Sorry I didn't see this thread earlier.
Browning tips are usually due to the presence of chlorine in your water.
Either that or excess salts (but I doubt you're over-feeding it with salt-based plant foods)
Also - their leaves usually begin to turn brown at their tips as they age. If you remove the browning leaves at the base as they begin to turn, it will encourage the plant to produce more leaves.
The idea with the pot you have pictured is that the water filters up through the soil. You have to start out with moist soil in order for it to work as designed. These pots are incredibly popular for house plants right now, but the pot your mother has chosen is not necessarily ideal for spider plants. It may work for her... but she might just be magic like my mother-in-law, making things grow in all sorts of conditions that they absolutely by all accounts should not.
With spider plants, you should wait until the surface of the soil is dry before watering. Allowing the soil to remain moist at all times encourages algal and fungal growth in the soil, which will be detrimental to the plant's overall health. But these plants require high humidity, which from your description it sounds like you're providing...
Spider plants can handle a wide range of lighting conditions. They're fine in indoor bright light, they're great with shade.
As Zeraph mentioned PH I might as well mention it - spider plants require a slightly alkaline loam soil.
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Last edited by genuinegirly; 07-28-2009 at 12:53 PM..
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