If you are searching for spider plant care before that let me tell you these plants have long, thin, bright green foliage is one of the most popular plants because they are not only easy to grow but also highly adaptable to many conditions.
Spider plant care – Spider plant is easy to care as they are adaptable to many conditions that’s why it is considered the best plant for a newbie gardener or those who didn’t have any plants in life. Here I have covered indoor to outdoor care and some of the problems that appear in this plant in winters , also provide you some tips on what type of soil mixture it needs, watering, light, temperature and humidity and diseases and pests.
It is one of the best plant that sits on the table for decorative purpose and looks amazing and graceful , this even look beautiful in front of any wall color. This plant has arching leaves that can be termed as hanging plant, and one of its qualities is to remove the bad or toxic air inside the house. It means it will makes the surrounding air healthy and basically purifies it [1]. Spider plants can tolerate many conditions and easily survive to it but it also gets a problem called brown tips.
Why and how to solve the problem I will talk in detail below. Once this plant matures its leaves will become tight and trailing , they are also bushy and produce a small white color flower. There is a full green variety of spider plants
and a variegated is also there with green and white stripes.
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Table of Contents
Spider plant flower It has flowers that are white in color and can be seen with the long thin arching stem. But remember it’s very rare to see the flower as sometimes they live for a short time period and die back.
Many of its variety never flower even after they mature, there may be many reasons some say it was sunlight , low light or low in fertilizer.
How to take care of an Indoor Spider Plant?
Spider plants care is easy as they are adaptable to many conditions that’s why it is considered the best plant for a newbie gardener or those who didn’t have any plants in life. Here I have covered indoor to outdoor care and some of the problems that appear in this plant in winters , also provide you some tips on what type of soil mixture it needs, watering, light, temperature and humidity and diseases and pests.
Tips for Spider plants care :
Temperature
According to IFAS, Spider plant ideal temperature between 70 to 90° F that it enjoys. Spider plants will stop growth if temperature is below 65° F and when I said above spider plant can tolerate minimum temperature below 35° F easily without any issue. If spider plant maximum temperature is above 90 °F it will increase the toxicity of micro nutrients present but yes it will not damage the spider plant directly.
Ideal temperature is important for any plant’s growth. For winters your spider plants go into deep sleep and they won’t grow until spring starts. ensure your plant can have an adequate temperature to grow and thrive. My spider plant has been growing for 7 years now and it has given birth to babies as well & I propagated it into new pots. These are easy to care for houseplants that need sufficient water, light and humidity. You can also give spider plant fertilizer which helps it to produce more bright color leaves and make your plant fulfill its food requirement.
I know many people who grow these spider plants in inside the house as well as outdoors. They can easily get humidity outdoors but you need to create humidity indoors and make a environment that lowers the transpiration rate or loss of water from the leaves in summer time.
Watering
Spider plants like to be in moist soil means they love water and even if you forget to give them water they will not be angry at you. These plants need water once a week but before giving them water you need to check soil.
If it was dried out or not. If you find out it’s moist then wait for 1 or 2 days so it dries completely. Although these plants don’t like the soil to dry but it also doesn’t sit in wet soil so drying is better.
as this protects the roots to not get any rot.
The more you avoid over watering the more healthy the plant will thrive , it becomes an issue for some people but what i taught above you just need to follow that. These plants easily recover themselves but if done very often it might kill the plant.
You can also use a soil moisture checking tool or just take hypotheses like when to water by touching soil to 1-2 inch so if it is still moist then it is the indication that it doesn’t need water.
Humidity
According to UVM , Spider plants can grow in low to moderate humidity environments easily. Providing them moisture sometimes will give them excess water that makes the soil wet and eventually root rot issues. So what to do? You can monitor water level and dryness of soil
and also make sure water drains out properly.
Soil
These plants highly dislike the wet soil and if you make them stand for longer it may cause the root to rot. The soil I prefer is a general purpose soil mix which is best for planting spider plants and if you have an existing plant
then you can use this when repotting. Some of my friends grow this in a mixture of peat moss, compost , coarse sand. But these literally don’t need much of these things I have tried and general purpose soil has everything.
Here is the link if you want to buy online.
When growing it the first time , water the soil and make it wet and let the water absorb some and excess water at the same time can drain out. Now put your plant in the pot and it’s done.
Make sure don’t sit them in water and control the watering.
Spider plant Light
Spider plants like bright light that was not directly dropping on the plants. I have seen them growing in sunlight also but that was the morning sun for like 2-3 hours and i think that’s why they were termed as partial shade plants.
In Warmer Climate they need more water so don’t forget to give them and put them in room temperature that would be a great location. Again if your plant gets direct sunlight this may scorch the leaves. Know full spider plant light requirements information.
Toxicity
According to ASPCA , Spider plants are Non Toxic to dogs and cats , these pets are generally we have in our homes and we consider ourselves as our family so that’s why this is also a thing we should know about before growing this plant indoors.
Fertilizer
In Growing season , spider plants requires plant food or fertilizer every 50-60 days or in 2 months, Also use a good fertilizer and don’t over fertilize the plant. Otherwise you might get an issue called brown tip on leaves. This is one of the issues it gets ,
but fertilizer does improve the soil health and eventually the plant feels more active and strong. It helps them get nutrients that are missing on the soil and help them grow bigger.
Here is the fertilizer I am using – Check on .
Also in winter spider plants don’t need fertilizer as these go into a dormancy period where they generally sleep and their growth is halted for some days.
Pruning
Spider plants pruning is needed when leaves are bigger and have unmanageable size. Trimming makes the spider plant healthy and increases its life. Cutting off dead leaves would enouge low infections, just use a clean and sterilize pruning tool so it doesn’t get any infection.
Find diseased or pale leaves for pruning and remove them from the base , you can also cut the stem from the base if it was a baby spider plant stem and don’t cut the mother stem. You can also trim the above leafy part but that makes no sense.
And looks ugly that’s why it is considered to cut them from base. Every leaf you see having issues either due to overwatering or from pests should be cut down.
As you know they are the easiest plants to grow & care. Pruning needs extra attention because many of us don’t want to make it look unattractive. Here are some tips of spider plant pruning:
1 . First & the foremost, You need a sterilized pruner to do the task of trimming your spider leaves. Often people just use scissors to cut some of the dead foliage but they forget to clean it, this makes the plant get infected by fungal or bacterial infection.
How you will sterilize it by using rubbing alcohol that you can get from any chemist shop & nowadays sanitizer is there to clean the blade & it will immediately sterilize the sharp object.
Other options like using a white vinegar or cleanser that is used to clean the house. There are also bleach solutions which can get rid of infections from the pruners. Use it only by 8-10% of solution and do not use it more often.
2 . Trimming of spider plant is done on its brown or yellow leaves or if the tips are getting brown-yellow then you should make sure they are getting enough humidity in your area. If grown indoors you can increase the humidity by using a humidifier, or use a pot with a saucer that can be filled with water. Then slow your plant gets humidity. Or spraying on a regular basis would do the work.
The right way to prune spider plant is to cut it off from the bottom because if the leaves totally turn yellow or brown then there is no need to keep them as they won’t turn back to green. It also makes your plant unpleasant if some of the leaves have a pale to brown color. It just gives an attractive look to your whole plant.
3 . Sometimes if your plant is overgrown & produces a lot of leaves that means it will need regular pruning to make it short a few times in 3-4 months. When the soil, water and climate is with the plant it starts growing fast which makes the leaves grow more. Generally spider plants grow over 12 inch(25-30cm) tall and 12 inch(25-30cm) wide. Sometimes they require more space to produce offspring. If they used up more space in the container again and again, that would cost you more money, that time better off you start trimming it to limit its growth.
This pruning would also make it healthy as no pest infestation, disease occur in a clean environment.
4 . Spider plants can be pruned in spring whenever you feel they are getting out from the container. The leaves can touch the ground so cutting some of the large and old leaves would encourage good health of your plant.
You can do trimming annually if it reaches 2-3 feet & if not then it won’t need much pruning. Generally what happens is when your plant gets a comfortable environment and fertile soil it starts to grow bigger, then at first we think that it is growing well but then it crosses the length and grows more that leads to pruning them very often in summers or spring.
5 . You can trim healthy leaves of spider plant if your plant pot doesn’t have space left, excessive growth of foliage.
Always cut back those leaves that have brown tips, yellow, browning and if nothing found them trim those long leaves of spider plant.
Brown tips
Spider plant brown tips are a very common issue in these plants , there are many reasons one such is salt water , soil is dry or less moist. This can be solved by avoiding chlorine water and using filtered water.
Make the soil dry by spraying water regularly on soil stem when this problem occur, this way it will recover from low humidity. If your plant gets some leaf tips brown , just remove them from base. Regular pruning can make it healthy also. If your spider plant has spider mites problem then then check the solution.
Also See : Jade Plant Care – Propagation, Pruning , Symbolizes, Indoors, Outdoors
Benefits
Spider plant benefits include spreading positive chi and purifying bad energy due to its air cleansing phenomenon. It is a plant that enhances creativity in a person, lowers bad moods and much more. check spider plant benefits for more information.
How long do spider plants live
Spider plants can live up to 50 years and they can tolerate climatic changes till 20 years. Spider plant lifespan can be longer if provided adequate water, temperature, soil and light. Many of my neighbors have spider plants living for more than 15 years & some have said they have 35 year old spider plant trees. And that plant is still healthy and growing perfectly with minimal care.
These plants need good plants which make them grow larger leaves. If you want it to have healthy, bright foliage then providing fertilizer to its soil would make a positive change to its overall growth rate.
My spider plants are 7-8 years old & As my neighbor suggested it can grow over 20-30 years of life. I would highly recommend people to provide it with good partial light, fertile soil so it gets the early nutrients. Every year you should fertilize it and provide it with the annual plant food.
(Propagation + Video ) Spider plant babies
So what are those babies? You may have a question about this, Spider plant when they mature and reach to a certain size they will starts to develop baby spider plant and you will notice that these are smaller version of this plant having 3-7 arching leaves showing and that is attached to a single stem , it was growing upwards. if you don’t find out just move some of the leaves and check if any baby spider is growing.
What you need to do is take that out by cutting the stem part, I have a video to actually make you understand.Also make sure it has some roots in it, because that way it will grow fast. Remove the base leaves as this may help the roots to grow from their as well.
Now prepare the soil mix( check above i have given what type of soil you should use), Put the plant and water it. Keep it moist. As Roots will grow more and it will help the plant grow bigger.
This is how you propagate spider plant babies. & here is the method to better understand.
Where to Grow Spider Plant babies
You can grow them in water, soil and in bowl of moist tissue paper. These are 3 best performing method and transparent small bottle can be used to grow them in water. 2nd method where you can grow them in empty bowl , put a tissue paper.
And spray some water & take the baby spider and put that just above the tissue paper. Both these are method for those who wants to see daily growth on roots. 3rd method which is common and sow the plant in well drained soil and water it.
Keep it moist for some days until it starts developing roots.
Spider plant varieties
Spider plant varieties there are over 190+ known species of spider plant or Chlorophytum comosum , and some of them are popular because of its green foliage or unique trailing pattern.
They best thrive indoors and can adapt to most conditions easily. Even the lifespan is more than many plants out there. Here are some of the list of Spider plant varieties :
Zebra (Chlorophytum Laxum)
It has green- yellow stripes foliage that turns white once they grow and become mature. It was a fast growing variety of spider plant , which looks good in a hanging container & Go for this if you are just starting with this plant
as this can be a beginner friendly plant.
Hawaiian Spider Plant (Chlorophytum Viridescens)
This one is easy to grow and propagate , many of my friends growing this as this is more greener than others and very light white/ yellow stripes in the middle. It is smaller in size and can live in any room temperature
, also known by its other name which is golden glow.
Variegated Spider Plant
It is quite similar to spider plant and has longer leaves, same middle white stripes and the edges are green in color. Curved foliage gives a beautiful look and is quite recognizable from far away , great at hanging containers , also grown outdoors.
Variegatum (Chlorophytum Comosum)
This one is called a reverse variegated variety of spider plant , also one of the most popular and this one also gets listed in most sold. To recognize spider plant variety just check edges are white or not and other middle stripes/part of leaves is full green.
This one also has arching leaves , looks very stunning. Thrives in bright morning sunlight and don’t put them in direct sunlight as they might lose the green color.
Bonnie (Chlorophytum Comosum)
This one is very similar to Variegated Spider Plant , but having leaves curl more making inverted “U”. These are also fast growers and can be grown in bathroom or balcony , small rooms. It was also an air purifying plant that can remove the bad air toxins & it can grow in less or low light easily. These plants are also called toilet plants because of one reason as they were placed in bathrooms.
Growing Spider plant outdoors
Growing these plants outdoors requires much of attention as this can get affect by many bugs including spider mites , scale, aphids, mealybugs, white files that can be a problem. One of the solutions is to keep an insecticide with you
and give them every day or 2 to stop the infestation of these pests.
the thing when growing spider plants outdoors is they should not get direct sunlight and only give them morning sunlight that way they will be healthy, when winter comes take them indoors as this plant can’t handle frost or colder climate.
Room temperature should be warmer so that plants can survive the winter. There are frost blankets used for plants and trees. You can use that or that was not necessary as this plant is strong enough to handle many conditions.
Conclusion
At LotusMagus, we always suggest plants that are easy to propagate and look attractive , as many of beginner get issues in growing plants so these spider plants are not only easy to grow , propagate and can survive more conditions.
These are decorative plants used in many offices , even inside houses they look good. Indoors they purify air. What’s more you need. They are good enough for everything.
Also See:
Bladderwort(Utricularia) – Uses, Life Cycle,Habitat, Adaptations
Ponytail palm Care – Propagation, Problems, brown tips , Pruning
Is Plumbago Poisonous to Humans – (With Full Details)
Is honeysuckle poisonous to dogs? – Varieties, Seeds, Eating Possible?
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