Plant Aloe Vera

DesertRose
by DesertRose
3 Materials
$10
4 Hours
Easy

My husband loves to grow aloe vera plants and we have over 70 in our spare rooms. We intend to build a greenhouse eventually but for now the wintering is done in our spare cool rooms. They are not difficult to grow if you know just a few things about what they like and do not like. In 3 years he has gone from one lone plant to turning our home into his "greenhouse" full of aloe vera. This is how he grows his plants. I am not saying we are garden experts, but what he does works for us.

We separate all the plants that have reproduced in each large pot. From one pot he separated 4 to 6 large plants, as many medium ones, and 8 to 10 "babies" and laid them on the soil in a wheel barrow.

He separated them by hand at the roots and sorted them by size. You can buy Miracle Grow soil for succulents where garden supplies are sold, but we used the planting soil we had on hand and mixed in sand. The soil to the sand was 4 to 1, but the important thing is that the soil will drain well. Aloe does not like water standing on its roots. For the larger ones he also had some gravel he added to the bottom. You can add small stones or gravel but you don't have to if the soil is mixed with sand and even a little peat moss if you like.

He put 5 holes in these plastic planters. We bought dollar store garbage cans and drilled the holes. For the smallest ones he only put one hole and we used disposable drinking cups. We did add a little epsom salts as this helps the plants to be greener. For 70 plants we mixed in 2 or 3 cups of epsom salts plus 20 or so pounds of sand. A little bit goes a long way. Mix well before planting.

This is a small aloe vera going in a disposable cup. He prepared the planting soil in the wheel barrow, emptied one full over-grown plant in the wheel barrow at a time, separated the plants, and sorted by size as he went.

Hold the plant so the place where it had the dirt level will be about the same place when re-potting. Here he shovels the soil in while he holds the plant up so the roots get plenty of soil around them.

Pack the dirt down so the roots have no air on them and add more soil as needed to keep the plant sitting as deep in the soil as it was before re-planting.

Water the plants well when first planting them. This will give the roots a chance to recuperate from being moved and separated. After this he waters them once a month. He sets them on rubber mats inside made for wet boots and shoes to catch the run off out of the bottom. Remember, the soil was prepared to drain well. If your weather is mild in winter, you do not need to bring yours inside. They can take some frost but not a lot of it too many days in a row. I hope you try to grow some. They are easy, low maintenance plants to have in the home or outside. If you plant yours in the ground, be sure to add sand and or gravel in the hole if your soil is not sandy.

If you follow these simple steps you can have good success with the aloe vera too. He will set them all where the sun will be on them several hours a day or more all winter. Sometimes I spritz just the leaves with a little moisture if the weather has been hot. If you only do one plant your cost and time will be minimal.

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