Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider Plant (Spider Plant)

Member Name: Zmugzy

Product:	Spider Plant
Date:	07/03/06 (663 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to keep and little care needed

Disadvantages: Everyones got one

The Spider plant, a member of the Liliaceae family, is one of the easiest plants to grow in the house. It originally comes from South Africa and was first introduced as an indoor plant in the middle of the 19th century.

The Spider plant has long thin leaves some 30 to 46 cms long and up to 2.5cms wide. They are usually green with a band of white or off white down the centre. The plant produces insignificant flowers on long protruding stems that are soon replaced by tiny plantlets. These can be easily propagated by placing them into small pots of compost or via hydroculture.

Although these plants have become popular house plants they also make very attractive fillers for hanging baskets.

Size
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A healthy plant will fill a 12cm to 50cm pot

Temperature
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Spider plants will tolerate a wide variety of temperatures but anything approaching freezing conditions should be avoided.

Soil
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Loam based number two should be fine

Atmosphere
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This is a very tolerant plant but maintaining good ventilation is a good idea.

Repotting
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Every two years

Watering
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2 to 3 times a week should be sufficient although this plant will survive significant periods of drought even though some of the outer leaves will die off during the process. You can also feed the plant every 14 days.

Pruning
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Not much is required apart from the removal of dead leaves.

Humidity
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If you want to give your little spider a healthy glow then give it an overhead spray during the summer months and never leave it in direct sunlight.

Life Expectancy
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These plants are immortal

Price
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If you can't find one of these plants for pennies or less then you're simply not trying. A friendly neighbour is bound to offer you a cutting.

Summary: A good houseplant for beginners