A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Killed my spider plant?

Hi everyone,

My spider plant has rapidly lost all (!) it's leaves, about half have dropped off and the rest are limp. They aren't brown or significantly discoloured.

I think it's been overwatered whilst i've been away, the soil is pretty damp.

I'm a bit of a novice so don't know what to do-i don't even know how to re-pot if nesessary. And do i take the remaing leaves off?

Any help really appreciated!!

Cheers
Paul

oh, if it were me, i'd just scoop out as much of the wet soil as i could and add nice dry soil around it to "wick" the water away from the roots. root rot will set in quick with a spider... which i find quite amusing NOT! i've killed a few that way!!

What works best is the hanging type of pot with ventilation in the bottom. I water mine in the bathtub and let it drain, before hanging back up. Several years ago, shortly after acquiring my spider plant, it turned brown and died. I just left the pot outside on the porch, and before long, it started growing leaves again and came back better than ever. I found out two things, 1) Spider plants are not necessarity goners if the leaves turn brown, and 2) They do better if I ignore them a lot. LOL I think I overwatered mine too at that time. Now I water about every 2 weeks, unless it is very warm, then once a week should do.

You said it had not turned brown, but if it does, you should cut off the leaves. I trim off any dead leaves.

Good luck!

Here in Louisiana, we set our spiders outside during the spring-fall's first frost. It rains A LOT here and I personally never feed it or anything. I got it in a 2" pot and immediately put it in a 20" pot and set the pot in a plant stand. Today I set it outside and won't bring it in again until fall. This plant now needs a bigger pot. It has lots of babies. You might try transplanting the plant and letting it be outside for the majority of the summer.

Thanks guys!!

Have a spider plant I was holding for someone, but it never got picked up. Long story short, I plopped the poor thing into a pot with the only soil being what was left in the rootball. It's been in the same pot, same place for a year, and it's one of the fullest, prettiest spider plants I've got. They're hard to kill!

I looked up info on my Spider when I got it, and it read that they like to go almost dry before watering. It also said that they don't like to have perlite in the potting mix; it can make the leaf tips turn brown because of the fluoride in the perlite. Since repotting in a perlite free mix, I haven't had any brown tips on my Spider or my Draceana marginata.

Paul,

It is a bit unusual for green leaves to fall off. But the wilting does suggest root rot to me. Your spider needs a little emergency surgery, so it's time for you to learn how because you will lose your spider otherwise.

Remove the plant from its pot. Look for healthy, plump, white roots. If you find none, give it up.

If you find a bunch of healthy-looking roots, then remove any unhealthy roots and any excess soil that is not ditectly in contact with the healthy roots. You will now have a much smaller rootball than before. Find a pot that is just barely big enough to hold this slimmed down rootball. Fill in the spaces with some fresh potting mix. The surgery is now over. Congratulations, Doc!

Water it thoroughly and move it to your sunniest window. Water it only when the top inch of soil feels dry to the touch. No fertilizer and no more repotting until it has fully recovered and is bursting at the seams.

Good luck!

I know the feeling with wilting plants. We lived in a house in Michigan that we had to have the electric lights on all the time. Talk about a cave! My poor plants took a punding. My beautiful spider plants all wilted and I had to cut off everything above the soil. I took them down to the basement and put them under a plant light and had some limited sucess. We have now moved back to Georgia and I have HUGE windows in my house. I did the emergency surgery that Will suggested and I am hoping for the best. I have another spider that has just a few new shoots on it and I am considering doing surgery on that one as well.

Cheers everyone, I'll try the surgery as soon as i can.