The Green Side of Life: Spider Plants.

I have another plant to add to my collection! It’s a spider plant and it’s one of the easiest plants to grow. Mind you, I have met a couple people who have killed them, but they’re in the minority.

Spider plants are one of the top six plants for beginners. You can ignore them and they’ll grow. Over or under water them and they’ll keep going. They will let you know when it’s time to pay attention to them. The first one I had pushed itself right out of the pot, and we had to cut the pot with plyers to get the root-ball out. I love them, not only because they’re almost maintenance free, but because they can become a bushy addition, especially when they have ‘babies’. Mine is just a baby itself. You can see pictures of it HERE.

Propagating them is the easiest. When they’re ready, they’ll grow long narrow branches called a stolon, with little white flowers on the end. As the flower goes through it’s life cycle, small leaves will appear, and before you know it, you have baby plants on the end. Just take those babies, plant them in the ground and you have more spider plants! There is no pot size to determine when the flower stalks will appear, but if I recall correctly, the plant was pretty root-bound.

There is one drawback to owning spider plants. They are susceptible to mealy bugs, and once the pest is on your plant it can quickly migrate to other plants around it. Best way to keep them at bay is to pay attention to the plant, water and fertilize on a schedule. I add a bit of weak fertilizer to every water, to keep all of them healthy.