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overly rootbound spiderplant

Gardening Reference » Gardening in 2006
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by mycateatspiderplants on April 12, 2006 09:19 AM
i know spiders love to be rootbound, but these roots were as thick as my thumbs and there was NO dirt left in the pot! i just bought this plant and at first i repotted it into a bigger pot but then it was too heavy to be hung so its in a stand instead.
the tips of the some of the leaves were turning yellow than dying and some leaves were turning brown at the tips--- but i dont think i was over/under watering it. i figured it didnt like the roomy pot. so i took it out and hacked 2/3 of the roots off and stuck it back in the smaller pot. was that okay??? it is still healthy looking other than random leaves turning.
advice?? [dunno]

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saving one pet wont change the world, but surely the world will change for that one pet....
by Amber J on April 12, 2006 10:27 AM
Why not put it into the next-size bigger pot?
by mycateatspiderplants on April 13, 2006 05:40 AM
i'd like to keep it hanging so my cat cant chew on it- but if i keep upgrading the pot it will be too heavy!

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saving one pet wont change the world, but surely the world will change for that one pet....
by Patty S on April 13, 2006 08:32 AM
If you've already cut the roots & moved the plant to a smaller pot, the plant should do fine. (And you don't really have an option at this point anyway, but to hope it's OK!) You may have some of the leaves die off, but that's to be expected... just keep grooming it until it settles down & starts using those of the roots that are still attached, & it should flourish again.

I think that what I would have done before cutting into the root ball is that I'd have dunked it into the kitchen sink & tried to separate the roots, in case there's more than one plant there. If it was indeed one plant, I wouldn't think that thinning the roots would really hurt it much. (I would be more concerned about roots that are no longer attached to the plant after "hacking", that might decay inside the soil, thus making the plant vulnerable to disease.)

I don't know for sure if Spiders can get so big that they simply come to the end of their natural life, or not. [dunno] As you probably know already, an "overly rootbound spiderplant", will make babies like crazy. If they DO have a limited life span after they get super huge, the best bet is to root some babies in water & them plant them in soil & start over from scratch!

Please come back & let us know how your Spider fares!

(By the way, I love this: "saving one pet wont change the world, but surely the world will change for that one pet....") [thumb]

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by connie mounsey on April 16, 2006 07:24 PM
I have a spider plant that is almost 10 years old. It is in the largest possible pot that I can hang. Every spring I take it out (it is mostly roots that are huge) and I cut the bottom half of it and put more soil in. I have done this every year for quite some time and it seems to be doing just fine.

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