I have a spider plant that is overloaded with babies. Some of the roots are sharing two plants. How long can they live on the mother like this, or should I get busy getting them off of there?

you can handle it either way. if you want the main plant to fill out some more, cut the babies, and start them in their own pots.

oh yeah, i edited your pic so it would fit on the page.

thanks, one day I will catch on with the pics for these forum pages

and to add a p.s. to this, I wish I could take credit for growing such a beautiful plant, but I actually purchased it in this exact condition a couple weeks ago. It is in an 8 inch pot and is looking like I might have to do something with it soon because the soil is pulling away from the pot and requiring frequent waterings. I just hate to disturb it right now as it is sprouting new babies every day it seems like.

lift it out of the pot, gently shake off any of the soil that will fall from the roots, trim any thin or dead looking roots, then put it back in the pot with fresh soil. don't worry about removing the old soil, just get rid of what falls out. that will buy you some time with doing anything drastic with it (like splitting it.)

i HATE spider plants! wherever they're from natively, they're so definately a weed! i'd just chop the babies off and throw them away or make compost out of them.

well, there are a lot of us who like them, and i am always on the look out for babies of different varieties!

I also love Spider Plants & was thrilled when my new plant "gave birth" to its first baby. I think I always let a few plantlets stay & then begin making new plants. One can NEVER have enough plants I always say.

I love spider plants too. I have two different kinds. The one in the pic has the white stripe in the middle, but I have a young plant that has the green stripe in the middle. I still want to get the solid green one yet.

What's not to love? They are very easy to care for and produce babies like crazy and gives you more plants. I'm with you Spider Lady, you can never have too many plants.

i have a solid green one, and a white in the middle. no green in the middle yet, that is the one i am looking for.

Love your ceiling gomerp.

jiffymouse, if I had any babies on the one with the green in the middle I would send you some but at the moment all I have is a young plant that my brother gave me. I will keep an eye out next time I go to the plant retailers here in town, I think that's where he got the one he gave me. One of the places I go to takes the babies off the mother plants and will sell them, but the other place just sells them full of the babies, like the one I got.

tkhooper, thanks. It was like that when I moved in here a few months ago, both the living room and dining room are and I kinda like it so figured I will leave it. The thing I want to do more than anything in this house is paint walls, EVERY wall in this house is that yucky color in the picture and I am not fond of it at all! :p

Jiffy....I'll send you my spider that has the green in the middle...it's not real big but sure big enough to send. It has babies AND seeds. I'll give you the whole thing except one baby........just give me some time though to start the wee one.

gomer, pm me your address, and when i get solid green babies, i'll send you one. tk, i know i owe you some stuff, will you pm me your address so i can get things in the mail to you? i'm starting to feel better.

Ha Ha...beat you to it Jiffy!

and your drink of choice is???? i'm buying

Hi... I'm Miz Maggie A cat lover too-- I live in New York State and also love spider plants!!
I noticed the date difference, Is this forum outside the US? As it is Sunday 9/25/05 here in NY State.
I do have a question tho, regarding a vine called California Ivy. It is a mid sized leaf of one color green, the vine itself has little arial roots coming off it at different spots. I have found no reference to this vine, but when I brought it home from the plant store, it was beautiful. I wanted to make it into a topiary.. After a month or so the leaves started turning brown and most all the plant had a fine webbing shroud. I immediately doused it in my home-made concoction that destroys these tiny spider mites.. My question is... can some one tell me if it is best just to toss the whole plant, soil and all and start over...the mites are gone now, but the plant still looks bedraggled.. also what is the proper maintance for this type of ivy?
Wishing you all the best of the day...

miz maggie

about your time thing, go to your profile and set your time adjustment to -12. the difference is because our server is on the international dateline time.

about your ivy, i wouldn't throw it away, but beyond that, i'll have to look around.