Wow...a lot of information I didn't know about Aloe Vera. The reason I stumbled across this forum is that I have a very big Aloe Vera (Big Bertha) she is healthy. She seems to be growing up the way at a very fast rate, with new growth always showing in the middle and she produces a lot of pups. The height is causing her to be top heavy and I was wondering if I should cut some of the bottom leaves off and pot her further down into the cactus soil. Another problem I have is that I have one window which faces South and where I put all my Aloe Veras during the Winter. Unfortunately during the Spring it is too cold to put them outside and the Sun can be very strong and sunburn the plants. I have no where else to put them or would covering them with the fleece you would use in a garden help?

Well, a bigger pot holds more soil and the soil holds the water. That can lead to rot, and you don't want that. By mixing perlite with your cactus soil, you can improve the odds of the plant not sitting in water. Mix 1 part soil to 1 part perlite and you'll have it cut 50%. I have my Aloe vera in an 8 inch orchid pot. I'm sure it was overpotted at first. But I have used a good draining mix for the plant and it stays outside all year. The top dressing of rocks helped hold it up until the roots took hold well. You can see the outer leaves are starting to yellow and die back, but the middle growth is still good.

I have grown up around these all my life (our home as a kid was infested with them), and have what I guess are many hundreds in my tiny back yard aloe garden now, though baking hot summers have taken their toll on these little 'pests' (or 'pets). They do do a pretty good job keeping the larger insect numbers down, but would be a lot happier if they would eat mealies, snails and white flies (which they seem to ignore for some reason). Actual chance of getting bit by one is pretty remote, unless they climb up your pant leg, or you pick one up with your bare hands.. mine seem to take off in the opposite direction any time I disturb them or their ugly webs (they have about the least interesting webs of all the spider world). Massive numbers of egg sacs seem to matter not as probably one one out of thousand babies survive any length of time at all, and half of those will end up being harmless males. one of my back yard 'pets'

The soil felt crumbly, but after i put universal soil together with the soil in which was the aloe planted i've put some warm water ( at the room temperature ) on the plate beneath the vase and on the base of the plant. I am from Europe, in the S-E zone of Roumania and the plant i'll put it in a place of my home where i know it gets plenty of light. But i didn't refer to the color of the suculent that it got whiten out ( the orange circle -and i know that's pretty bad too - ) i meant that all the white spots circled with blue weren't there when i first bought the plant, is there a way i could treat them?