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INDOORPLANTCARE
Pruning · Spider Plant

How to Prune a Spider Plant

Spring cleanup annually; remove brown leaf tips anytime. Best time: Spring.

Frequency
Spring cleanup annually; remove brown leaf tips anytime
Best season
Spring
Tools
Sharp scissors; isopropyl alcohol
Aftercare
Switch to filtered, distilled, or rainwater if brown tips keep returning — spider plants are sensitive to fluoride in tap water.

Where to cut on a Spider Plant

Cut whole damaged leaves at the soil line. For brown leaf tips, trim the tip following the natural curve of the leaf — do not cut straight across, it looks unnatural. Plantlets (babies on long stems) can be cut off and rooted.

Step-by-step

  1. 1
    Cut entirely brown or yellow leaves at the soil line.
  2. 2
    For brown-tipped leaves: trim the brown portion off using scissors angled to mimic the natural leaf taper. Leave a thin brown line — cutting into green tissue creates a new brown tip immediately.
  3. 3
    Cut off long stolons (runners) carrying plantlets, and either pot the plantlets or discard the runners to redirect energy to the parent plant.
  4. 4
    Divide a heavily crowded mother plant at repotting time — this is more effective than pruning for an oversized plant.

Why prune a Spider Plant

  • Tidies up the brown leaf tips that spider plants get from tap water fluoride/chlorine
  • Removes the energetic drain of producing constant plantlets
  • Redirects resources to fuller main foliage
  • Each plantlet can become a new plant

What ruins a Spider Plant when pruning

  • Cutting straight across leaf tips — produces a flat, artificial edge that re-browns quickly
  • Removing all plantlets — losing the cascading-baby look that defines a mature spider plant
  • Cutting healthy green leaves to "tidy" — they do not regrow from the cut

Botanical reference: University of Florida IFAS — Chlorophytum comosum

For full Spider Plant care, see the Spider Plant care guide. To repot the same plant, see how to repot a Spider Plant.