How to Care For Spider Plants

It took me THE LONGEST TIME to work out the secret to spider plant care.

So many people say that they are super easy to care for yet all of mine died.

I’m going to go through all the different facets of their care but these are the two things that caused my spider plants to die prematurely:

1. I let them dry out too much, too often
2. I didn’t protect them from pests

I’m on spider plant #5 now (at least). It’s going ok! I thinked I’ve cracked it.

Light

Lots please!

Spider plants can tolerate a wide variety of light conditions BUT they are FAR easier to care for if you give them plenty of light.

I’m talking light volume, not intensity, so direct light isn’t necessary (though spider plants can absolutely tolerate it). Just a window that gets light for the majority of the day

Don’t let any plant person tell you they know exactly where you should put your plant. There are too many variables, in terms of location, house placement etc etc.

You may need to try a few different spots and see where it grows best.

My spider plant LOVES living on my coffee table, which is about four feet away from a south-facing window.

It doesn’t matter if you use grow lights or windows, a spider plant won’t care.

Location

Spider plants do NOT thrive on neglect. They’re tolerant of a lot of things but accidentally forgetting to water mine and not noticing thrips in the early stages were the final straw for so many fallen spider plants.

Put your spider plant somewhere where you’re not going to forget about it – mine, for example, lives on my coffee table. Save that spot in the spare room for something more tolerant, like a Syngonium.

Watering

• Water when the soil is basically dry, but don’t let it stay dry for days on end.
• Tap water can cause brown tips but these are an aesthetic issue – the plant doesn’t care at all. I use tap water and it’s fine.

Pests

• Spider plants are mildly hallucinogenic to cats so…you might want to protect it from them
• They’re non-topic, so won’t harm your cat should he eat a leaf or five
• Not particularly pest prone BUT go downhill quickly once pests have set up camp so isolate at the first sign of thrips/spider mites/whatever
• Read this article if you’re interested in house plant pest eradication.

Fertilising

Honestly, I don’t really think it makes much of a difference.

Every website out there says something different, so I experimented with fertiling with every watering and never fertilising at all.

The results were underwhelming. It doesn’t matter. Pick your own routine out of these three options:

1. Fertilise with every watering
2. Never fertilise again (it’ll get fresh nutrients when you repot anyway)
3. Something in between the two – once a month maybe?

Fertilising plants has nothing LIKE the impact of getting the light and the watering right. Don’t overthink it.

Soil

If you over water, use a houseplant mix cut (just one you buy at a garden centre) with something like orchid bark or perlite – a 50/50 mix should stop you from drowning your spider plant.

If you’re an underwaterer then just use neat houseplant soil. Just make sure it’s not staying wet for more than a couple of weeks.

Spider plants have been kept as houseplant for years. They don’t need fancy soil.

Temperature

Spider plants are pretty tolerant of cool rooms (mine regularly deals with 12˚C in winter and is fine with it) BUT let me make a case for trying to keep them in a wamr room:

1. Tropical plants growing in warm rooms grow SO MUCH FASTER
2. Temperature is MUCH less important than light and watering but is the next most important thing. It does a stellar job of boosting the plant’s energy which in turn makes them way less appealing to pests.

Humidity

If your room is 40% humidity or more then don’t worry about it.

If it’s less than that you *might* have an issue but IME spider plants aren’t too fussed about humidity. They’ll grow bigger and faster in higher humidity, but still grow pretty big and fast in good light with ample water.

Propagating

Spider plants just produce little pups. You don’t have to cut anything until a full baby plant is born.

1. The spider plant will produce a long weird, stick thing
2. Flowers!
3. Babies!

It knows what it’s doing. They just do it. You can’t stop them.

If your spider plant ISN’T having babies, excuse the broken record but it’s likely a light or water issue.

Once it has a baby, sit the baby on a pot of soil whilst still attached to the mother and cut the umbilical cord once the baby has roots.

They root faster in water BUT it’s a bit tricky unless you cut off the mother, and then if fo some reason it won’t root, it’s scuppered.

In my experience the mother plant stops growing once they have babies, so if your mother plant is a bit young to be procreating then it might be prudent to cut off the flower spike before the pups grow. However, if your spider plant is a bit of a monster, propagating it can help slow it down.

Troubleshooting

Crispy tips

Spider plants just LOVE a crispy tips. There’s little you can do about it. It’s usually caused by:

1. Minerals in your water
2. Physical damage (curious cats or cold windows are common causes)
3. Low humidity

90% of spider plants get brown tips. They’re just prone to them.

DON’T CUT THEM OFF
Not because it’ll damage them, but because the plant will simply reseal the wound so bacterial can’t get in and it’ll go brown again.

If you really, really hate brown tips, choose another plant. I’m serious. Spider plants love a brown tip. Also peace lilies.

Get a Hoya instead.

Curly spider plant straightened

I don’t know why curly spider plants sometimes go straight. I’ve spent hours scouring the interest for clues. No dice. It happens so frequently though. Weird.

Weird stick-like growth

A flower spike! Yay!

In conclusion

• Remember to water it
• Protect it from pests

It’ll be fine. Spider plants are extremely chill if you have those two things sorted.