Spider Plant House Plants For Beginners
Spider plants are wonderful house plants for beginners, caring for "spiders" is easy and most of the time only downright neglect will kill the “airplane plant” or Chlorophytum comosum.
Overall, the Chlorophytum is a quick grower putting out "babies" on long stalks, variegated strap like leaves coming from its center of the plant. Most of the time the spider plant seems to find its home indoors in a hanging basket where it makes an attractive display.
As the "airplane plant" throws out long stalks or stems it will produce small flowers followed by the decorative hanging "babies". The plantlets make propagation a simple task. The young plants when rooted can be replanted and transplanted outdoors and used summer bedding, but when planted this way they will need protection from direct sun.
The Chlorophytum plant originates from South Africa and grows easily in hydroculture (growing in rocks). Keep it well fed and pot-bound. When its stems fill the pot, and when the white, wormlike rhizomes bulge over the surface, it can divided easily.
A spider plants long leaves grow from the center of the plant and are usually green at the edges with a white stripe down the middle. Some varieties have white edges and a green central stripe. When buying "spiders" look for clean, untorn leaves with no brown tips.
Growing Basics – Light
Grows in most locations though its variegation is most pronounced when the plant is near a window. Keep away from midday sun.
Temperature
Very tolerant of a variety of temperature ranges.
Soil
A good soil like an African violet mix or hydroculture
Repotting
Plant likes to be pot bound. It’s all right to remove some of the fat white tubers or rhizomes if they fill surface of the pot.
Separating Spider Babies and Plantlets
- First, prepare small pots with good drainage layer and soil
- Place new pot next to parent plant and bend stem until plantlet rests on soil. Peg stem to soil and firm latter around plantlet.
- When plantlet grows new leaves, cut parent stem close to plantlet with sharp knife.
Diagnosing Spider Plants When Things Go Wrong
- If leaves are dull and grayish with webs underneath the problem is most likely Red spider mite.Several solutions exist but I like natural house plant pest control.
- Plant looks floppy and dull it probably – Needs feeding use a balanced liquid food.
- Plantlets pull parent to one side – It’s time to repot the parent and remove extra babies
- Plant rotting in Center – Overwatering the biggest killer of house plants. Allow the spider plant to dry out before watering again. Beware the plant may die.
- Leave transparent and soft – Cold Damage from exposure to low temperatures. Bring the spider plant into a warm area and monitor. It may survive!
- Tips of leaves turn brown – Too dry or too much direct sunlight. Water more frequently and move out of sun but keep in good light.
- Leaves grow weak and lanky, become dry and lose color. Too hot and dry. Water more frequently and keep in a cooler plant.
The Spider plant is really a great house plant to learn about plant care, however, it does require some attention and is an excellent plant teacher! They are inexpensive to purchase an wonderful plants to learn from.
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Why does my spider plant grow up and out of its pot? The roots are coming out of the soil.
Wade,
I wish I could give you a good answer. This seems to happen when the plant gets very rootbound but the condition does not seem to harm the plant other than drying out from being crowded. Sorry!
All the Best,
Gary
wade,it sounds like maybe you are not putting the plant deep enough into the soil from my own experiance 5 yrs ago someone gave me one befor they threw it in the trash sucker tried dying on me twice no matter what i did.then decided to stop treating it like a regular house plant and learned it likes less attention and space now overgrown with babies and flowing like mother nature intended.good luck wade.also try miracle grow firtilizer tends tom like the food but less water,just use own judgement on the water with your own humidity etc.less attention more growth.
My spider plant’s leave are all brown and now some are rotted. There is a lot of brown on the plant and I have been cutting the brown off but then there is more. Whatis going wrong? I do not water it that much.
Thanks!!
Just purchased a spider l;ant and re pot it, now it has brown streaks coning up the center of the leaves getting pale and ugly looking.
I gave it plant food but doesn’t seem to help bought it 2 week s ago
I have a beuatiful spider plant until…. just a few days ago I noticed many of its leaves are brown and just hanging,,, they don’t look ‘alive’. On the other hand, all the offshoots, look so nice. Am I overwatering it? udnerwatering it – with all this heat? till now, I just watered it when I felt the earth dry inside.
This plant is inside, getting light from a south – direction window and was doing nicely for like two years.
Should I take off the offshoots and replant them? How?
Thank you so much, Zlata
when i bought my spider plant it was beautiful and very green now its light in color whats wrong with it i thought perhaps i was overwatering but i guess not well i really dont know
i recently purchased and it was beautiful but now it is yellow whats wrong with it
HELP!!!
Y does my spider plant have brown spots/streaks down the center of the leaves??? Not just the tips??? It has well draining soil sits in west window? I water it weekly with water that has been sitting out for at least 24 hrs! I can’t afford distilled water for all my plants!…lol
can some one help please???
I was wondering why my spider plane was not producing “babies”; I went to repot the plant and the roots seem over crowded and I thought that this might be the problem.
Gary,
I have six ‘spider plants or airplane plants’ and was wondering why part of them are solid green and the rest are varigated. All of them are hanging outside in the direct sunlight. I am nnot sure how long I have had them, but several years ago when I was living in Georgia several of the babies would fall off into the dirt on the edge of my front walk. Each year they would come back after being frozen several times over the weather. I almost think they are impossible to kill.
Right now most of mine have lots of flowers but very few babies, will they get more babies when they get more root bound in the pots?
Thanks, John
[...] rice or as large as a quarter – followed by berries most frequently white. These are unusual hanging basket plants, preferably in osmunda fiber, tree fern, or similar mediums suitable for epiphytes.The rhipsalis [...]
Can I split the roots of a spider plant, they have grown very large round ball, the plant is very old about 10 to 15 years old. Thank you
Why doesn’t my plant have any baby plants yetis there a way i can speed up that process or make the whole thing just grow faster?
How do I reduce those bulbs at the roots? I tried repotting but the roots bulbs gotta so big and it wont fit in the pot. Is there a way to remove the bulbs without killing the roots?