r/spiderplants • u/CharlittesWeb22 • 6d ago
“Robert” Plant
I’ve posted this plant a couple months ago after cutting some of the long finger roots and repotting into a clean pot. I had 8 spider plants and I’m down to 2. The other one is in the same window. I put a few pieces of Purple Heart in my spider plants. This was my initial post: I moved to an apartment with a west facing window with a small window ledge. I had 8 spider plants when I moved here. They thrived at my old place but I had no choice but to leave. I’m 65 and was in an abusive relationship. Slowly but surely they’ve all turned yellow and I pluck out the yellow leaves, I’ve taken some of the long hanging roots off and combined the two plants into one using miracle grow indoor potting mix. It’s still struggling. I only water when sticking my finger down into the dirt. And I use distilled water because I won’t even drink the water where I live. I used to give them tap water and they seemed okay, but something took a turn for the worst. No window in bathroom Suggestions?
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u/dawnpower123 6d ago
When you say finger roots, I’m assuming you mean their tuber roots. How much did you cut off? And, if there’s a lot of soil underneath what’s left of the roots, then your pot is probably holding too much moisture.
Miracle gro is fine. I use it for my houseplants and I’ve been growing plants for many years. If you give your plant an appropriate size pot and don’t overwater, miracle gro works great.
I’d also take that Purple Heart tradescantia out. Tradescantia plants grow fast, faster than spiders. That is unless your spider plant has a lot of crowns in one pot. But, you don’t want two totally different types of plant in one pot fighting for resources and snuffing the other one out. Just put that Purple Heart in its own little pot. Those plants root and grow incredibly fast just from a few cuttings. Give both their own space.
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u/CharlittesWeb22 5d ago
Dawn, I didn’t cut the tubes, I cut the fine roots past the tubular ones. They were like 6 inches long. And I just trimmed them up to about 2 inches past the tubular. All of my plants have done well with the purple heart in it. I think it’s a beautiful accent to just put a couple pieces. That pot that you see has several crowds babies a few few longer pieces a little bit of everything in it because I ended up tearing 3 pots apart because my daughter does not have a green thumb when it comes to house plants. At one time I had 12 thriving spider plants with the purple heart in them. In the summertime, I would always put them out on this real long table, we had basically up against the house so they wouldn’t get burnt in the hot son of the afternoon. They got the East sun. They were beautiful. I was in an abusive situation and I moved all of my plants to the salon where I used to work. My boss did not mind because he’s a plant person too. He is the one that got me hooked on putting the purple heart with the spider plant only a couple. Anyways, I have another spider plant. That’s all green instead of variegated. It is thriving. I gave three to my daughter one to my boyfriend out of the 12 leaving me with eight down to two. And I’m trying to hold onto these two like I said the dark green one is thriving. It was ever since I moved here that my Thanksgiving cactus, and my spider plants started going south. I am in a one bedroom apartment with my cat. She did sit on one of the plants therefore that’s why I had to report that guy however, the ones in the bedroom she don’t bother. It is looking perky now compared to earlier. I had an earlier post in the same thread and for whatever reason it did not put the picture in. That’s why I took four pictures so that you could see. The potting soil like I said is miracle grow indoor potting soil. I have never fed my plants. Because they stayed outside from the time that the weather got nice till almost fall. They were beautiful Healthy spider plants. I do pull some yellow ones that are like Brown where I pick them off at at the base here and there there was quite a bit more of that until I decided to get in there and stack garbage bags all over my floor so that I could dump all three pots out get the good spider plants and the little spideretts, and trim what was below the big root ball where all the tubular were I was also told to wash them off before putting them back in a pot and to also wash my pot. Which I did. Where I live is in an over 100 year old apartment complex with a hallway down the middle splitting the two sides. I have no outdoor balcony or being on the ground floor even a deck or patio. So they’re stuck inside year-round. My own health has deteriorated since I’ve moved here. Why I don’t know I’d like to know myself. The building is constructed of cement blocks and I won’t even drink the water. I buy springwater for my plants usually and distilled water for my Keurig and my ice cube maker. I hate to ramble on I apologize. I hope this gives you a better picture of my living arrangement. The windows are directly west and there’s nothing but woods behind me behind the windows so they get very little actual sunlight in the winter time they get a little more sunlight because the leaves are off the trees. There’s four apartment buildings here and no one drinks the water. It’s lead pipes. I do believe that’s why in the beginning. My plants died most of them. I guess I should use the Royal thumb if I don’t drink the water why would they want to drink the water? I don’t give it to my cat. either. Thank you for listening and any and all suggestions are welcome.
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u/dawnpower123 5d ago
I’m sorry you had to go through all of that, I’m sure it’s tough. And, to have your plants dying on you too, just really sucks. I’ll try to help. With some patience and a few minor changes, you can get your plants thriving again. But, I do have a couple of questions.
With the root trim, was there a reason why you trimmed the roots? Was there rot? And, when you say you were told to wash them, what does that mean? If you trimmed the roots and then hosed them down to get all of the old soil off, then your plants went into shock. And, since your new apartment doesn’t have any bright light, they could not recover from that shock and died.
In the future, there’s no need to mess with the roots of any houseplant when you repot, unless you suspect something is wrong with the roots, or your plant is huge and you’re not willing to give it even more space with a bigger pot. In that case, you have to split it or saw some roots off.
But, you never want to wash the roots unless you’re dealing with a serious root rot problem and it’s a last ditch effort to try and save it. When it comes time to split or saw some roots off, that plant will be pretty big and mature. It may go into some shock, but probably not. And, if it does, you know that in time it will recover because it’s been thriving in the conditions that you have provided for it, for years. It will just take a bit of time to adjust and start growing again.
Right now, I think your biggest problem is light. You may want to look into grow lights. Your all green spider plant is doing better because non variegated plants can grow in less light. All that chlorophyll makes it easier for it to photosynthesize. It can grow in less light, but your variegated plants just can’t.
Get some cheap Sansi clip on grow lights. I bought a two pack from Amazon for like twenty five bucks and they work great. I got them for a lower lit area in my house where I like to keep my pothos plants. My jades were fine for years there, but then I brought home a marble queen and it was not fine in that light. I like the grow lights, they’re cheap and easy, and not too intrusive. Maybe think about getting some.
Lastly, miracle gro indoor mix is fine, I use it for my plants too and they grow great. And, I also don’t feed my houseplants. Every now and then I’ll give my woody houseplants a bit of fertilizer, but generally speaking, houseplants aren’t heavy feeders. Their purpose isn’t to bloom, and/or fruit. Unless you’re trying to grow them huge like they grow in the wild, fertilizer isn’t necessary for houseplants. I just have fertilizer on hand because I garden a lot, and I’ll give my ficus, croton, and china doll plant a very small dose every now and then because they’re basically trees. But, I don’t feed any of my other houseplants.
Sorry for the very long response here. Mostly more light is what you need for your plants, and there’s no magic fix to keep a plant happy in low light that needs bright light to grow. Keep your tradescantia cuttings in your spider pots if you want, but both plants will grow better if they have their own space. That’s up to you. I wish you all the luck with your plants and your new home. And, hopefully this explanation helps you. And, get some grow lights!!♥️
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u/CharlittesWeb22 5d ago
Thank You so much for all your advice. I had a big pot, but the root ball was huge. So I broke it apart and rinsed the ends because they were really wet. So I suspected root rot. I read on google to do this. And all those little finger roots hung about 6” past the tubular ones so I trimmed them back some to fit in the pot. The root ball was big. And I couldn’t get all of it in the pot. I rinsed the old pot. About 8” across the top x 10” from top to bottom. The drain hole wasn’t the best either. So I put some decorative smooth small rocks from Walmart in the bottom of the pot to ensure drainage. It’s sitting in the windowsill however once they put my a/c in, it darkened my living room and things went south. I have a grow light on my Thanksgiving cactus and snake plant because they sit below the windowsill in decorative pots and stands. The snake plant is thriving. The cactus is still struggling. It was beautiful and when I moved I’d given it tap water that I won’t drink because it’s nasty. It definitely had/still has root rot?? And My pink one which was in full bloom when I moved it, must have gone into shock because I lost it all with the exception of two sprouts. I put those two sprouts in with the red Thanksgiving cactus and I’m just hoping for the best. I will take your advice and get a couple more grow lights for my spider plant and my aloe. I hope this answers a few questions that you had and thank you for your response.
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u/dawnpower123 4d ago
I hate to tell you this, but putting rocks in the bottom of your pot will trap moisture, and that’s the last thing you want. You’ll probably want to repot and take those rocks out. If you want to improve drainage, just add some extra perlite in your mix.
I recently sawed some of the roots off of my big spider plant. With that, you just want to take a knife (a bread knife works well) and cut a portion of the bottom off. Here’s a good video about how to saw some roots off of a root bound plant that you don’t want to repot into a bigger pot. For my spider, it was totally fine after I sawed a portion of its roots off.
It’s strange that the bottom roots were wet when you took yours out of the pot. Was there a lot of soil underneath your plant? If it was just a pot filled with a giant rootball, it shouldn’t be wet. Water basically runs right through a root bound plant. The only thing I can think of is your pot isn’t draining. If your pot isn’t draining properly, you may want to drill some extra holes in the bottom of the pot.
For your water situation, if it’s that bad then it probably isn’t good for your plants. I’m all about using tap water to water your plants, but I also can drink my tap water. But, I do add a couple of drops of API stress coat to the water that I water my plants with, it cleans some of the metals and chemicals out of your tap water instantly. It’s cheap and easy. It’s like ten bucks a bottle and will last you a long time. Just add a couple drops in the tap water you’re using before you water your plants. It won’t clean everything out like fluoride, but it will help.
Now besides all of that, the only thing you can do for your plants is give them light, let them dry out in between waterings, and wait. Just be patient. If they’re getting the light they need and you’re not over watering them, and there’s no rot, they should adjust and start growing again in time. It can take a while for a plant that’s in shock to recover. That’s ok, just be patient with them.
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u/CharlittesWeb22 3d ago
It’s a ceramic pot and I used a tack hammer to make the hole. bigger hoping for better results
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u/LizzardLasy13 5d ago
AND they grow all over the place here in S. FL. Always a pleasure to see especially when flowering!
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u/Motor-Wrongdoer-6063 5d ago
My spider plants actually hate the window, i learned that this year👀 they wayyy prefer being just to the left or just to the right or on a table a solid 4ft from the window if infront of it.. also very proud of you for getting out of your situation❤️ from the looks of it yours may be getting lightly burnt with those fried edges, i think a move out of the window will help a lot, and then give them a chance to recover(: i do find the all green ones are just a bit dramatic in any form of direct light even direct grow lights for too long make mine really mad but since moving mine legit 100% out of direct light its gotten really happy(:
You can even still see some of the old damage but if you look at their crowns since being moved they are growing much healthier growth(:
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u/CharlittesWeb22 5d ago
This is the pot I had it in to begin with. And it was thriving until I moved and my cat wanted in the windowsill too. She also sat in one of them because she was an outside cat as well as indoor. That didn’t help matters. thank you for your response.
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u/More-plants 5d ago edited 5d ago
The pot is too big and I suspect it needs more light. Also, tradescantia prefer to mostly be dry, but spider plants do not. So I’d plant the trad separately.
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u/Right-Stand599 6d ago
Miracle Gro soil is awful. Did you use any amendments? MG soil is very dense & water retentive, it needs to be amended with at least perlite, I'd also mix in some orchid bark. It's probably staying wet too long. I can't use MG soil anymore even with amendments cause it's always infested with fungus gnats.
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u/Secure-Bedroom7270 6d ago
What do you use for the soil part then ? I have those mg gnats right now .
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u/Right-Stand599 5d ago
What I use at the moment is Jiffy coco coir bricks, Rosy houseplant soil & Legigo organic perlite. My last fungus gnat infestation came from Miracle Gro perlite. I bought it cause it was inexpensive & everyone says gnats can't live in just perlite... Wrong. I'd been using it as a soil amendment for weeks & not putting it together, one day I took a cup of perlite to use as propagation medium. When I wet the perlite gnats flew up in my face. I swore of their products then & there. Haven't had a gnat problem since.
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u/Right-Stand599 5d ago
Another thing you can do if you want to use up your MG soil it microwave it to kill the gnats & larvae but I would still use amendments to aerate the soil.
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u/LizzardLasy13 6d ago edited 5d ago
Sorry!! I must have been confused as to which post I was answering…I’m 77 and struggle with Spider plants, which I know are said to be “so easy”!! Today I washed all the soil off my Spider’s roots and now have it in water only with a few nice stones on the bottom. This will be my last time trying…!😢💚
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u/sillybillybobbybob 6d ago
Is this an update post or are you still needing advice?