How to Multiply Your Spider Plants

The Spider Plant, or Chlorophytum comosum, is possibly the most popular house plant. They are good at purifying the air in your home and they are very easy to maintain. The purpose of this instructable is to teach you how to make more spider plants from your starter plant.

Step 1: Finding the Baby Spiders

If you have had a spider plant you will already know that periodically the plant will send down stems with little plants, or spiders on them. If you look closely you can see that there are roots starting to develop on some of these baby spiders. Carefully hold the baby spider plant and separate it from the stem being sure not to break the roots off of it.

Step 2: Option #1: Starting the Baby in Water.

You can take the baby plant and set the roots in a cup of water for a week or two so the roots may grow bigger. I use a blank CD to keep the whole plant from falling into the cup. Be sure to check the water every couple days, if the plant goes dry for too long it may die.

Step 3: Option #2: Starting the Plant in Dirt Immediately.

 If you have a plant that is already going and you want to thicken up the growth in the pot you might just want to add the baby to it right away. In that case just dig a little hole and plant it in. After you finish planting it remember to water the plant right away. If you want to start a totally new plant use a small pot, a 2 inch pot would be plenty big to start one. Just use your best judgement in the proper size.

Step 4: Spider Plant Care

Spider plants are very easy to care for. Make sure that they have enough sun and water and they will be fine. If you are not sure if they need water just stick your finger in the soil, if it is dry water it, if it is moist leave it alone. Occasionally the leaves will turn brown and die off, this is normal. Just pull off the dead material or snip it off with a scissor and the plant will look good again. If you have any questions of comments please leave one below or send me a message, I will gladly try to help you out.

Comments

[Katiefin]

Hi, when planting a baby spider plant is detrimental to the plant in any way if you start it in a bigger pot?

[elkel1948]

I have multiple spiders on one main stem from the mother plant. Do I leave them or start them all in separate pots?

[PeggyM85]

Can I cut off my spider babies half way back if some of the tips are beginning to turn brown ?

[cricket.m9.28]

I have a friend I want to send a cutting of my spider plant to in the mail how do I go about shipping it

[LisaJ134]

The leaves on my spider plant keep turning brown, except for the top leaves which are very green and long and healthy, but the rest are very short and sparse because I've had to trim them excessively. So I repotted my plant into a larger pot and trimmed off the bottom saturated smelly roots but the leaves just keep turning brown and I'm not sure how to salvage my poor plant. Any tips?

[DebiH17]

I had to bring my spider plant in for winter. She has a bunch of babies on her. Big babies. Her leaves are constantly turning brown and crunchy. Could these babies be taking all her water? There is a heater close to her so I keep a humidifier right under her. Is the heater the problem?

[sdhardie1]

I have a "Bonnie" spider plant, which has curly leaves. I assume the process is the same, though I don't have any babies yet, but my question is do I need to prune the mother plant at all? Mine's still small but it seems to be getting tall rather than wide. I hope that's normal when they are just starting out. Thanks for the tips!

[GiniJ2]

I pinched my spider plant Arm do I need to cut that it has a baby at end ?

[SoFine02]

Hi, I have the same issue as thebat777, I to would like to know what to do with my spider plant that has a now growth growing from the middle of the plant and now has a hybred growing from it. Should I cut it off and try to grow another plant or leave it be? Thank You

[JoanB47]

Can a spider grow only in water?

[MamaonStrike]

This is my spider plant. My mother gave me this last September ALMOST dead. It's now overflowing with babies!!! I'm fixing to pull pups off and put them in pots. I've always had it in the corner by window where sun shines thru and change potting soil every three months and use only miracle grow soil.

[RobinG62]

wow yours are so Beautiful!!!

[lrahzor]

I'm curious.... Ive noticed on my spider plant, and on yours like in your pictures... that some of the tips die. Should i trim the dead part off or leave it be? I don't want to kill it by cutting one that's not totally dead! Just thought it might make it look better! Thanks!!

[JohnC356]

i read somewhere that its caused by too many minerals in the water and to use rainwater instead, not tried it myself.

[RobinG62]

It's the salt in the water. they say to use spring water or rain water, we have babies growing all over the place in our Office.

[MarnieV]

I trim mine back to the fresh leaf to keep it looking nice. I've had my plant for 25 years, they will make new leaves and old ones will die off but you won't kill your plant by cutting back the tips. I sometimes give mine a haircut when the whole thing gets too crazy, they just keep growing.

[Tomahawk92]

Nice. How much light do these need? I know they grow indoors but where i want it to go it wont get any direct sunlight.

Also can these be grown in only water? this could be an interesting one to throw in a hydroponics system.

[ScottB227]

These spider plants are in my office - I have no windows, so they've never seen sunlight. I bought two grow lamps (red and blue LED types) on Amazon and the plants began growing like crazy.

[l8nite]

Here in florida, spider plants aren't just for indoors, although the recent stretch of cold weather may have some adverse effects = (  Spider plants tend to spread quickly and make great ground cover.. nicely done "ible"

[LarryS94]

Really? I have several spiders growing outside the house. They do fine in Central Florida (Silver Springs)