Your Guide To: Spider Plant

Green and white striped spider plants quickly fill out any hanging space. With flowering shoots that look like stars spreading out in all directions, spider plants give lush and vibrant energy to low-light areas of your space.

Spider plants add a grassy layer of dimension wherever you hang them. They look lovely when placed high in kitchen corners, looming over shelves and living room spaces, or stacked along with other houseplants that thrive in low light settings.

Plant food is an important part of fostering new leaves as your spider plant gets used to its new digs.

For a hanging-size spider plant in a container that’s between 5 and 6 inches in diameter, insert 3 new plant food spikes (included with your plant purchase) into the soil once a month during the spring, summer, and fall. During the winter, when the plant is experiencing less growth, you can cut back to replacing the plant food every two months. Plants experience seasons, even when they’re growing indoors.

The most common spider plant issues are the result of low humidity or too much fluoride in the water.

• Brown leaf tips can mean that your spider plant is reacting to over-fluoridated water. If the tap water where you live is treated with fluoride, try allowing the water to sit out overnight before you give it to your spider plant. This will evaporate some of the fluorides and give your spider plant a break from chemicals. If that doesn’t solve the problem, start to mist your plant more often to increase humidity.
• If your spider plant isn’t producing plantlets, it could be because artificial light is keeping it up at night. Make sure that your spider plant has several hours of darkness each night.