I'll post and bump you up since you haven't gotten a reply.

I wonder if the neem and possibly over-fertilizing burned the plant. Sounds to me like you are doing everything right.

Clip off some of the babies and get them started, just in case.

I hope someone smarter than I comes along to help.

Thank you! The issue started long before the neem or the fertilizing or even changing it to 5-1-1. Those are just the things I've tried since it's started.

I do have a few babies set aside, but have noticed that sometimes the babies get the same issue. So I'm wondering if it's my water somehow, or maybe a virus? Although I don't know much about either of those two potential problems. Hoping for those more knowledgable here that might be able to offer some thoughts!

Thanks :)

Any chance you are overwatering? Are they blasted by A/C or heat? It's so puzzling because these plants are easy. Oh well, good luck!

I agree with Karen: wash the roots and start over with new pot and fresh mix. If using cinnamon, may I suggest true Ceylon cinnamon, not Cassia.

hmm. Thank you for the thoughts. I did use new pots when I repotted, and there were absolutely no signs of root rot during repotting in the spring -- roots were super healthy.

I'm a little hesitant to repot it again considering the issue was there before I repotted, all roots were healthy, and it's affecting both spider plants (and interestingly the babies that I've propagated from them seem to have the same issue so far).

I did buy some distilled water and will be using that to water for the next few weeks, and see if the situation improves. I will keep you updated.

Thanks again for the advice and I will update this thread as I figure it out!

It's rotting and now even tho the soil was new it's damaged. I would take out at least some of it to save it in new soil.

Karen S. (7b, NYC) Could you tell me what 50/50 C&S is. And a ball park on the ratio of pumice. 5-1-1 left me with spiders that dried too quickly. Thank you.

What zone are you in. It could be the heat if it's in the sun. Move it to a place that doesn't get any direct sunlight until it recovers.

Sorry Laurie, I assumed you might have already seen that C&S stands for Cactus & Succulent mix, so I'm suggesting equal parts of that C&S mix & Perlite or Pumice. Say 1 cup of each, I use old coffee cans to mix batches of mix. I use C&S mix w/ lots of stuff, combined w/ Perlite for my Houseplants, or combined w/ Pumice for my succulents.

For my tropicals & Hoyas I tend to use 1/3 each C&S mix, Pelite & Reptibark (a product from Pet Stores use for vivariums). My Hoyas & Epis are really happy w/ the addition of 1/3 bark.

HTH = hope this helps.

I’m in zone 7b, and have actually had a few other plants getting sunburned recently. This sunburn thing is new to me and the first time I’ve experienced it! unfortunately (And also fortunately!) I have two walls of floor to ceiling windows with limited “not next to window” plant space. But I

one plant i moved a few feet away and seems to be slowing down with the blackening. The other was still on the window and I pulled a bunch of leaves off again today.

I’m not totally convinced it’s just sunburn though, since a lot of the leaves are turning oddly purple at their attachment points before falling off — even when the rest of the leaf is still green. See below.

I started watering with distilled water last week and will move the last plant far from the windows and see if that helps slow things down. I’m still afraid to repot since the plant is already super stressed (And was recently repotted already), but might take a peek at the roots later this weekend..

Is the potting mix soggy? Spider plants are quite resilient. Perhaps it is the stress from repotting that has exasberated the problem.
You are lucky to have those sunny windows. Your plants must be happy in the winters. You could try being creative for creating shded area. Draw the blinds/curtains, put the pot under a table or in the bathroom....

@Karen S. (7b, NYC) Well, I should have realized, Sorry the c&s did not register as it should have. Somehow the 50/50 threw me off. Doesn't take much some days, I swear.

I am so happy I made the mistake, because I am very excited to have your tropical/hoya recipe. Very Excited! Thank you.

Now if I can control myself and resist repotting them when they don't need bigger pots, it will be a miracle. I am willing to do almost anything for a bloom.

Thank you so much Karen, I so value your opinion here and really appreciate this info.

TY V M.

Laurie

Hi Lynn!

I wondered how your plant is doing now, after 10 months?

I just stumbled upon your post searching Google because I'm having the exact same problem you described!

My spider plant was in quite a dark corner all winter, but seemed to be fine. Suddenly, the new growth was a bit stunted and it curled up in a weird way! I thought it was due to the plant being in a dark spot, so I moved it to a spot about 2 meters from a south-east window.

Then the new growth started going black. Just as with you, the older leaves seem fine except for them also browning a bit right at the base of the leaf. All blooms and previous 'offspring' also turn brown, even when planted apart (they grow healthy roots, but everything goes brown and dies off).

I’ve had this plant for 3 years already and never had any problems, I really wouldn’t know what caused this…

I have hopes that it might pull through, though. The new growth that’s developing underneath the sick leaves seems greener and healthier. Plus, a new healthy looking stem is surfacing through the soil.

Hence why I’d like to know if your plant got through it, and if so if you have any tips to share on how you cared for it whilst it was sickly?

Thanks you so much in advance!

Greets

Ellen

Hi Ellen!

I ended up pulling it out and rinsing the roots and found that while the roots on the outside were fine and nice and white, there were roots in the middle that were mushy and had a little root rot (although not nearly as much as I would have thought based on how the plant was dying). I cut off the root rot, and also trimmed back the roots by maybe 1/3.

Then I repotted it in fresh 5-1-1 mix, cut off all the babies (they were dying anyway while attached so I wanted to save some) and planted those separately.

I was then SUPER careful with water and only watered when it got pretty dry since I cut the roots so much. Lots of leaves fell off from the repotting (to be expected), and it ended up mostly being sad little spider plant stump plants for awhile.

It's finally started filling back out this spring, although it's not nearly as big as it was! But I'm glad I was able to save it and it's been doing fine since. Just still recovering from it's insanely drastic haircut!

I hope you are able to figure yours out! I think my issue was the roots were SO dense in the middle, so it was harder for me to detect root rot without tearing it all apart.

not sure why my last post didn't work, but here's a few photos showing the root rot:

and another showing ones that the rot had gotten way up in the stems (I discarded these. good one is on the left, rotted one on the right):

and what the plant looked like after (it has since filled back out into the pot, but is not yet back to it's full glory):

Nice save Lynn, thx for the good pix, I'm sure folks will find it helpful.

Wow, thank you for all the information Lynn!

I'm so glad to hear yours pulled through! I'm sure with the same love and care it'll grow big again!

As for mine, I didn't get all of the soil off when I repotted, because it was quite potbound and it was a spider web of roots! But hearing your story, I might take the risk of stressing my spider plant just one more time to check the roots more thoroughly and plant in new soil again! I did water a little bit more frequently as spring began, maybe I've been a bit too quick to do so... So you never know it might have rot somewhere too! Will definitely check it out hearing your story!

Thanks again for your quick and thorough response!

Hi Ellen,

May I pls suggest this 'stressing' the plant business is overrated?

I unpot whenever I need to, especially since it's the most accurate way to diagnose problems up above. These are not delicate plants, they'll be just fine. It's more important for you to figure out what's going on.

You'd want to remove any black areas & any mushiness you might find. Then sprinkle w/ ordinary cinnamon & then shake the excess off & repot it. It's a natural antifungal & is used to stave off rot, while allowing the plant to root (or re-root).

Then after repotting, just wait a day or 2 before watering, in case there was any injury to the roots. Good luck!

Hi Karen, thanks for the info!
I checked the roots, but I can't find any brown or mushy parts. I don't think they look rotten? (I accidentally broke off some of the roots and on the inside they don't look particularly sickly either)

I have however noticed little 'craters' in the roots. Could some kind of pest have gnawed at them? Or could this be a sign of prior rot that somehow remained localised? I'm really puzzled 🤔

I'm really grateful for all of your help. I just made this account because I saw this topic and am pleasantly surprised at how helpful this community is! 😊

Hi there. I’ve got a group of spider plants that were doing the EXACT same thing. I’ve had very successful spider plants for years but suddenly this started happening to them out of the blue. Anyway, it turned out they had Thrips! You can’t always see them, which was why it was so difficult to get to the bottom of. Currently I am treating them with a spray pesticide (they’re indoor plants so no risk to bees), fingers crossed.

@J Sargant

Thanks for your response! I noticed thrips on my calathea recently too... Maybe it started on my spider plant...🤔 Might need to check all of my plants out again😬

I've sprayed thel all with insecticide before, but the thrips on my calathea have returned in any case. I've now tried spraying a mix of 1l water, 20ml of soft soap and 10ml of methanol and will do so every couple of days if necessary. Read online that this is effective for thrips. We'll see! Hope we can both get rid of them!

@ellenplantlady apparently if you spray for thrips you have to do it multiple times, leaving three days in between spraying. Sorry about the thrips though, they’re a total pain.

@J Sargant I'll be sure to do that, thanks! Meanwhile I've checked my spider plant and sure enough, while prying open the new leaves that hadn't unrolled yet, I found some thrips ☹️ So that's that mystery solved, then! Roots are growing like crazy, so it's definitely the thrips causing my plant to die... Hopefully I can get rid of them and save the plant. Thanks for the tip!

@ellenplantlady that sucks 😓 but at least you got to the bottom of it.

update; if anyone ever comes onto this topic with the same problem, getting rid of the old leaves and thoroughly using insecticidal soap worked for my plant! The thrips are a good as gone and the new growth is looking happy and healthy!

Thank you so much! I got exactly the same issue with my spider plants. Now I got some ideas about what to do.

Exact same scenario for me. Really appreciate all the photos and advice! Going to follow suggestions and fingers crossed I can save my spider plant.