Spider plants, also known as airplane plants, are very easy-growing plants. These plants are famous for in-house gardening for their sharp green leaves and the green vivid environment they create.
These popular indoor plants are also famous for better living as they bear tremendous air purifying capacity. These tropical plants outgrow any other plant without almost any care just by keeping it free from moist and direct sunlight.
Pruning or trimming spider plants is sometimes necessary to keep the plants healthy and happy to grow spider plants.
Pruning spider plants helps to cut off excess leaves and spider plant babies, furthermore, keep your spider plants in a nice, beautiful shape.
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Why pruning?
Pruning is a necessary step for growing wholesome spider plants. Pruning helps to keep the leaf count at an optimum rate and keep the plant in a good shape.
Pruning also helps keep the number of spiderettes or baby spider plants at a minimum or almost zero to keep the plants healthy and nutritious.
As the baby plants take a large portion of food and nutrition from the mother plant, adult plants suffer from malnutrition or suffer from various other problems like brown leaves, blunt leaf tips, etc.
So to take a stand against these uses and make sure not to face them, you must prune your spider plants once in a while.
What tools to use while pruning
You may use your regular pair of scissors to prune your spider plant. You may also buy a pair of garden scissors or pruning shears as you will be pruning the spider plants very often.
You can look into your nearest gardening store for them.
You can also use some disinfectant measures before pruning your plants. You can use available sanitization methods like hand sanitizing or boiling in water on the stove or any other simple method easily available near you.
Disinfectants will help you to reduce the scope for possible bacterial and fungal contaminations and keep your plant safe and strong. To disinfect you may also use:
- 10% bleach solution. Bleach will destroy your blades’ sharpness and eventually harm your blade if used frequently.
- You may opt for a household cleaner if you are a nature lover.
- Rubbing alcohol or white vinegar is also a good option.
How to prune spider plants
As you have come this far, you may have basic insight into spider plant pruning or trimming.
Now, let’s get into action and cut off some unnecessary leaves from our beloved spider plant.
At first cut of the unhealthy-looking brown or yellowish leaves:
Take your pair of scissors and cut off the damaged or unhygienic-looking brown or yellow leaves directly from the base of the plant.
Cutting off the brown part of the leaves will keep an open wound to the plants with a scope of bacterial infections including spider mites.
Cutting off unhygienic leaves will also help you to provide enough space for healthy leaves.
Cut off some babies:
Spider plant babies sprung off a lot of babies at a time. As the babies drink up a large portion of nutrition from the mother plant, it’s better to cut them off to keep it at a minimum number.
It would help you keep your spider plants healthy and cheerful besides providing you with good-looking spider plants.
To do this, you may simply cut off the stem that connects the baby with the mother plant from the adult plant’s base and separate unwanted babies.
Prune foliage to stop overgrowing:
Spider plants usually grow around 12 in (30 cm) in diameter and 12 in (30 cm) tall. If your plant is getting too large for its space, cut away healthy, growing leaves near the base of the plant until you’ve removed some of the excess growth.
Punning away some green leaves will make space for the rest and give your one a natural green and vivid look.
Prune of some roots:
If the spider plant becomes root bound, trim the roots. If your spider plant’s leaves continue to yellow, take it out of its pot to inspect the roots.
Rootbound means that the plant’s roots have taken up all of the available space inside the pot, preventing it from growing further unless you cut it.
If your spider plants are producing a lot of foliage, root pruning should be done every 2 years or so. It will also help you to prevent root rot.
Trim away the outside sides and bottom of the roots with your shears. Remove around 1 inch (2.5 cm) of roots to give your plant more room and dirt when you place it back in the pot.
Remember to replenish the dirt and use fresh soil in the pot so that your plant receives adequate nutrition. While the plant is healing from the pruning, keep the soil moist by using tap water and protect it from direct sunshine.
Once your offsets are well-rooted, treat them as if they were a potted plant.
Prune annually in Spring
Even if you do not find any reason to prune your spider plant, you can always do an annual pruning to your plant as of its care. As trees grow rapidly in springs, you may opt to cut them at the beginning of spring.
You may also do pruning once in two years if you want to do it less. But don’t go below it as it might hamper your plant’s overall health.
Final Word:
Pruning your plants is a great way to restore the vitality and strength of your spider plant. Pruning will help you to groom your beautiful plants besides aiding you to care for them.
Pruning will help you to prevent issues like brown leaves, root rot, yellow leaves, nutrition deficiency, too many spider plant babies, spider mites, and so forth. Pruning will also help you to get healthy and nutrient baby plants besides mother plants.
Don’t forget to prune your spider plants on a regular basis for a healthy, happy spider plant extending the scenic beauty of your sweet home.
Happy gardening!