Greenfreak or any other plant people...

HELP ME. My aunt gave us a spider plant (or at least thats what I think it is)as house warming gift.


apparently she missed the memo that I can kill a cactus. How does one care for this? It is HUGE and very nice, I would like to keep it alive for as long as I can.

Re: Greenfreak or any other plant people...

Spider plants are so easy even I can keep them alive. (House plants come to my house to die, LOL)

No direct light -- they should be near a window, but not hanging in the window. If they get too much direct light, the leaves will brown. Still, they need light, so on a table or hanging on a wall that gets plenty of light (but no direct light) is best.

Water them once a week. Make the soil damp, but don't saturate it. My other house plants I stick in the sink and saturate the soil once every two weeks. Spider plants I water every week, but with less water.

You may also see "baby" spider plants hanging from the plant. You can actually clip those and plant them as new plants. My mom always clipped them and floated them in a glass of water until their roots started to grow. Then she'd plant them separately. You can also plant the babies in very loose soil while they are still attached to the main plant. Once the roots start to take hold, then clip it from the "mother" plant.

Enjoy!

PS - If just the tips of the leaves turn brown, it could be from the chemicals in your water. That's pretty common. You can either live with the brown tips or used distilled water to water it. Depends on how much you want to invest in your spider plant.

Re: Greenfreak or any other plant people...

What she said.

If you really kill cactus, you're probably over-caring for it, and you can do the same to a spider plant. Really, they are one of those things that prefer minor neglect. I used to water mine too much. I dialed it back to once a week watering till the water came out the bottom holes (there must be holes in the bottom of the pot) and it was fine.

You should know the roots will fill whatever pot you put them in and once they do, they will dry out quicker. I just used to hack mine apart once that happened, so I could keep them in the same pot.

The browning of the leaf ends was worse when the watering wasn't right and like Kara said, because of the quality of water. I used to let all my water sit out for a day before I use it to let the chlorine burn off, it helps a little. Now I use rainwater and I don't have any issues.

Re: Greenfreak or any other plant people...

Thanks Ladies. I hope I cabn keep this thing alive. *fingers crossed*