Spider Plant Babies: What to Do With Them (and How to Propagate)

Few houseplants hand you free plants as generously as the spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum). One healthy plant sends out long, arching stems — called stolons — that first carry small white flowers and then sprout miniature plants at their tips. Those dangling “babies”, properly called spiderettes or plantlets, are exact clones of the mother, and each one can become a full plant. Here is what to actually do with them, step by step, and what it means if your spider plant refuses to make any.

What exactly are spider plant babies?

In its native southern Africa, the spider plant spreads by lowering plantlets to the ground around itself, where they root and colonise the area. Each spiderette is a complete plant in miniature: a rosette of leaves on top and, underneath, tiny bumps or short white nubs that become roots the moment they touch water or soil. A baby that already shows these root nubs is ready to propagate. One without them will still root, just more slowly — leaving it on the mother a few more weeks gives it a head start.

Three ways to root a spiderette

• Water rooting: snip a baby off with a bit of the stolon, sit it in a glass so only the base touches the water, and put it somewhere bright. Roots appear within one to two weeks. Change the water every few days, and pot the baby up once roots reach 3–5 cm — the longer it lives in water, the harder the move to soil becomes.
• Soil layering (most reliable): leave the baby attached to the mother, and simply set a small pot of moist potting mix next to the plant. Press the base of the spiderette into the mix and hold it down with a bent paperclip or hairpin. Because the mother keeps feeding it while it roots, almost none fail. After two to four weeks, a gentle tug meets resistance — cut the umbilical stolon and you have an independent plant.
• Direct soil planting: cut the baby off and press its base into moist, well-draining potting mix. Keep the mix lightly moist (a clear bag over the pot for the first week raises humidity and helps). Slower to establish than water rooting to start, but there is no transplant shock later.

Whichever method you choose, spring and summer give the fastest results, but indoors a spider plant will root babies at any time of year — winter simply takes a little longer.

Tip: don't pot one lonely spiderette in the middle of a big pot. Root three to five babies together in one small pot and you get an instantly full, shop-quality plant instead of a sparse one — and the smaller soil volume dries out faster, which spider plant roots prefer.

Aftercare for new plants

Pot rooted babies in a light, free-draining houseplant mix, water them in, and keep the soil just barely moist for the first three or four weeks while roots take hold. Bright, indirect light is ideal; hot direct sun scorches the leaves. Once you see new leaves emerging from the centre of the rosette, the plant has established — from then on, water only when the top few centimetres of soil have dried, exactly as you would the mother. Expect a well-rooted baby to become a full, cascading plant within a year.

Should you remove the babies at all?

You don't have to. A curtain of dangling spiderettes is part of the plant's charm, and a healthy mother can support dozens. But babies do draw water and energy: if the mother looks pale, grows slowly, or dries out constantly, thinning the plantlets lightens her load. Removing spent flower stems and surplus babies typically redirects energy into fuller foliage.

Why is my spider plant not making babies?

• Too young: most spider plants need to be at least a year old, often closer to two, before flowering and producing plantlets.
• Not root-bound enough: spider plants produce babies most freely when slightly snug in their pot. In an oversized pot the plant puts its energy into roots and leaves instead.
• Too little light: a plant surviving in a dim corner rarely has the surplus energy to reproduce. Bright, indirect light changes that.
• Too much artificial light at night: flowering (which precedes babies) is triggered in part by longer autumn and winter nights. A plant sitting under a lamp every evening may never get the signal.
• Heavy feeding: overfertilised spider plants grow lush leaves and skip reproduction. Feed at half strength, monthly, in the growing season only.

Warning: root babies in plain water or soil — not in fertiliser solution. Fertiliser salts burn the unformed roots, and salt build-up is also the classic cause of the brown leaf tips spider plants are famous for. If your tap water is heavily treated, rooting in rain water or filtered water sidesteps the problem entirely.

Pets and spider plant babies

Good news: the spider plant is non-toxic to cats and dogs. Less good news: many cats find the dangling babies irresistible to bat at and chew, which can upset a cat's stomach in quantity and definitely upsets the plant. Hanging the mother out of pouncing range protects both parties.

Not sure whether the plant throwing out runners on your shelf is actually a spider plant, or one of its look-alikes? Snap a photo in PlantMe — it identifies 35,000+ plant classes with 93% top-3 accuracy and tells you exactly how to care for what you've got.