is chlorine-free. After that, just fill up your spray bottles like normal, and mist away.

As you can see, watering glued air plants, no matter the water you use, is much easier than most people realize, and we hope today’s post has been helpful. And all that’s left for us to say is happy misting!