I am going to guess that your plant is unhappy about something, and I suspect it has not been getting enough light. I had some new offsets in full morning sun this summer and they now have lots of offsets.

Mine only put out new offsets in the summer (also, the offsets I planted over the winter didn't do much this year, so age might be a factor). I put mine outside too, which might help. That seems to makes it bloom, at least.

is your plant rootbound? spider plants like roots crowded in the pot before they start putting out babies.

they also want lots & lots of light to start sending out babies.

hope you get some soon, lil.

I agree tight feet and more light, but they are also heavy feeders and must be fed at least monthly with a balanced fertilizer. They don't produce babies on anything but spent flower stalks, so you need to get it to flower before it will produce plantlets.

At the risk of introducing even more contradictory information:

I think sometimes they just don't. I've run across the recommendation to "wake them up in the middle of the night" (put a light on a timer to come on for a couple hours in the middle of the night) as a way of triggering offsets. I haven't tried this personally. More light in general could do it, though. Possibly.

I think age is probably the key: I doubt that being rootbound causes babies, but being old causes babies and rootboundness.

The plant isn't necessarily unhappy, if that makes you feel any better.

I was given a half dozen that were badly abused, newly planted, direct sun, too hot, underwatered and most produced many plantlets (pups, "babies", whatever) almost immediately.

My spider plant is also childless. About a year ago my Mum in law suggested I had purchased a MALE plant and thus pas de nativity. Regardless,it grows well and looks so good. Now the question is would there be a courting if I purchased and placed a female spider plant near my guy? I'm a believer in heavenly conception so thus I have faith that maternities can occur without a blending of naughty bits. R Squared

Ahhhh! - spider man is the answer then? Male & female? .... and to think I always thought they reproduced asexually via stolons. Huh!

Al

Stop....You are all too funny!!! lololl
Seriously, tight feet and lots of light are the key!!
Man, can this site be alot of fun!!!lololololollP
Plants having.....?
"Spiderman"..lol

Male and female spider plants blending their naughty bits--now that's funny!

Seriously, though, through experience I'd agree that tight feet and lots of light are needed to get SP's to bloom. Mine also prefer to go rather dry between waterings.

Does anyone have any more thoughts on fertilizer? I usually give my SP's houseplant-strength (1 tsp/gal) Miracle-Gro about every 5-6 weeks during the spring and summer, and that seems to be okay. Has anyone tried using a "bloom-booster" fertilizer on theirs?

I think it's a size & age thing.

Years ago I had a large spider over my kitchen table which bloomed often & had babies galore. It was tight in the pot & on edge of west window, where it got great light, lots of fresh air & probably pretty little fertilizer (as it didn't appear to need it). I remember its roots were very fat & fleshy. It was very pretty with stolons full of white flowers.

Ultimately I gave it away as I feared it'd come crashing down on the table.

Please don't use any high-P fertilizer formulations on containerized plants. Regardless of where plants are in the growth or reproductive cycle, they will use only 13-19 parts of P for every 100 parts of N. Another way of saying it is they will use an average of 6 times more N than P. There is never any reason to have more P than N in a houseplant's soil, and certainly not 3-5 times more, like most of the high P formulas provide.

If the plant's (ontogenetic) age is such that it has reached sexual maturity and is not producing stolons, it's probably wise to make a close examination of what cultural conditions might be inhibiting growth. Tight root conditions may help stimulate more above-the-soil-line growth than conditions where roots have room to grow, but plenty of room to roam in the container should not inhibit normal above-ground growth. Inhibition of normal growth would much more likely be attributed to either the (insufficient) age of the plant or other unfavorable cultural conditions.

Al

Okay, this seems crazy for me to be posting since everyone is saying "more light!" but I swear I read somewhere on this site that putting a sp in a darker location would make them go into baby-mode. Am I going insane or did someone say that?!
-Dani
P.S. Lol, spiderman.

You are going insane. :-o

Seriously, you may have read that somewhere, but it would not have been good advice. Spiderplants require plenty of light in order to be at their best. Flower production (and subsequent plantlet formation) occurs best when the daylight hours equal or exceed 12 hours per day. It's possible to have a spiderplant bloom pretty much all year 'round.

Good to know :) 12 hours a day, wow. I'd better get mine to the windowsill!

Mine will be 2 years in March and I actually rooted it off of my mothers Spider Plant. It's in a 7inch pot and is doing very well and only just recently (noticed them maybe a week ago) started sprouting little shoots. There are only two but I think tight feet has something to do with it. I transplanted it only a couple days ago and the roots were so tight! It took me forever to tease them apart.

Otherwise I do nothing else special. Oh, but I almost forgot, my plants are grown under artificial lighting only seeing as I live in a basement with no windows. I change the timer on the lights to mimic natural daylengths but the instensity never changes so that may have a different effect on the plant than one grown in natural light.

In spring and summer I feed it every week (or less depending how it's doing) and mist it every so often. It gets no special treatment...which may be why it took two years and why I only have two baby stems...but it's a good lookin' plant, if I may be so bold.

I have only ever had my SP's in a west facing window & they (mine) seem to like that best. Mine were very small, rooted in water when I got them & they have grown into huge plants w/ many, many babies! I also got some solid green ones (variegated?) last summer from a friend & they have also grown quite huge & started having babies only a few weeks after getting them.

Mine put off babies all year round & the only time I tried putting them outside they didn't like it so I won't be doing that again! :)

I know a lot of ppl here are saying they like to be root bound, but I have to disagree. I re-pot mine every year (just put in new soil, not potting up) and I've never seen them root bound... I think this is a myth. However, I do let mine dry out between waterings (sometimes I forget to water them, but they're very forgiving) and then I water/drain them throughly, they seem to like that.

There are also a lot of ppl talking about fertilizer. I only use Miracle Gro potting soil (has time released fert. mixed in; sometimes I add perlite for better drainage) & the M.G. fertilizer spikes. I give all of my plants the spikes several weeks after I've re-done the soil (or potted up) & whenever I think about it, usually in the spring & fall. This is all my SP's ever get, so I guess they like it.

I would just be patient, I'm sure they'll have babies someday... If not, I could always send you one of mine... LOL :)

FYI McHudd:

Variegated = green & white or green & yellow.

Variegated is OTHER than solid green, just so you know.

I explain this as I happen to be crazy for variegates. I have them in various kinds from Hoyas to Haworthias to Ceropegias, all variegates.

Wouldn't it be nice if spiderplants gave off as much babies as spidermites??

Simply put, mine only put on tons of babies when they are rootbound and in lots of sun..

I hope you get plenty after all this wonderful help here!

Mike:-)

Thanks for the info. Pirate... I can't ever keep these straight. LOL

~Shannon

{{gwi:50576}}
I find the tight feet approch best. I use a weak fertilizer. Mine are grown in full sun for the summer, bright light in winter altho they'll survive under low light before losing any of the little one's and I mean "low"

"A friend" liked my spider babies so much when I told her to get a few she cut off every baby down to the soil... It has great light even year round. I've been hoping the longer days and some luck will make it produce again. Just b patient?

The babies were amputated last summer...

I need some information about my spider plant how old does a spider plant need to be to start to grow baby can all spider plants grow baby's or does it need to be female

I've responded on your duplicate thread, Craig.

has anyone managed to grow spider plant babies shoots upwards like a stem, instead of downwards?

That's just not going to work unless you insert a cane and tie the stolons to it. Would look pretty odd imo. Nature has designed the stolons to enable the plant to regenerate by sending out runners. They have evolved to head downwards in order to be in contact with soil.

@floral_uk

i might try with cane i have vertical space and not much horizontal space where spiderplant can expand and conquer :)

if it manages to grow vertical upwards with a cane would be great, they grow so fast!

if not ill have to put it hanging so it goes vertical downwards.

If you put it somewhere that the stolons can hang down it won't take up any more room then if you force them upwards. I have one on the corner of a high shelf. They also look good in a hanging basket or plant hanger. Personally I think it would look horrible tied up to canes. It will never grow vertically of its own free will. It will just be artificially straitjacketed. It's completely against the plants nature.

I agree with everyone...I keep mine potbound & it always puts out babies.

@floral_uk

so if the stolons are too much and since they draw in resources.. what about cutting them right off? the plant would keep the resources and wouldn't that make it use those resources in stronger better roots and more and bigger leaves?

Deb - you might enjoy seeing the babies, or the extra few blooms that come when plants are rootbound, but no plant "likes or prefers" being root bound. It's a stress that, if uncorrected, leads to strain. Strain, uncorrected, always leads to death of the organism because under strain the organism is consuming more energy than it's capable of producing.

Think of a perfectly balanced spinning top as a representation of the plant's metabolic processes working in harmony. Along comes stress, the top slows down. More stress and there's a wobble - strain. If we can't figure out a way to stop the wobble from getting worse ....... the rest is easy to envision.

Al

so, what's the answer?

cause i bought my spider plant, already growing, about 3 years ago (give or take) and ive never seen a baby .

h**l ive never even had a full bushy plant despite; the south facing window, soaking and drying completely for water (twice a month ill say), i feed liquid fish fertilizer (2-3-0) and replace the potassium with bimonthly banana peels (i prefer organics for plants) . its hanging in a basket .. i changed the soil this summer so i know the tube roots are thriving (actually wasnt prepared for them and scared the begeebys out myself hahaha) .

my only thought upon reading above posts ; could i have repotted too soon and didn't let the roots get hugged? cause i assumed like most other plants if you give more space for roots, the more intricate the roots become, the stronger the plant .. is that wrong?

helpp !! i want plant babies !

i changed the soil this summer

==>>> what media did you use?

and dont be afraid of your plants roots... lol ...

ken

ps: your pic is a bit dark ... cant really see much of anything other than a lot of snow outside.. how cold does that window get at night??? .. id probably skip rotting fruit in the house ... you may attract bugs ... i fert my spideys at most.. once per year ... if they actually need that ... though i doubt that has anything to do with this ... does the plant go outside in full bright shade for summer???

Kaitlyn, is your plant really 3 years old? It’s actually very small for that age and I’m not surprised it hasn’t produced any stolons. Mine produce copious babies but are much larger than yours. I think it just needs to get a bit bigger.

Btw is the basket lined with plastic with no drain holes? That’s not going to help. You need to have it in a container which drains. Also is the darkness due to the picture? Because it does look very gloomy. And, like Ken, I reckon you’re overfeeding. This one has never been fed. But look how much light it has.