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Often called an airplane plant, a spider is a fast growing sitting or hanging
houseplant that needs plenty of room as it gets older. This graceful interior plant enjoys being in a small pot and sends
off numerous long stems with baby plants at the end that can be used to start new spider plants. You can buy a spider plant
with green leaves, green leaves trimmed in white, or white leaves trimmed in green. Any one you choose is easy to care for
and fun to have. NASA certifies the spider plant as a
clean air plant, and has determined that a spider plant rids the air of benzene, formaldehyde, and carbon monoxide.
Houseplant 411 for the iPhone & i Pod Touch
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CARE OF SPIDER PLANTS
Light: Medium to bright indirect light is best for these easy care houseplants. Solid green varieties need less light: than variegated varieties, but don’t put any of them in the direct sun.
Water: Allow the soil to dry out before watering; the plant may even start to look pale in color. Water that
is high in salts can cause the tips of the leaves to turn brown so never use water from a softener. It’s difficult to
over water since spiders like to be kept in very small pots; but if you do the roots rot and parts of the plant become soggy
and die.
Fertilizer: Less is better; fertilize once a month when the plant
is actively growing. Fertilizing too often will cause brown leaf tips because of the salt build up in the soil.
Pests: Spider plants attract mealy bugs, spider mites, scale, and aphids. Spray your plant with the green solution. Use a children’s toothbrush to scrape off heavy scale.
Propagation:
This is one of the easiest plants to propagate. Lay one or more of the baby spiders, still attached to the mother plant, on
the top of a small pot of soil. Hold the stem down with an opened paper clip. Once the babies have rooted separate them from
the main plant. Do not fertilize for several months.
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SPIDER PLANT FAQ’S
1. My spider plant is not sending out any babies. What should I do?Give it less fertilizer and more light. 2. There are hundreds of tiny hard brown capsules all over the leaves of my spider
plant. What are they?Your plant is heavily infested with scale. Scrape it all off with a children’s tooth brush and then spray your plant with the green solution. Repeat every 10 days for a month. 3. The tips of the leaves on my spider keep
turning brown.Too much fertilizer or salty water usually causes brown tips. Rinse the plant with distilled water
to clean the soil, cut down on your fertilizer, and water a little more frequently with salt free water. 4. Can I leave my spider on a protected porch for the winter?Spider plants prefer temperatures
between 65-80 degrees; they can handle temperatures down to 40 without too much leaf damage. So the answer is, where do you
live and how low do the temperatures go? 5. My spider has lots of babies, should
I repot it?Spiders prefer to be root bound. Don’t repot until its container is bulging with roots
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