Fireflash spider question

I've had my Fireflash (I love it!) for about two years now. This morning I noticed something growing beside it in the pot. It looks like a baby Fireflash, but I doubt that's the case. I know they don't form babies on the tips of their leaves like the common spider does, and so I'm becoming very curious. The "little one" is one to one and a half inches around, at the most. Its the same shape as the big plant, which makes me wonder even more. It doesn't have the orange at the base of the plant, but then, its such a tiny thing, maybe the orange shows up later (?) I know that chances are its just a weed, but has anyone else had this happen? Does anyone know how these plants reproduce?

Check out this link http://www.tropgard.com/plant_profiles/fire_flash.htm and this one
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/62897/index.html. 8>)

Larry

Well, thank you Larry for the links! Looks like it might have a baby after all - only time will tell!

Randi, you don't have a weed girlfriend! It's most likely a baby. Someone here at DG sent me babies from her brother's plant a while back. So, while they don't form runners like Comosum, they do pup.

I'm so excited now! I'll keep you guys posted one the new baby's progress!

Randi

GrowHappy,

I sent the little fireflashes to you. (I knew it must have been me, because you said I got it from my bro.) I have new babies coming up in the pots this year, as well.

Randi,

The plant flowers in a odd way for a Clorophytum. It sends up flowers on a stalk, which start out green/yellow, and when they mature, the pods are brown. I usually just crumble them back into the soil, and voila! Babies! (I'd post a picture, but my camera batteries are dead.)

The little guys start out with no orange at all on their stems, but they soon show color.
(This year's babies are still all green.) Another sure way to tell if they're fireflash is if the baby has very odd roots. They have what appears to be some type of tubers (?) or water retaining bumps on the roots. They're nearly pure white.) Surpised the heck out of me when I was taking them from their nursery pot to trade.

Oh! I just found a pic of last year's nursery pots in my picture files, so I'll post what the babies look like. I was looking for a pic of the flower, but of course, I deleted that file.

Hope this helps!

Marsha.

Marsha, yep, your babies look like mine! How big were they when you took them out of mama's pot and put them in their own pots? My mama plant did flower a few times. Now I know to crumble the pods to make more babies! Thanks for letting me in on that. This is just so cool!

Randi

Randi,

The picture was taken just after I had transplanted them. They were about an inch or so high. Each baby had about 4-7 leaves.

I soaked the mama plant's soil so it would be easier to work with, then I carefully used a tiny screwdriver to gently lift a couple of babies at a time. They're pretty tough- I didn't lose even one. I used regular houseplant soil, amended with a little perlite for drainage, and put them on pebble trays; they enjoy a lot of humidity.

Even then, you'll get yellowing/browning lower leaves, but I think this is natural, because nearly all the babies lost their oldest leaves. (Just one or two per baby.)

You might want to harvest some of the seeds, and sow them in their own pots. I'm going to try this, to see if they do better than ones that have been sown in mama's pot. They might do well under florescent (sp.?) light. I haven't tried it, but the flowers will give enough seeds for plenty of experimentation. (I must have about 100 or so in a baggie right now, and there are still unripe seed pods left to harvest.)

They also like soft water, so rainwater is the best for them. Our water here is really hard- 8.0 to 8.5 pH, so when I have to water them with tapwater, they tend to get brown tips on the leaves. This species is worse than the regular spiderplant in that tendency.

I pretty much learned everything I told you by trial and error. This is a newer plant, and isn't in any plant books that I have. I also had DG people answer questions for me, as well. That's the best thing about this site; SOMEONE usually knows the answer to your question.

So good luck with your babies! Please let me know how it goes for you.

Glad I could help,

Marsha.