A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 spider plant questions

i recently bought a spider plant to replace the baby spider that did not make it Anyway, it has been producing babies and most of these babies I have sucessfully rooted, but my question is when I take the babie off the shoot am I suppose to cut the shoot off when there are no more babies on it? I have left it but they seem to be drying out and turning brown :p ( the shoots without babies on them)and when i cut the babies off should I cut off a piece of the shoot also are pull the baby off the at the shoot? Also i have about 3 nice size babies that will not root. They have been in water for weeks and the bottoms are black but no roots. Should I just toss those. others have rooted just fine except these 3 babies. I don't get it

Myrna,

Once you've pulled off all the babies go ahead and cut the stalks off. Once they are finished flowering, flower stalks turn brown and die. They will not flower again.

It isn't necessary to include any stalk with the babies. Sometimes new plants fail to root for many reasons. If the bottoms are black and mushy, they are rotted so best to discard them. You might have better success if you leave the babies on the parent plant until they have already formed healthy looking roots.

thank you Cricket,
I thought that might be the case but wanted to be sure.