Is your spider plant not growing AND not producing spiderettes? I had this exact same problem. I would see other people’s spider plants producing plenty of spiderrettes and propagating these to the point they had some many mini spider plants they were giving them away!
I thought, “What’s their secret?” So, I spoke personally to some professional growers, did my research, and even conducted some tests to see whether these hacks actually worked.
In this article, I share with you all the tips, tricks and techniques that I learned first hand to stimulate my spider plant to grow and grow off setts…
Let’s get straight to the point. What I found out was…
Spider plant foliage does not usually grow because the temperature is too high or too low, the spider plant is too shaded, the soil lacks nutrients, or it is in Winter dormancy when growth slows significantly.
I discovered, that spider plants do not produce their plantlets (also known as spiderettes or babies) due to too much fertilizer, which promotes foliage growth at the expense of the flowers, and because they require 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness at night for three consecutive weeks.
(The Darkness secret really shocked me!)
Keep reading for why your mature spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) is not growing and why your spider plant is not producing plantlets or babies for propagation…
So, first and foremost we need to remember that our spider plants typically grow more in the Spring and Summer and the growth can slow considerably during the Winter in response to changes in temperature and light.
However, the causes are, of course, much more nuanced than that. Here, I have listed the reasons for a mature spider plant to stop growing in the order of most common causes:
Temperature
The most common reason that I encounter for spider plants not growing is because the temperature is too low or too high.
The optimal temperature for Spider plants to grow is between 65°F (18°C) and 75°F (23°C) during the day and around 55°F (12°C) at night.
If temperatures are significantly warmer or cooler than this range, then your spider plant may stop growing, as mine does in the Summer.
Spider plants are adaptable and can live in a range of conditions but to ensure good growth try to keep the temperature between 65°F (18°C) and 75°F (23°C).
If the temperature is significantly colder than 55°F (12°C) for a long time or exceeds 80°F (27°C) then the spider plant leaves show stress by stopping growing, turning brown, and can die back eventually. In my experience, it can survive in temperatures for quite some time under 55F but your spider plant won’t look good.
I had my spider plant in a small room with a south-facing window, and it just got too hot for it to tolerate in the summer. Once I moved it to a cooler room, it began to perk up and start growing again.
If we are going to increase the rate of growth for our spider plants, we need to find a spot in bright, indirect light. Whilst they can tolerate shade, a lower intensity of light or fewer hours of sunlight can slow the growth of your spider plant, so it appears to be not growing.
I often hear that spider plants grow well in the shade, which is true, but from what I’ve seen, they do not thrive without brightness.
This is, of course, why, in Winter, your spider plant often stops growing in reaction to less light.
when I had one of my spider plants is in consistently heavy shade, then it did not grow at the same rate, and the leaves can turn pale and limp, and the variegated varieties can lose their colors and turn completely green.
Mine lost its characteristic stripes.
Spider plants can adapt to lower levels of light, but to really promote growth, you should locate the plant in a brighter area.
I really cannot emphasize enough how much of a difference this makes in a spider plant’s growth rate. I saw a spider plant growing in a greenhouse (it was shaded from direct sunlight with a sheer curtain that helped diffuse the light so that the plant didn’t burn) at a specialist garden that was the largest plant I’d ever seen with more spiderettes ready to propagate than any other plant.
This spider plant in a hanging basket had 13 spiderettes!
Top tip: Rotate your spider plant 90 degrees every time you water to get nice, even growth and to stimulate the growth of spiderettes all around the plant.
My Best Tip: If your spider plant is not growing, place it in a bright bathroom. My spider plant grows much more quickly in my bathroom thanks to the natural humidity and bright light through the frosted glass, which diffuses the light so that my spider plant doesn’t get sunburnt.
I must emphasize it is important not to place spider plants in direct sun, particularly after been heavy shade as this turns the leaves of the spider plant brown due to sun burn and drought stress.
With bright, indirect light, your spider plant should start growing again as mine did.
Lack of Water During the Active Growing Season
As I mentioned earlier, spider plants can grow all year in our homes indoors and tend to provide the right sort of stable conditions for growing, but they grow most notably in the Spring and Summer.
If they suffer from drought stress during active growth, then the spider plant can stop growing.
Drought stress can occur because of:
Not watering often enough.
Watering too lightly.
Low humidity.
Sometimes, the soil bakes hard and repels water off the surface without infiltrating sufficently.
We need to keep in mind that our spider plants are tropical, so we’ve moved indoors and prefer higher levels of humidity than is typical for indoor environments.
How to Solve This?
I have read about 3 different methods of increasing the humidity online and I wanted to test for myself which one works best.
(What is the best way to increase humidity and does it impact the rate of growth?)The Experiment…
I had 5 spider plants.
One was the control and did not get any additional humidity.
My second plant was placed on a tray filled with water but propped up, above the waterline with pebbles (for drainage).
The third plant was misted every few days.
The forth plant was located near a humidifer.
The fifth was in my bathroom.
Bear in mind at this time I lived in Southern California where the humidity is naturally low. I observed each spider plant for signs of drought stress and for the rate of growth for 6 weeks during the Summer. Watering frequency was the same for all the plants…
My verdict…
So all the methods of increasing the humidity worked but to varying degrees. My control plant developed the most brown leaf tips due to the low humidity. The method with water tray and the pebbles worked okay, but some of the leaf tips turned brown and it didn’t really grow much.
My spider plant with brown leaf tipsw which was due to low humidity. Just cut tem back to a ntual shape with a pair of pruners and increase the humidity.
I think this method would be sufficent in climates that were only slightly to low on the humdity side of things.
The plant that was misted and the plant near the humidifer both grew more (by on average half and inch) on each leaf. I must admit that I found the frequent misting inconvent and preffered the humidifer as it didn’t require my attention as much!
The plant that grew the most and looked the healthiest was my spider plant in my bathroom! It loved the natural humidity, but I did notice that my bathroom was lighter then the other room that the other spider plants were in, so I think that played a part.
In conclusion, if you want to increase the growth rate of your spider plant I perosnally recommend buy a humidifer or placing it in your bathroom. I think I prefer the humidifer methood as you can group several of your humidity loving tropical plants together and create a humid micro climate, that they can all benefit from!
Watering…
For spider plants to grow during Spring and Summer the soil should be watered with a generous soak to ensure that it is evenly moist to the roots, but the top inch of the soil should dry out between bouts of watering.
When the top inch of the soil feels dry, this indicates the perfect time for watering to achieve the optimal balance of moisture so that the spider plant has enough water for active growth yet not too much that it would cause root rot.
Troubleshooting watering problems…
What if you are watching your spider plant diligently, and it is still not growing, and the leaf tips are turning brown?
This happened to me. My spider plant’s soil had baked rock hard in the Summer. What I found was that the soil underneath the surface was still dry after watering and the water was just trickling off the surface and not reaching the roots.
My remedy to this is to place your spider plant in a basin of lukewarm water (cold water may shock the plant) for 30 minutes. This allowed the potting soil to completely rehydrate, and my plant was much heavier afterward, indicating the soil was retaining moisture.
After I did this, it changed the structure of the soil, and when I had to water again, the water infiltrated the soil with ease.
Just cut any brown tips back with a pair of pruners so that it form a nice V leaf shape.
Our spider plants can stop growing due to a lack of nutrients. If your spider plant has been in the same pot for years then what happens is the roots can exhaust the soil of nutrients which can slow down growth of your spider plants in the Spring and Summer months.
From my conversations with a specialist grower I met at a garden center, they told me that when cultivating spider plants for wholesale, they regularly feed during active growth with a general all-purpose fertilizer. She told me that the spider plants get fed every 4 weeks to increase the rate of foliage growth, which I thought was a really great tip.
However, she cautioned me that fertilizing too frequently or too high a concentration of fertilizer can also cause the spider plant’s leaf tips to turn brown as a sign of stress, hence why the are fertilized monthly and not every two weeks like some other houseplants.
So it is best practice to use a half-strength liquid house plant fertilizer once per month from Spring until mid-summer so that the spider plant has all the nutrients it requires to grow healthy.
Spider Plant Babies Not Growing for Propagation
So, a lot of houseplant growers have expressed their frustration to me that their spider plant is not producing spiderettes, which I completely understand.
From my own observations, if your spider plant is not producing spider babies, it may not have matured, and the pot is too large, which redirects energy to growing roots rather than producing spiderettes.
As I mentioned before, applying too much fertilizer can also promote foliage growth at the expense of flowers and therefore the spiderrettes.
Spider plant babies form after the spider plant has produced its small white flowers, which can be very subtle, but I can tell you smell very sweet.
This period of darkness indicates to the spider plant that this is the time to produce flowers in its native environment.
Therefore, for our spider plants to flower, we need to replicate this in our homes by ensuring that the spider plant is in a dark room for at least 12 hours an evening.
Pro tip: I sometimes put a cardboard box over my spider plant to ensure it gets 12 hours of darkness, in order to incentivise the plant to flower.
If the darkness is interrupted by turning on a light in the middle of the night, then this can prevent flowering and plantlet development.
If necessary, use a light, excluding cloth, over your spider plant for at least 12 hours a night.
This is the tip that has made the biggest difference for me!
Larger Pots Prevent Spider Plants from Developing Babies
I found out from research that Spider plants tend to flower more frequently (and therefore produce plantlets) if they are relatively root-bound in their pots.
It is from these flower stems that spiderettes emerge.
I asked the specialist grower I was talking to why this is. She told me that by Constricting the roots in a pot, this can put spider plants in a state of stress which promotes reproduction in the form of developing plantlets as the spider plant is trying to ensure its survival in less favorable conditions.
She explained if the spider plant is in a larger pot it tends to redirect its energy into growing the root systems and not the foliage or plantlets.
If the plant is in a large pot with lots of compost then there is less urgency for reproduction which is why the plant is not flowering or producing plantlets.
Larger pots also dry out at a slower rate which can increase the risk of root rot.
Plant spider plants in pots or containers that are slightly larger than their root ball to promote the development of flowers and plantlets.
If you have any more questions or insights about spider plants, please leave a comment for me below! I’d love to hear from you!!!
Key Takeaways:
If your spider plant is not growing, this is often because it is in too much shade, the roots have exhausted the soil of nutrients, drought stress due to under watering, or the spider plant has stopped growing during its Winter dormancy.
Spider plants do not produce plantlets or babies if they are not in at least 12 hours of darkness every night for three weeks, as they are short-day plants. Fertilizing spider plants too often causes them to not produce flowers or babies for propagation.
The optimal temperature for spider plants to grow is between 65°F (18°C) and 75°F (23°C) during the day and around 55°F (12°C) at night.
Spider plants grow more in pots that are just slightly larger than the size of the root ball.
Mark Bennett is the writer at gardener report. I'm a qualified botanist, landscape gardener and garden center plant troubleshooter! I grow and care for all the plants I write about so I have lots of first hand experience, in troubleshooting problems with plants and providing step by steps tips for recover. I love hearing from you so please leave me a comment and I'll reply!
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