5 Spider Plant Diseases and Disorders and How to Solve Them

5 Spider Plant Diseases and Disorders and How to Solve Them

When I say that spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) are relatively disease-free, I’m not kidding.

There are very few diseases that will ever bother them. You’re far more likely to encounter spider mites or some other pest than to ever see a disease affecting your spider plant.

You might run across a few physiological issues, though. Overwatering is particularly dangerous, and is the most common cause of problems in these houseplants.

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Our guide to growing spider plants covers everything you need to know about care and cultivation.

In this guide, we’ll talk about the diseases and disorders that can trouble spider plants. Here’s the lineup:

This list is short, but we’re going to cover a lot of important info, so let’s jump right in.

In theory, spider plants can suffer infections from pathogens such as Alternaria, Cercospora, Fusarium, and Phyllosticta spp., which cause leaf spots. But there have only been a few cases documented.

That doesn’t mean that it can’t happen, since researchers aren’t usually concerned with documenting the experience of home growers, but if it does happen, you have used up all your bad luck for the year, and you should buy yourself a lottery ticket.

If the leaves have brown, black, or yellow spots, not speckles, which could be the feces of a visiting pest, it’s possible the specimen is suffering from leaf spot disease.

To deal with it, grab yourself a good, broad-spectrum fungicide.

Copper fungicide is always a safe option, and so is Mycostop, which harnesses the bacterium Streptomyces strain K61, a beneficial