Back in December I decided I was fed up with my Spider Plants having crispy tips. As this is generally caused by low humidity, I thought I’d give semi-hydro planting a go. Took a cutting of a pup from the mother plant - actually twins, both growing from either side of the stem. Slapped it in some leca, put that in some water in a cache pot, shoved it all under a grow light. I didn’t take a photo because it had six small leaves and no roots. I thought it would die and experiment would end.

This is it now.

Here’s a photo of her next to her mother plant, who was repotted into a fresh coco coir and perlite mix and also placed under a grow light.

The semi-hydro baby is about twice as big and has a very small amount of crispy-tipped leaves, while the mother plant has at least one leaf that is over half dried out.

And just to fully show my workings, here are the roots on the plant that had none (zero) when it first went into semi-hydro.

I also fertilised with hydroponic fertiliser for the full chemical range needed. I use aquasafe (aquarium water neutraliser for removing chlorine, etc.) with all my houseplants.

I probably ought to tag these so they can find the right audience and most of you can filter it out of your feeds.

Nice to share some success and I have since moved a snake plant and a Goeppertia (nee Calathea) Orbifolia to semi-hydro Leca setups as well. Hoping for similar results there, though neither have grow lights.

#houseplants #semihydro