very easy · windowsill
How to grow spider plant
Fast-growing, hard to kill, and it produces baby plantlets you can pot up and give away endlessly.
Chlorophytum comosum · Asparagaceae
Why bother
The plantlets make it the best plant for getting other people started — one plant becomes a dozen within a year.
What it needs
- Light
- Bright indirect light. Direct sun scorches the leaf tips.
- Water
- Keep lightly moist in summer, drier in winter.
- Soil
- Ordinary multipurpose compost.
- Temperature
- 13-27C.
- Container
- A 15cm pot. They flower and produce plantlets more freely when slightly pot-bound.
- Time to harvest
- Not harvested. Plantlets appear from about a year old.
Step by step
Day 0
Pot it up
Ordinary compost, pot with drainage. Nothing special required.
Day 0
Find bright indirect light
Near a window but out of direct sun is ideal.
Ongoing
Water and feed lightly
Keep lightly moist through the growing season and feed monthly in spring and summer.
From year 1
Pot the plantlets
When a plantlet has small root nubs, pin it onto a pot of compost while still attached. Cut it free once rooted.
What usually goes wrong
Brown, crispy leaf tips
Cause: Usually fluoride and chlorine in tap water, sometimes dry air. Very common and mostly cosmetic.
Fix: Use rainwater or water left to stand overnight. Trim the brown tips off with scissors if it bothers you.
Pale, washed-out leaves
Cause: Too much direct sun.
Fix: Move back from the window into bright indirect light.