Misting Spider Plants: A Helpful Habit Or Recipe For Disaster? Here's The Truth

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Spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) are tropical houseplants that need humidity to thrive. Misting is often suggested as the way to provide them with the ambient moisture they require. Are you prepared to mist your spider plant every 15 minutes? That's roughly how long it takes for the water sprayed onto the leaves to evaporate, leaving the foliage dry again. In other words, misting spider plants is more likely to be useless at best and a recipe for poor plant health at worst.

If the plant was growing in a small, enclosed space, like a dome, some of water may remain in place. In most cases, however, houseplants grow in open air in rooms. The water you spray on them isn't going to hang around for long. Simply put, misting is an ineffective way to provide humidity to your spider plant. In fact, you should consider misting a houseplant watering hack you should avoid at all costs.

While there's tons of anecdotal advice on the benefits of misting spider plants (and other houseplants) to boost humidity levels, the guidance on cooperative extension websites tells a different story. It highlights the futility and potential risks of misting houseplants. Even worse than failing to meaningfully increase moisture in the air around your plants is constantly wetting spider plant leaves. This can encourage diseases and pests that thrive in damp conditions.

While misting can deter some pests, like spider mites, it also has a downside: other pests, such as fungus gnats, are attracted to high moisture levels in the soil. Misting can also disperse bacterial and fungal infections. If you find spots on your spider plant leaves after misting, you may be dealing with leaf spot, a disease caused by certain species of fungi, viruses, or bacteria that thrive on warm, wet leaves. The infection starts as small patches of discoloration on a leaf that increase in size until the whole leaf is covered. Worse, it can spread to other plants through water droplets.

Spider plants thrive in ambient humidity levels of 50% to 60%, so they typically do just fine with average household humidity. The EPA recommends indoor humidity to stay between 30% to 50%. If you keep your home on the lower end of that range, there are ways to increase humidity for plants that don't involve misting. Run a humidifier near your spider plant or group it with other houseplants. Remember how we said it's easier to raise humidity in an enclosed space? Cover your spider plant with a cloche, or grow it in a Phoenix Vine Clear Glass Houseplant Terrarium or greenhouse cabinet.

Sometimes, indoor gardeners mist their spider plants because they enjoy the interaction. They may also use the time to check on the condition of their plants. Of course, you don't have to mist your greenery to visit with them. However, if you strongly feel a need for a little spider plant communion, an occasional misting on a hot, dry day won't hurt.