Spider plant, Off shoots, and seeds

[Spotted]

I have a variegated spider plant, with the green stripes down the middle, that I started from a offshoot of another, last year. It’s being quite busy right now producing flowers and has about 8 stems hanging off of the one plant, that are all flowering. I’ve loved these plants since I was little, and I like how they look when their stems are covered in little spiderlettes. My plant isn’t producing spiderlettes though, it’s producing seed pods with one spiderlette on the end of each stem.

My question is, is there a way to encourage my spider plant to produce more spiderlettes rather than seed pods? And, since I have opened up a couple of pods, (I have about 25 seeds out of a couple of pods right now) is there a special way to start growing spider plants from seed? I’m going to put the seeds that I have ready, into soil today. I plan to treat the seeds like any other plant, but I have over 50 seed pods still growing on the plant, waiting to be ready. If the seeds I am starting today don’t start, I should have plenty to play with.

I have a couple of friends who have asked to plant trades, so that is my interest in getting more spiderlettes going as well. One plant including a Christmas Cactus start. Another includes another type of spider plant. (Varigated with a white stripe in the center.) (I'll be looking for a plane green spider plant next.)

Any information or pointers would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Spotted]

* A little up date since no one has replied yet. I've decided to make it a little experiment. I have three seeds in a pot, that have been in the soil for a couple of days. They dried out before I planted them.

* I also have three seeds in another pot that had turned black, but I didn't let those seeds dry out before planting those.

* There will be seeds out side in the air, to dry for a few days, that I have given my mother. When I mentioned my experiment, she wanted to try it too.

* And there are still over two dozen seed pods I'm leaving on the mother spider plant, that will stay there to see what they do when left on the plant.

I'm actually keeping a journal of what I do, and documenting the dates I start seeing sprouts, basically out of my own curiosity. I'm sure I could post it here, if anyone did want to see it.




(An interesting note. I spent two day out at the county fair this week, helping my friends show their animals. I noticed that the still exhibit room had hanging baskets as one of the categories for showing plants, so if all continues to go so well, I'll be re plotting this mother spider plant, (Ideas on re potting are always welcomed.) and I'll be entering my spider plant, in a plant show next year. My Aloe too. I've never entered a plant show before.)

[Spotted]

An interesting note for those who are reading this thread at all, even though I'm the only one to post here so far. I planted seeds from my spiderplant back when I posted, here, last, and only now am I getting my first sprout out of the three seeds that I planted. So it is possible to grow a spider plant by seed. Even if growing them from cuttings are easier.

[Kisal]

I have a plain green spider plant. It isn't producing seed pods, though, or I'd be happy to send you some.

Although I like the variegated spider plants a lot, I really don't much like this solid green one. It's too big for it's space, and I don't have anywhere else to hang it. I don't remember the variegated ones getting as huge as this thing is. I'd throw it away, except my housekeeper gave it to me. It would break her heart if I tossed it.

[Spotted]

Oh nice. Yeah. I don't know what the laws are about sending live plant or I'd send you some cuttings from my variegated ones if you want. I could send you a few seeds if you would like. I just took off about 25 more seed pods the other day and opened them. So far only one of the three seeds I planted over a month ago, have sprouted, but you could try if you want I could try to send you some.

As far as the size, I just received a cutting from a friend of mine off of her spider plant and that one has stayed sort of small. The one that I have is getting bigger, and the plant that I received the cutting from for mine, is huge. So even the variegated spider plants seem to have different types. I was actually told that I could control my plants size by trimming back the roots, or cutting it in half. *Shrugs.* I haven't tried cutting my big plant in half yet, only the pups, but the pups that I separated that were haven't died yet so who knows. It's something I'd research first, but I'd like my variegated plant to get larger, so I won't be doing that for at least another year.

[Zephire]

Dear Spotted,
Thank you so much for updating your little seed adventure. I have grown spider plants once before now and all those ones produced were little spiderlettes. The three mother plants I have now flower and produce seeds along with the spiderlettes. I had been collecting the seeds but didn't know if they would be of any use. Thanks to you I know that I can plant them and get some sprouts, hopefully!
Did you do anything special to the soil you planted them in? Did you just use regular old potting soil?
I have my three mother plants outside on my patio. There is a high roof over them and they seem to be doing well even in the cooler temperatures of the California Valley winter. I brought all the babies inside though. I have about 50 babies right now that I'm trying to find homes for. They are all the mostly green with the white stripes on the outside of the leaves. I have one plant I got seperately that is white with green stripes on the outside. That one isn't doing as well as the others though.
I look forward to hearing more about your adventures!

[glindow]

Spider plants are an interesting variant and I actually inherited one from an old job I had at a greenhouse for awhile. It continues to cling to life and keeps producing the babies and runners that are the staple of any spider plant. We have shoots all over the sun room.

My main reason for this post though is to point out a couple of things I remember from my horticulture classes in college. The main one being that all spider plants are propagated only from the little baby spider plants and are genetically identical to the mother plant.

If you grow the plants from seeds, and I think you need to let them dry naturally on the plant for best results you will probably get either a green plant or a white plant, but not a variegated plant. The greens ones will do nicely but the white ones will simply die.

I would also suggest that if you want your spider plant to get big, trying giving it some nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen is what makes leaves and grasses grow the most and should have a noticeable affect on your spider plants growth.

[Spotted]

I posted this experiment a year ago. Thank you to the people who replied and gave me more information. Since last year there has been some interesting developments.

When my spider plant had seeds, I was letting the seeds dry in the pods, till the pods split open and the seeds were easily removed. The seeds would then be stored in a tin bottle cap next to the base of mother plant to make sure that they were dry further. In late January, my entire plant stand was knocked over. My plant was spread across the floor, the pot on one side of the room, the roots and dirt n the other. Somewhere in the mess, the seeds had scattered as well, and without thinking, I put the plant back in it’s pot, and the seeds were swept up with the dirt. When I refilled the pot.

I’d thought that I was going to have to start my experiment again with the saving the seeds and drying them. The tin bottle cap had been completely full and it would take me several months to get that number of seeds again for my experiment. Out of frustration, I never started collecting the seeds again but I didn’t have to. A month later I was watering my plant when I noticed a tiny sprout at the base. I pulled back the longer leaves to see what it was, and noticed several other little sprouts. They are all spider plants.

Over the last few months the spider plant babies have only grown about 4 to 5 inches. Part of this I assume is from being under the mother plant in the put and not receiving enough sun. The other I assume is because my mother plant is already so large the space for roots probably isn’t that much. I’m transplanting everything in there, in a few weeks, when the weather starts getting nicer.

Mean while I have to confirm what people already said a year ago in this discussion. The plants are all green. I assume if there were white ones that they died off before I had a chance to notice them. And spider plants can be grown from seems. I have probably 40 still in the same pot with the mother plant. Mean while the mother plant is still making lots of off shoots. It’s number of stems has tripled since the experiment started.

[applestar]

Adventures in horticulture!
What a great outcome to your experiment!
I didn't know about the seeds producing all green plants. Thanks fore the update, which brought this thread to my attention. Maybe I'll try growing spiderplants again - my mom has them, but the kitties love to munch on them and will even go after hanging ones, so I'd mostly given up on growing them....

[petite2760]

*Kisal... I noticed that with my solid green spider plant as well. It does take up a lot of space, so when I had a babies from the solid green, I plant both of them in one pot with the green in the middle of the pot.

*Spotted... I noticed one of my mother spider plant has produce some seeds and I have no clue what they were until I read your forum. Thanks.

*Glindow Would you know why some spider leaves turn brown on the end?

[greenstubbs]

I have never had good luck with the varigated ones, but I do have 3 monster green spiders that all were started from a couple little ones that I got for my Mom a long time ago, as well as a bunch of the off shoots that are sitting in H2O now waiting to get potted. I never knew that they produced seeds, I always thought that they reproduced by the offshoots taking hold in the ground. When I have had to up pot them, I have literally chopped down the root ball 1/3 - 1/2 from what I started with, they really don't seem to mind getting their roots chopped. Either these are real hardy plants or my thumb is way to green cause I can't seem to kill them no matter what I do. In the spring I do give them a shot of miracle grow to get them started for the season. Good Luck

[applestar]

Random thought since this thread resurfaced -- I expect most people give spider plants high nitrogen fertilizer which would probably tend to promote plantlet's rather than seeds. There may also be some kind of insect pollination involved....

[Kisal]

Interesting that you think that. I don't give my spider plants any fertilizer at all. Maybe I should start, just to see what happens.

[greenstubbs]

Like I said, I give it a shot which is not much, a weak solution, half of the required directions, etc. etc.. Which for me is alsways around the 1st of Apr. so I just gave them their shot for this year. I know Miracle Grow makes plants grow crazy, that's why I don't use much of it.

[fcfalcon10]

I also have a variegated spider plant! It just started with the vines, seed pods and shooters!! I am so excited. I was wondering about how long it takes for a shooter to be able to be planted. I plan on taking the seeds and planting them as well as the shooters too. I've never had problems with my plant. It's grown so well, and is huge. This is the first time its ever "vined" and I'm not sure how long to wait. I don't want to kill any shooters.