What's your potting mix?

How long has the plant been in its current pot?

Got any pictures?

Since the time of day seems to be the only variable here, could it be nastic movements?

My pots full of Mimosa pudica do a similar thing, opening in the morning and closing at night.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nastic_movements

Spider plants don't intend to keep the babies indefinitely. The mama plant will eventually discard the stolons. Plants don't think, but their plan is that the babies will find somewhere to root when they drop. Just like a mama bird pushing the babies out of the nest.

Toadstar - I had to look that up. Thanks for the info. It's not what's going on, but now I've leaned something. Thanks.

Purple - do you know what the natural cues are for discarding stolons, or where I can find that information? How does it occur? Is it the oldest stolons first, or the most heavily laden, or something else? How old must they be? If this were a normal, healthy occurrence that helped propagate the plant, I would think the pups would drop before becoming so water stressed while still on the plant because once they're so shriveled, their chances of survival are seriously diminished. I have to soak them for days in order to bring them back.

Zen, and others, here are some photos in the next few posts:

This is a closeup of the mother plant(s) looking perfectly normal and happy.

Here is a pup on an unaffected stolon this morning. Most pups look like this.

And here is one shriveled plantlet on a whole stolon of shriveled plantlets that began folding yesterday late morning, and despite being soaked yesterday afternoon, did not open up overnight last night. This is what the whole stolon looks like this a.m. while the other stolons and mother plants all look fine.

And here's more of the shrivelled plantlets on that stolon, taken yesterday.

I think the mama can't feed the babies properly. Probably soil is exhausted. I'd try to cut off and root the plantlets, and repot the mother.

MsGreen - that seems the most logical explanation to me as well, or tight roots preventing water uptake to parts of the system. Plantlets on stolons are so much farther from the mother plant that they'd be affected first, but I just transplanted the crazy thong into brand new soil in a roughly 50% larger pot about 10-11 months ago just so I wouldn't have to move it again any time soon. It is a monster to repot. It is a very vigorous plant, but doesn't less than 12 months seem like an awfully short time to you? How do people manage these plants? I've seen some spider plants with several times as many plantlets, so how do they manage to get them that full when the crazy things have to be repotted every year?

What do you think about thinning the roots, and cutting off a few inches from the bottom instead of up-potting? I'm even thinking of moving it to gritty mix or maybe Al's 5-1-1 mix. That might just make it grow faster though when what it really needs is a growth inhibitor.

"Do you know what the natural cues are for discarding stolons, or where I can find that information? "
The info is in my head, from observing this plant in a pot for about 30 yrs, then in the ground for about 4-5.

"How does it occur? Is it the oldest stolons first, or the most heavily laden, or something else? How old must they be?"
This all depends on the mama plants' health, and ability to continue providing sustenance to the babies.

"If this were a normal, healthy occurrence that helped propagate the plant, I would think the pups would drop before becoming so water stressed while still on the plant because once they're so shriveled, their chances of survival are seriously diminished. I have to soak them for days in order to bring them back."
When plants are grown in the ground, the stolons connecting mama and baby are also discarded over time, they turn yellow and eventually detach, fall to the ground. In a natural setting, the babies would reach the ground while the stolon is still making flowers. By fall, the spring babies are taking root.

There's nothing natural about putting a plant in a pot. Everything that happens after that point (that's not mortality) is nothing short of a minor miracle.

If you can find a pot that's very deep, you may get more longevity out of a spider plant repot. The roots are like carrots and go straight down for about a foot when plants are not in the confines of a pot. Any circumstance that causes the roots to be unable to grow in their natural form is a hardship on the plant. When very large roots like these fill a pot and become smushed against each other, there is insufficient oxygen around them, and possibly lack of moisture in places. If severe enough, the foliage will show damage and stress. Roots (of any plant) need oxygen and moisture at the same time to function. These plants are from a very dry climate, naturally equipped to survive droughts from the moisture stored in the giant roots. Keeping this plant constantly moist is not what it's geared for.

When you see pots with more babies, there's more mamas. Each mama can only make a few stolons, at a time. Spacing them out an inch or two, like 1 in the middle with a ring of them around the edge, can give each a little elbow room, vs. planting a number of individuals in a clump in the middle.

I couldn't keep a hanging pot looking good for more than about a year either, before needing to repot. Those (nursery style hanging) pots are just not big enough to accommodate a mature root system on this plant, if planting in a group (which I almost always did.) A single plant has a much more sparse look, but would last longer between repots.

A larger, taller (but not necessarily wider) pot on a pedestal is the ideal way to grow this plant, IMVHO/E.

The frustrations you described, combined with the fact that this plant is a horrible, hardy weed here, has led me to a point where I don't have this plant anymore. ...

Thanks Purple, I didn't realize you'd responded - didn't get the email. I had been combing through many photos of big potted green spiders, and I'd about come to the same conclusion as you about potting parent plants: sparse parent plants seem to have more plantlets than full-looking parent plants. I saw many photos of plants suffering exactly the same thing as mine - big healthy parent plants but spider pups beginning to shrivel.

I've been looking for a new pot for this guy. I'll try your suggestion with a deeper pot, and I'll divide the plant this year and give the parents a bit more elbow room. It's already producing dozens more stolons this fall, so there will be pups like crazy in a few weeks.

Thanks!

Those baby plants are long do to be removed and repotted...once they develope roots like that, they won't stay on mama for to much longer. Where the stolon connects to the baby is where it starts to dye back and eventual something or a strong wind will cause the baby to fall off and be carried away...then start a new plant. I believe these plants in nature are more a ground cover, where the stolon will shoot out and create a baby a few feet away. I use to have a huge variegated one, in a 15 gal pot.....I use to cut it to the ground every year...in the interior landscaping field, we would just pull the stolons off the mother plant..

This plant is quite different from any variegated varieties. The plantlets on variegated plants usually don't have roots until the plantlets are at least several months old and quite large. The plantlets on this plant have roots when the plantlets are smaller around than a penny and just a couple of leaves - the roots form at the same rate that the leaves form. It also doesn't produce as many plantlets as variegated forms, and the plantlets grow much larger, are much more vigorous, and have much wider leaves. I have 9 different varieties of Chlorophytum comosum, and this one is unlike any of the others.

I do agree that a hanging basket is a very unnatural environment for the plant. They're adapted to rocky wooded environments where the stolons would allow the plantlets to reach into better, less crowded spots to grow. And they would definitely not live forever essentially as parasites on the mother plant. I do wish I could keep them on this plant longer though. Variegated varieties sometimes have dozens of healthy pups still attached. I like that look, but this one doesn't want to do that.

This post was edited by kwie2011 on Wed, Sep 24, 14 at 11:47

Never had any variegated to compare.