Splitting a spider plant?
Question:I have a spider plant with a double trunk that I am thinking about dividing into two seperate plants. The plant is healthy and growing well, no babies. I repotted it last year and I don't think it is rootbound yet. I've never tried this before and I don't want to lose the plant by doing it wrong. Any thoughts or suggestions please.
Answers:
About two months ago I bought two large spider plants at a WalMart store. I didn't have a lot of money to spend on plants but wanted to add a lot of greenery to my house, so I bought those two big ones to split. I carefully removed them from the pots and tried to sort of pull apart the places where they looked like they would split easily. Of course, the roots were so tangled, they didn't really split well at all. Finally I just took a butter knife and cut through the roots, and repotted everything. Spiders must be pretty sturdy, because every single part that I repotted is doing just fine! I think you could do just about anything to those plants and not really hurt them. So I say go for it!
Take them out of the pot and place them into a bucket of water. The water will loosen the soil from the roots therefore making it easier to get the two plants apart. Then all you need to do is re pot. It may take a week or so before they look good and healthy again, but they are hardy plants and can take a lot of pain. They also don't mind being root bound.
Clean all dirt off the roots, and carefully divide the roots in half. Sometimes you can even cut them.
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