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Avatar for battenburg
Oct 28, 2022 11:01 AM CST
Thread OP
UK
I have quite a few spider plants, most of which were grown from cuttings and all seemed very happy (without much skill on my part!) until the past few months. Many of them have fairly rapidly started to look unwell, with the leaves going yellow and eventually dying back entirely. Once I've cut out the dead leaves there is barely anything left.

At first I thought this might have been because we had a particularly hot spell over the summer and I might not have kept up with watering them enough, only to then try and compensate and water them too much. However, a few plants have been fine until recently but now they too have died back quite rapidly. I've attached a few photos to show some examples.

Could there be some kind of disease or fungus that might spread between plants? I ask this as I had one plant which still happy, but having it into a different room where some of the other spider plants had started to go yellow (thinking that this was because of under/over watering) it too is now dying back.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I've moved a few of the worse effected outside, but they won't be able to stay out there all winter. I wonder if I should just start again (there is an argument that I had too many anyway!) but I'd like to try and identify the problem so that I don't make the same mistake again. I am by no means a plant expert but I've never had a problem with spider plants so this is really puzzling me!

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Oct 28, 2022 12:52 PM CST
Name: tarev
San Joaquin County, CA (Zone 9b)
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To me it seems your container is too big for the plants and the media maybe too moisture retentive.

I would suggest, start anew, remove all the yellow/dried out leaves. If there is still some left, either water root it for now till it is able to grow new batch of roots or use a much smaller container with drain holes and add a bit more gritty stuff to your media to make it more airy at root zone.

At this time of the year, plant would also appreciate being nearer to a bit more light, since light levels are naturally getting lesser intensity and duration. Can you possibly move them closer to a window where it can "see" the light better.

Typically spider plants handle drier conditions better since they do grow a vibrant cluster of tuberous roots, so it can withstand longer dry out times. But during summer they do enjoy stepped up watering especially if temperature has gone very hot or during cold season if heater is running indoors, ambient conditions go drier fast. But as seasons change, you need to also adjust/lessen watering pace. But do not treat them like cacti, after all they are still tropical plants, that needs moisture at the root zone.

Another way is to do bottom watering where there is a water wick that allows water to moisten the root zone. That also works, that way you can easily see if there is still water in the reservoir below and not be tempted to overwater.

One has to remember though roots need to drink up water, they also need air at the rootzone..too wet and soggy rootzone causes root rot eventually and that ultimately kills the plant.

These are my spider plants. Of course our growing areas are different, but just to give you an idea how I can gauge if my plants need water:
For those outdoors, since we have excessive dry periods, watering spikes helps me in watering them, upside down water bottles. I wait till water is gone in those bottles, before I replenish water.
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For those indoors, I use wick watering, and plants are positioned closer to the window, since at this time of the year, light levels are gradually less intense and duration is going shorter. These are baby spider plants I got this late Sept:, positioned by our west facing windows:
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Plant needs good air circulation all over. When weather permits it, I open up the windows during the day, but at night time, it is closed since temps outside drop very fast.
If weather does not allow me to open up windows, I would briefly run our ceiling fan, especially if we just replenished water.

Btw, with your plants, no fertilizers for now. It is going into winter anyways and your plant is in stress..so no fertilizer. Hope you can improve the media or adjust your watering method and frequency.
Good luck on your plants.🤞
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