Spider plant care

Beyond the traditional variegated spider plant, there are unvariegated green plants, the more compact ‘Ocean’ variety, and the curly ‘Bonnie’.

Given how easy they are to grow and propagate, they’re one of the easier and more rewarding plants to get started with learning plant care.

Light for spider plants

Ideally bright indirect light, which will encourage the best growth. However they will tolerate shadier spots, and won’t grow as fast.

Watering spider plants

Moderate watering, approximately once a week.

Soil and potting for spider plants

Well draining soil mix is important to avoid waterlogged roots. I find spider plants fill their pots quickly, and do thrive being a little rootbound – but there’s definitely a point at which it’s time to change up to a bigger pot!

Humidity for spider plants

Spider plants are easy going about humidity, but like most foliage plants, do better in more humid places.

When mature and comfortable, plants will push out long stems, which will often initially flower, before little pups appear along the stem. They can remain attached, so it’s effectively a trailing plant, or can be grown on as new plants.

Ideally wait until the pups are large enough (usually between 1-2 inches) to have started sprouting roots from the base, but they can be encouraged along without them.

Propagating spider plants

Water propagation

Snip off the baby, and pop it sitting in water so that the base is submerged. When the roots area couple of cm long, you can transplant it to soil.

Pinning

Alternatively, you can root the babies in soil by using a second pot of soil, and pinning them to the surface. I have some old florists/moss pins lying around, but others use bent paperclips or cocktail sticks. Keep the soil moist until the baby has rooted itself, then it can be snipped from the mother plant. Pleasingly, this is how they would ordinarily reproduce in the wild

Common issues with spider plants

Brown leaf tips – thanks to Jane Perrone’s On the Ledge podcast, I learned that brown leaf tips in spider plants are pretty common, and are most likely the result of hard tap water. It doesn’t seem to indicate a major underlying problem, so just ignore them!

Onwards to lots more spiderlings! 🕷️