My spider plants develop very long stems (3 ft. or more) with pups at the ends. But the stems are long and bare until near the bottom where the pups are. How can I get shorter stems so my plants will look bushier? Or is it just the variety that I am growing? The stems and pups are so long that I cannot keep them on a table or plant stand without them draping all over the floor.

Does it have plenty of light?

I thought the same as @porkpal, that it might not be getting enough light. Could you perhaps also upload of a photo showing the plant and its position in the house, it would help.

Some of them are even outside in hanging baskets on the west side of the house, and others on the east side. Some indoor ones are on a south windowsill. The pups are lower then the plant, or course, and so are below the sill and don't get much light there although the parent on the sill gets plenty of light.

It could be varietal differences or variability within the species. Were all your plants grown from the same original plant?

I thin they all came from the same plant. I think it is time to get a new one!

Here is a little story. I worked in an office and each of us that had our own office there decorated it with our own plants. The man in the office next to mine had a huge hanging spider plant with multitudes of gorgeous babies hanging from it. One morning we all came to work to find that the janitor had taken it upon himself to prune everyone's plants! He had cut off and thrown away ALL the spider babies! He also pruned the receptionist's ficus tree to nothing but a stick and killed it.

Is that where your spider plant came from?

@genierose, that was a real bummer. I hope he was told to keep his mitts and pruners off the plants that didn't belong to him.

Janitors are not typically gardeners, and should not be allowed to carry pruning shears without a background check!

I don't know where my original spider plant came from but I didn't pull it out of the trash at the office! LOL

I might have pulled some baby spiders from the trash - assuming its office trash so mostly paper.

If your spider plant is healthy overall and the only problem is that the stems with the babies are very long, you can always keep the plant since it's a healthy one! No need to change it. Take one of the babies and plant it also. And see if it shows the same pattern of growing babies on very long stems.

Faridat, I think that is where this is going....All the Spidey babies have the same parents.

DaisyI said:Faridat, I think that is where this is going....All the Spidey babies have the same parents.

Aah, thank you @Daisyl, so it is still going to show the same pattern. Anyway, no need to take off a healthy plant if it's the only problem. The stems with the babies can be pruned so not to bother any more, it will still be a nice plant, just not producing.
*I am interested in this plant, I must have planted ten or more babies the last month, I shall be watching to see what happens, since they are from different mother plants.

I'd really like to see this spiderplant, personally. I know this thread's a bit old, but I'm fascinated by these tales of leggy spider shoots.

I would guess it's the variety, mostly.
I have a 'curly' spider and it's very compact and bushy.