Help with Aloe vera plant

11 years ago

I bought a young Aloe from Lowe's last week and repotted it in a clay pot, not too large from the starter plastic pot it was originally in. I did not water it when it was repotted because the soil looked pretty wet.

It's been a week now and the soil it was in looks like it has dried up. However, I read that in winter they should not get watered too much anyway. I took a picture of one of the leaves and it looks like there are depressions on it. One other leaf started to get one of those.

Would anyone have any advice? Are those depressions signs that it needs watering? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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Comments (4)

rosemariero
11 years ago
I'm not sure how much help I'll be, because I don't grow Aloe vera. The one you have looks like Aloe vera v. chinensis.

Well, I take it back. I do have one little bitty one...my hubby brought home from work from a co-worker...in a baggie of WATER (almost like a fish)!! Its 2 outer leaves were mush. I pulled them off & set the remaining small part on the kitchen window sill. I forgot about it. It was there for weeks...no, months! It started growing! That's when I potted it up.

So, reason I tell you the story...it doesn't need too much water. I notice the soil in your pot looks mostly like sand. Bad idea. Try to get it out of there. Sand will retain water. You need stuff to aerate, to let the water drain well. Do you have anything else available to you? A bunch of small rocks mixed in might help.

As for the dents in the leaf...I don't know what causes it. But I would cut back on watering. Wait till you see some new growth on your plant. Water sparingly. Okay, update~I took a look at mine & 1 of the older leaves has a dent in it like yours. I believe the older leaves will desiccate over time & dry up, drop off. More than likely, this is what is happening on both our plants. Natural for the plant. =)
hanzrobo
11 years ago
I agree. Anytime I transplant an Aloe, I expect some issues with the outer leaves, especially with longer leaves and looser rosettes. The other thing is, most of us would recommend removing all the existing soil, exposing and usually trimming the roots, lightly. You want to open up the root system so that your new soil falls/fills in nicely when you repot. A pretty safe and easy mix is to buy bagged cactus soil (not M iracle G row) and add about 50% pumice or perlite. I say safe and easy because it will work and the instructions are simple. Many of us, including myself, take pride in our special, multi-faceted soil mix which is a bit more complicated than that.
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The first is Aloe vera v. chinensis. (blooms orange) The 2nd (although that looks like more spots than usual) which is much larger, thicker leaves & yellow blooms, is Aloe vera/barbadensis. I believe it has been reclassified with the latter name, but most people are still calling it by the former (vera), so one or the other is listed as a synonym. See link below for a pic of an Aloe vera/barbadensis ~Rosemarie, who hangs out on the C&S forum, but pops over here on occasion =) Here is a link that might be useful:
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The pot size is adequate for now. Keep it in good light, a fair amount of sun although perhaps not during the middle/hottest part of the day. Water when the soil is completely dry.......this will vary with how much light it is getting, how warm it is, how big the plant is. The pups never have to be removed. If you want to later remove them to make new pots of plants you can do so but I would wait until they are somewhat larger than they are now. For now leave them. Remove it from the plastic and decorative basket. You will probably want a saucer underneath it. There are holes in the plastic pot to let excess water drain out and it needs to do so when watering so that water doesn't stay/sit in the soil. You are probably ok leaving it in that soil for now but when you do repot a grittier cactus mix would be better. Enjoy your new plant!
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They're very adaptable. Probably just adjusting to the new soil. I'd leave it alone for several days and see if it regreens. Btw, the composted layer under chapparal is a great base for soil blending. Scrape off the leaves and take the granular layer. Add half as much real farm compost. How to find a real farm? Go to small town farmers' markets. Wofford Heights near Lake Isabella has a great one 9-1 Sats, at north end of town. Free coffee too, for a whatever donation. If in a big city, ask each seller if they are the farmer, and continue asking around until someone rings true. A real farmer can tell you how they compost their soil, feed their chickens, etc, and will eagerly tell you all about gardening. A fake seller will look away and say, No, he's around here somewhere.
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Okay, I understand. I'm going to keep these two in pretty small pots until they have more roots established. I don't mean tiny pots- just like medium sized I would say. And I will add some small rocks to the top in order to stabilize the plants. Today I unpotted both of my aloes to see how much damage there could be and if any, it would allow me to remove the damage and let them callus over before repotting this weekend or so. The roots of the smaller aloe look pretty good to me- there is plenty of new growth (including new baby roots and additional growth on the longer, older ones). This was the aloe with the two leaves on the bottom that turned yellow and shriveled up- which I was told was normal and the plant was just shedding the older leaves. These leaves were easily removed from the base with gentle pulling. Just wondering if you guys agree with me and the roots look good and this one can be planted as normal in the new gritty soil. Two pictures of the smaller aloe: Next, was the bigger aloe which I wasn't happy with. As can be expected, it's roots did suffer. So I trimmed off the dying roots and was left with barely anything. But I was happy to see it has one new root growing! So there is something left there (: My question with this one is should I remove the dark part of old stem that is under the baby root? I don't know if this is rotten or not, it's soft and dark but not mushy or smelly. I'm thinking I should remove it because it's not doing any good but will that much trauma to the plant cause more suffering? Bigger aloe: One more thing, I read about putting cinnamon on any cuts or damage upon transplanting in order to prevent infection. Should this be done immediately or after the plant has had some time to callus? Thanks in advance for any help (:
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beachplant
11 years ago
Aloes are tough, the old leaves often look like that, just ignore them. Keep it on the dry side. As much sun as you can give it.

I have aloes everywhere, they are almost a pest here. They are not really too picky about soil, just make sure it drains fast. On a positive note these guys will survive being underwater, salt water that is, for over 24hours and then bloom! We had 4` of water in Hurricane Ike and I didn`t lose a single aloe, the other plants though.... There is one in the front yard I picked up beachcombing, very surprised it was still alive.
Good luck.
Tally HO!
latinguy01
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks everyone! I will try to mix in course rocks so that the sand does not retain too much moisture.

Help with Aloe vera plant

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rosemariero

hanzrobo

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Help with Aloe vera plant

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rosemariero

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