Repotting Spider Plant Babies

Bawnmore

So I'm quite new to plants in general, so just a warning that this may sound like a stupid question.

I have a spider plant that seems to be doing quite well and now has a few babies hanging down off of it. There's one in particular that looks like it would do well on it's own, but I can't seem to find any info on how big they should be before snipping off and replanting. I really don't want to kill the 1st one - he has about 6 or 7 buddies coming after him so I might aswell get it right the 1st time.

baaba maal

They are really tolerant plants, so assuming the baby has been potted for a couple of weeks, give it a gentle tug to see if the roots have taken hold. If there is some sign of this, snip the "apron strings". I have cut individual plantlets off and then potted them and they have done fine. Spider plants are damn hardy.

Bawnmore

So should it be OK at that size? Or wait a little longer? I was going to just snip and replant, but may go down the replanting while it's still attached route.

baaba maal

You can just see the first root tendrils starting to appear so they would make it once they are kept watered. To be honest, you could do the following:
cut the plantlet off
put in an egg cup,
keep topped up with water
once roots have developed, transplant into bigger pot

riffmongous

Bawnmore wrote: »

So should it be OK at that size? Or wait a little longer? I was going to just snip and replant, but may go down the replanting while it's still attached route.

That's what I usually do, if you have space it's guaranteed to work

looksee

As baaba mal says, spider plants are hardy. There are three approaches: one peg it down into a small pot beside the big one and let it root; two, same thing but cut it off; three cut it off and leave it with the root end just in a drop of water (in a jar, the leaves will stop it falling in, just fill to root level) and wait for a few roots to form then pot on. If you forget about it it will happily fill the jar with roots...

Bawnmore

OK seems foolproof (famous last words). Thanks folks - fingers crossed so!

baaba maal

Bawnmore wrote: »

OK seems foolproof (famous last words). Thanks folks - fingers crossed so!

Sure even Fr. Dougal was ok with spider babies!

Bawnmore

Here's where I landed!

Bawnmore

Here's the current state of play:



Question - there's about 4 more babies on the stems, but a lot of stems that just kind of end now that they're cut off - should I just leave those stems as they are?

baaba maal

Wow, you're going into commercial production!

I just cut off unwanted plantlets when I'm tidying up spider plants (dead leaves occur every year and I like to remove them on an ongoing basis).

Day Lewin

@Bawnmore - you can snip off the flowered stems with a scissors, now that they have hatched, so to speak.

Are you in Dublin? could you spare a spider-plant baby? I've been looking for one...

Bawnmore

baaba maal wrote: »

Wow, you're going into commercial production!

I just cut off unwanted plantlets when I'm tidying up spider plants (dead leaves occur every year and I like to remove them on an ongoing basis).

Perfect - thanks!

@Bawnmore - you can snip off the flowered stems with a scissors, now that they have hatched, so to speak.

Are you in Dublin? could you spare a spider-plant baby? I've been looking for one...

Cool - I'll hold off until all plants on each stem has sprouted and been snipped and then cull off them stems.

Ah I'd love to give you one, but I'm in Galway unfortunately! If you were ever down this way I could definitely leave one somewhere for you.

Day Lewin

Bawnmore wrote: »

Ah I'd love to give you one, but I'm in Galway unfortunately! If you were ever down this way I could definitely leave one somewhere for you.

Thank you!!

Day Lewin

Day Lewin wrote: »

Are you in Dublin? could you spare a spider-plant baby? I've been looking for one...

I potted 21 of these this afternoon :P
In Dublin, you’re welcome to one if you want

Day Lewin

Batrachotox wrote: »

I potted 21 of these this afternoon :P
In Dublin, you’re welcome to one if you want

Thank you! (sending pm)

Bawnmore

Ah brilliant - great you got sorted!

Our 7 year old needed to do a show and tell in school yesterday and did it on spider plants (general info about caring for them, what they like/don't like, spider babies, repotting) and brought one in for the classroom. This is getting out of hand :pac: