Wife's Aloe Vera plants would get that when the soil was too wet.

thanx. I'll stop watering for a while.

I have had an Aloe Vera plant for years, and only water it occasionally... like once a month, and not a lot then. It's surrounded by 'pups', so it must be happy.

sue

My mother ahs had Aloe Vera for a long long time and always gets lots of pups. She waters acasionally. WHen I got one of her new plants it died quit quickly and all I can think of is that I watered it too much and I think watering them on the leaves itself, might make them rot. This was in Holland indoors. Now I live in Thailand and my Aloe vera was not doing well at all. I noticed all Thai people having there AV standing out in the rain during rainyseason and started to water everyday. Now within weeks it looks fat and healthy and gets lots and lots of pups! So I guess temperature is very important too.
Do you have a pup that you can rescue and seperate?

Yes, but this doesn't make any sense! Some say not to water so much, but judging from the last post I have to water it more!

I've been watering the plant less lately and the rot/burn is NOT spreading. The plant is NOT dying, but it doesn't seem to improve either. All the pups are healthy, so if I'll see that the main plant is getting worse I'll separate one. Thanks everyone, for replying.

Muckpuk pointed out that air temperature could have a lot to do with water requirements.

Hot temps probably require more water, as the plant may be expiring water from itself into the air, thus "robbing" itself of needed moisture.

In winter, when temps are much cooler, the rate of respiration is likely to be much, much less, so it hardly needs any water at all.

And if you live in a cold place, and the plant is near a window, that could be giving it problems, too.

You aren't the only person to have problems like this -- I had a friend who was actually thinking of knitting one of her succulents a customized sweater for winter! (I asked her if she was going to make it a matching hat, and she rolled her eyes at me--- IMAGINE!)

Sue

Wow... ;)

My plant is indeed on my windowsill, but I don't have any other place for it, so I'll water less in winter and more in the summer, plus I'll see how I can make sure the temp around the plant is relatively mild.

Yup, I've had those those "moldy" spots before, usually from too much water, esp when weather's cool.

Hot weather, more sun; need more water.

Shade, cool weather; less water.

Indoors; even less water, more drainage.

Here is a link that might be useful: my aloe farm

Those are some great looking plants randy.

This is a very old post. Since then, my big aloe plant got worse and worse. It started losing leaves, and the black spots have spread everywhere except for the pups and a few leaves in the middle. I watered very little, much less than I used to, which was only once a week... Unfortunately that did not help and I was forced to get rid of the plant, and I planted a new one from a pup I had left. This new plant is growing extremely slowly, it's very frail and pale. The leaves are very thin and look like they are half dried out or even dead. Only a few leaves in the middle are nice and healthy. I am only watering a little bit once in every two weeks since it's the winter, but there is just no positive change. Well at least the plant is not dying. It's just sort of staying in this miserable state without any change for better or worse.

ibex;
Did you use new potting soil or reuse the old? That's an important point for getting rid of anything that resembles mold.
It's not unusual for pups to grow slowly for the first year or two. I would not object to giving them a bit of Miracle-Gro and a splash of water each week. Gauge by the dryness of the soil, not the calender.
Anytime the weather is going to be above 45-50 and sunny then I would put them out on the patio in the day.