I had this in my office in a tiny pot under a fluorescent light under the desk hutch. I brought it home and repotted it but it is pale and scraggly and leaves are dying. It had one shoot that is thriving but otherwise looks unhappy. It is in a thick clay pot sitting on a tray. It has rocks sitting on top the soil. I water once a week. Thanks for any help.
by Needa4321
21 Comments
Try to water it every two weeks
I think you are watering far too much and the rocks on top will keep the moisture in so I’d remove them. It needs to dry out. I use a wooden chopstick to test the soil and if it’s about an inch dry from the top then I water in sink till water comes out and leave it to drain. It needs an airy soil with perlite or similar 😃
The stones are compacting the soil. I recommend fresh soil and start watering only when it dries out, then saturate the soil. Their roots need air as well as water. Keep it in a bright spot in front of a south or west facing window (northern hemisphere)
Can you come over to my house because I’ve got like forty of those things and I can’t stop myself from propagating them, and I’m running out of space
You could actually be underwatering it as well. An underwatered spider plant will look pale and the leaves will feel a bit soft and almost sticky to the touch.
It needs to completely dry out, but then it should be watered thoroughly as soon as it’s fully dry (and I mean fully dry, not still a little damp.)
My spider plants did very poorly on a weekly watering schedule because they’re very well drained and sitting in warm spots. I’ve started poking my finger through the bottom of the pot to check whether the soil is dry and watering when it is (roughly twice a week), and they’re looking lovely now.
They hate chlorine too
It was the only plant I could grow when I first kept plants at 18. Had babies, one plant became 4. I burned them to hell by over fertilizing out of ignorance
Now I grow all kinds of houseplants, tropicals mostly, but I’ve not been able to make a spider plant happy since.
I kill these too. Everyone makes fun of me but I just can’t get it right. Have 100 other houseplants doing just fine but spider plants…
You can balance all this “too much water” advice with just more sunlight.
Same
My daughter and I are doing a fine job of killing our spider plant. It looks worse and worse every time I look at it. It did so well for a few weeks when we up-potted it from the tiny pot we received it in. It’s been downhill ever since.
https://youtu.be/cIYpXPzb3AU?si=m6mgJqOgKyHlXxff
This video gave me a lot of new information. I really recommend his channel- really good plant info
Nope! Currently on my third. 🤞😅
Noe. Cant seem to grow one the save my life.
Does it have filtration holes at the bottom? The irrigation looks fine but rocks should have been at the bottom with more top soil with a loose packing. Early on I went through this with my plants maybe a repot with some baking soda?
Too wet, way too wet. It would be happier being treated like a cactus than this.
Well draining soil and sunlight. Most of the time it prefers direct sunlight or bright light all day long. It gets grumpy if it doesn’t get at least a few hours of sunlight. I water when it starts getting droopy.
I never had luck with them either 😔
I have mine in LECA. It’s not great, but it’s not dead.
It’s probably just taking a bit of time to adjust. I think they’re very easy plants and they’re pretty much indestructible. They tolerate any light condition and any watering schedule. I never fed mine and they grow nice strong roots and send off shoots with lots of babies. You might want to cut down the water a bit and only water it when the pot feels light. I think the rest is just time. Give it a bit of time to adjust to the new environment and it’ll be happy again
I have one in water, what is the soil? the black beads? whats that?