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spider plant repotting question

ColmOColmO Posts: 91
in Problem solving
i have two spider plants, one variegated, one not. they both need repotting, but there is no actual main plant, they are effectively two very large babies. the variegated one has developed quite big aerial roots. so i'm not sure how i go about repotting them. any advice gratefully received.

here's the non-variegated one:



and this is the variegated one:


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Posts

  • bédébédé Posts: 2,978
    Why do you think they need repotting?
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 9,926
    What compost do you use? It looks pretty used up. Spiders don't mine being root bound but that compost looks like it need replacing. A lot of compost is terrible these days so you'll have to choose wisely for houseplants to avoid mould and fungus gnat problems.
    Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people
  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,521
    You could probably use the same pots when you re-pot the plants but give the pots a wash first (no need to go up a size). Trim off all the dead stuff then re-pot with a decent houseplant compost and make sure there is about 1.5cm from the top of the pot to the level of the compost. Your baby spider plants are now producing their own babies so I think you can call them "main" plants. After about six weeks they will need feeding because the feed in the new compost won't last forever.
  • B3B3 Posts: 26,505
    It will look much more attractive if you pot up one of more of the young plants, grow them and get rid of the parent plant.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • ColmOColmO Posts: 91
    bédé said:
    Why do you think they need repotting?

    that's a good question. i don't know, it's a feeling, intuition maybe? they just don't look right just hanging over the pot like that. they don't look very safe. also, it severely limits where i can put them. am i worrying unnecessarily? my thinking is that if they're putting energy into producing leaves they'll put less into producing babies.
  • ColmOColmO Posts: 91
    wild edges said:
    What compost do you use? It looks pretty used up. Spiders don't mine being root bound but that compost looks like it need replacing. A lot of compost is terrible these days so you'll have to choose wisely for houseplants to avoid mould and fungus gnat problems.

    i didn't pot either of these plants, so i'm afraid i don't have any details of the compost used. but you're probably right. the variegated one must be fifteen years old if it's a day. i don't know about the non-variegated one, but i suspect it's also pretty old.

    the compost i have at the moment is this one. i had a choice of this one, which is peat free (or says it is), or another one, which was organic, but didn't specify it was peat free. i chose the devil over the deep blue sea. i got it at the local supermarket, as i don't have transport. what sort of thing would i be looking for?


  • ColmOColmO Posts: 91
    B3 said:
    It will look much more attractive if you pot up one of more of the young plants, grow them and get rid of the parent plant.

    you'd be surprised at what they looked like before these pictures were taken then! the babies had babies. i have a window sill full and then some more in the kitchen of rooting cuttings. plus two more i've potted up. i don't know what i'm going to do with them all!


    the variegated plant was my late mother's, so i wouldn't want to get rid of it, even though by now it's at least a grandma. and the non-variegated one isn't mine, i'm looking after it for a friend, so i can't get rid of that either, i just want to make sure i can do my best for them.

    with most plants, the idea is to propagate them when necessary according to various factors, but with spider plants, the trick would be to keep them alive but slow down their reproductive process. i wonder how you'd do that? is there a way to control flowering? it seems some baby stems happen without any flowers, or have i just missed them?
  • ColmOColmO Posts: 91
    Ceres said:
    You could probably use the same pots when you re-pot the plants but give the pots a wash first (no need to go up a size). Trim off all the dead stuff then re-pot with a decent houseplant compost and make sure there is about 1.5cm from the top of the pot to the level of the compost. Your baby spider plants are now producing their own babies so I think you can call them "main" plants. After about six weeks they will need feeding because the feed in the new compost won't last forever.

    thanks. you're probably right about the pot sizes. both plants are quite pot bound though. with the non-variegated one, at least there is green all the way into the soil, but not with the variegate one. so i think i can pot the non-variegated one, but really not sure about the variegate one at all. it's like there's no main plant, so i don't know where or how to separate it.

    re. the compost, what would you recommend? is what i've bought (see previous answer to wild edges) any good, do you think? otherwise, there's a very large garden centre about an hour and a half away by bus (i don't drive), and i'm sure they'd have more variety and definitely better quality.
  • B3B3 Posts: 26,505
    edited 31 August
    They can easily look better than the one you have. Put one or two of the ones you have in jars in a pot of compost. Give them good light without direct sun. Don't water unless it's dry to your first finger joint.
    They're not that particular
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • ColmOColmO Posts: 91
    yes, i shall do that, thank you. i do very much want to keep these two mother plants as well though.
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