Aloe

[Kirsten]

I visited a plant sale today. Despite the fact that I really don't have too much space in my room, I still bought two bags of bulbs (one of red hyacinths and one of these gorgeous yellow-orange jonquils) to plant at home, and an aloe vera plant. I debated for awhile between buying the bigger, more expensive ones, or the pot that was smaller and less expensive but contained two plants. The guy selling them assured me that they'd be fine as long as I split them, so I did that today.

They can be such gorgeous plants and I really hope mine do as well, I had one in the past but it died :( :

http://www.massey.ac.nz/~sglasgow/cactus/Aloe%20vera.jpg
http://eatmoreherbs.com/herbjpgs/jpgs/b010aloe_verare.jpg

I'll post pictures of mine tomorrow. The soil was super dry when I got it, so I watered it thoroughly and now I'm planning to let it dry out completely for a few weeks or so... hopefully the super deep watering today didn't hurt them! :natur014:

[~Obsidian~]

Hope it survives Kirsten! I found some info (http://aloeandyou.com/aloe-vera-plant-care.asp) on them for you.

[Riz]

Hi kirsten, obsidian...

Good choice in plants Kirsten, the aloe vera is very popular plant to grow in UK recently. I have seen them in lots of magazines, so its staying indoors till next summer eh !? good luck with it and keep us informed :)

[Kirsten]

Hope it survives Kirsten! I found some info (http://aloeandyou.com/aloe-vera-plant-care.asp) on them for you.

You rock :D thanks! Riz, I'm surprise you don't have one, you seem to have just about everything else :p Funny what you said about it being popular, I came across a website yesterday that said that every household should have one, and if you have children you should have two lol!

Here's my loot from the sale yesterday:

http://i36.tinypic.com/fn92iw.png

And after I divided them

http://i33.tinypic.com/vexj14.png

[~Obsidian~]

Woo! They look rather skinny don't they? Lol, you'll be posting pictures of them as huge monsters soon enough I guess! The hyacinths look well lovely! *is attracted to the colour red*

[Riz]

I didnt know the aloe vera was a part of the lilly and onion family.. is it fragrant.. anyone know !!

[~Obsidian~]

Yes, when you break a piece off it smells lovely and fresh!!

[Kirsten]

Woo! They look rather skinny don't they? Lol, you'll be posting pictures of them as huge monsters soon enough I guess! The hyacinths look well lovely! *is attracted to the colour red*

I'm a little worried now because I googled "red hyacinth" and all the pictures that turned up definitely look like dark pink and not red. I want real red hyacinth :( Though they had red bulbs and dark pink bulbs, so hopefully there's a difference!

I haven't tried to smell my aloe yet :) But they look so pretty, the translucent leaves, when there's sunlight shining through them :)

I hope they grow fast! The guy who sold them to me said they would probably double in size in three months, but they're supposed to go dormant over the winter...

[Kirsten]

Uh oh... one of the leaves is turning brown.... :(

[~Obsidian~]

Four possible reasons come to mind-

It may not have been getting enough sunlight
It may have been exposed to frost/low temperatures
It may have been overwatered
The drainage of the soil isn't very good.

So think, could it be either of these?

[Kirsten]

Probably 3 and 4. I don't have cactus soil so I used regular potting soil. And since it was super, super dry, I watered it and planned to let it sit for about two weeks before I water it again. I'm planning to just stick with that and hopefully it recovers.

:( I don't want to have a black aloe thumb!

[~Obsidian~]

Wheeeeeeeeee! Went to ikea today, and got a decent sized aloe plant for £2.79 :tree-huggin: for my sis anywhoo, hope it grows well!

[Kirsten]

Good luck! Hope it works out better for you than me :)

Hmm I wonder if this is like my bad luck with mangoes and how I didn't want to contaminate your mango plant... maybe I should stay away from this one too... lol!

[Kirsten]

How's yours doing?

Mine's turned almost brown :( it's still alive, but I think it might have gotten sunburnt, so I'm going to take it out of the sun for awhile and see if that helps...

[~Obsidian~]

It still seems to be alive! Although I've left it all to my sis, I refused to take care of it because it's hers : D (I am keeping an eye out though lol, don't want her overwatering it!)

[Kirsten]

My friend thinks it's really funny that a plant that's supposed to cure sunburn... is, well, getting sunburnt itself. He asked if I could just cut off a leaf and rub it over the plant. LOL

[Riz]

Uh oh... one of the leaves is turning brown.... :(


some do turn brown and then recover after awhile, you shouldnt be worried at this stage usually they bounce back after being re potted, but it can take a while.

[Riz]

My friend thinks it's really funny that a plant that's supposed to cure sunburn... is, well, getting sunburnt itself. He asked if I could just cut off a leaf and rub it over the plant. LOL

lol.... ti`s funny though :D

[Kirsten]

I moved it out of the sun and watered a bit more today... and I think one of the plants is slowly becoming green again!!!!!!

[Kirsten]

Updates! It's firstly now actually very green and I LOVE the way it looks when there's sunlight shining through it :) Also, I see new baby leaves!

http://i33.tinypic.com/120jl0m.png

http://i36.tinypic.com/11t216o.png

I think overall it's grown some :) I actually thought it hadn't moved at all, until I looked at the old pics in this thread and thought that the middle leaves looked significantly shorter...

[Riz]

quite a transformation from page 1 :)

they look like two individual plants now and they look healthy,
are they fast growers or what !? have you given them any nutrients at all !?

[Kirsten]

I've gotten so much conflicting information so far, I don't even know what I'm supposed to do haha :)

Advice from seller: Put in full sun.
Advice from people online: Put in shade.
Conclusion: I put it in full sun and it burnt. Put it in shade and it did well. Seller 0, online people, 1.

Advice from seller: Water once/month.
Advice from people online: Water up to 2x/week, just not too much.
Conclusion: I watered about once a week and it dried out. Watered a bit more and now it's happy. Seller 0, Online people 2.

Advice from seller: Will double in size in 3months.
Advice from people online: Goes dormant in winter. SLOW grower.
Conclusion: remains to be seen...

I haven't given them any nutrients whatsoever, actually. I'm actually really picky about fertilizing - I don't use any chemical stuff, just compost, and I don't have any access to that on campus right now. What I do sometimes is take some dried leaves and steep it in a bottle of water for a few days (usually the water turns golden brown) and use that to water. I have no idea if that actually helps or not, but I like to think that it does :)

[globalart4u]

your aloe looks good. i left mine outside last winter and it survived the winter but not the spring! now we have ia new one in the greenhouse and it is really healthy and as it was exposed to the full sun in the summer survived quite well but i might bring it in for the winter.

if you have any burns it is great for them - just split one leaf and put the slimy stuff in the middle directly on your burn and it even stops you from scarring

[Kirsten]

your aloe looks good. i left mine outside last winter and it survived the winter but not the spring! now we have ia new one in the greenhouse and it is really healthy and as it was exposed to the full sun in the summer survived quite well but i might bring it in for the winter.


Thank you! How funny that it survived the winter but not the spring :confused: Can we see pictures? My aloe is feeling self-conscious since it's the only one with pictures here :P (that goes for you too obsidian!)

[~Obsidian~]

your aloe looks good. i left mine outside last winter and it survived the winter but not the spring! now we have ia new one in the greenhouse and it is really healthy and as it was exposed to the full sun in the summer survived quite well but i might bring it in for the winter.

How odd :eek:
Thank you! How funny that it survived the winter but not the spring :confused: Can we see pictures? My aloe is feeling self-conscious since it's the only one with pictures here :P (that goes for you too obsidian!)

:p Its looking pretty pitiful

[globalart4u]

will take picture of the aloe in the greenhouse and post. the winter was mild last year and we had a bit of a cold spell in spring plus too much rain last year and this year. My jasmine though has survived two winters now, and is flowering even though it is frosty outside now. i think this year the plants will not do so well so might have to bring in my cactii instead of leaving it out - it has had two good years out and well bitten by slugs as well.

[Kirsten]

Update (http://i37.tinypic.com/2wgzoxt.png)

[Riz]

nice kirsten..

Its looking like a proper little plant now :)

[~Obsidian~]

What does this look like to you? They were by the door of one of my uni buildings...about 4 nearly 5 feet high!

[Kirsten]

That doesn't look like an aloe to me... almost more like a pineapple! is it a succulent?

[~Obsidian~]

Yep most definitely a succulent

[Kirsten]

Annnnnnnnd here we are :)

http://i41.tinypic.com/1znqzaf.png

I'm a little bit concerned about the smaller one since it was used to getting very little water and over break I think it got really, really drenched (the soil hasn't dried out in the two days I've had it back, in full sun)... hopefully it doesn't rot!

[Riz]

very nice kirsten..

the little one is coming along real well.. and the big one is not bad either....:GreenThumbs:

[~Obsidian~]

A friend just sent me a tiny aloe vera plant and some pups :D only problem is I don't know how I'm going to repot them! I haven't got any appropriate soil (just regular peat based multipurpose compost) :confused: and most of the pups don't have any roots and I have no rooting hormone.

Help!

[Kirsten]

Plunk it in the soil/whatever you've got. DON'T OVERWATER. Let it callus over and get settled in. A friend once gave me SIX pups and I killed them all by overwatering :(

Are the pups connected to the mother plant, or are they just separate? (I got mine wrapped in a paper towel lol) Here's a link that might help :)

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/houseplt/msg0516241214610.html

I wish mine were big enough to grow pups... I'll have to post a pic later, the tomatoes are kind of taking up all my plant-based attention right now and the eggplants are protesting by refusing to grow. One of the leaves started falling over and it looked like it was blackening a little at the stem :eek: so right now it's being propped up by a red star-shaped sponge. (Don't ask... the whole think looks quite weird.)

[~Obsidian~]

Yeah I just potted it on into the soil (I potted the biggest one into some old date palm soil - its got sand in it) and every website I looked at states not to water them for a week, its unanimous on them all so I'm not planning to! I also have about 4 pups, they were attached to the main plant (which is small btw, its about the size of a (ladies') hand) and it still gave pups! I took them off and I think I'll pot them anyway. Thanks Kirsten :D

BTW this isn't the first Aloe plant in my house, the last one (twas my sisters') died rather spectacularly and I can tell you from experience that the leaf that is blackening a little is a goner, cut it off now as cleanly as you can with a sharp knife to try and stop that from spreading (it's not a disease that I know of but it is rotting) and use the gel or refrigerate it for later.

[Kirsten]

aww but it's only got 6 leaves and if I cut one it'll be down to 5 :(

haha j/k - thanks for the advice! I'll do that asap.

[digi-girl]

You aloe's cute and tiny now, but just think in 10 years or so it'll end up like this monster of an aloe plant. It's about 2 and a half feet tall, not counting the stalks for the flowers, and it's about 4 and a half feet wide.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/digi-girl/P4270318.jpg

This is my mom's plant that she's had for about 15 years. It put out flowers for the first time this year and it's huge. There are three main plants in the pot and a whole bunch of babies. The babies will have to get re-potted soon so I'm hoping to snag one or two for myself. It'd be a nice addition to the other succulents and cactus that I have.

[~Obsidian~]

:eek:

insha Allah they'll get like that :D, still waiting for them to 'take'

[Riz]

wow !!

yeah no doubt,, its a big one.. :GreenThumbs:

[ze leetle elper]

how do you grow aloe? Can you buy seeds? I have no idea!?! :butterfly3:

[~Obsidian~]

I've never heard of them being grown from seeds but you probably can? I've got a main plant and a couple of seedlings that look like they might survive, I'll give you one (it looks like a conjoined twin lol) :D

[~Obsidian~]

Here's mine (the big one) and there's the twins :p

[ze leetle elper]

*waves at the twin* don't die please!!! :o

[ze leetle elper]

My SIL gave me 2 aloe plants cos she didn't know how to look after them and they were dying she says...BUT they look so dead to me! :S They have brown leaves, I think they were overwatered as it was watered everyday! :confused: They are also in normal chock-a-block compost.

What should I do? Move pots (is this too stressful?) Keep it in the sun or shade? Watering when? A lot of the leaves were sliced off when they went brown so very little left of the leaves.

Will it survive?!

[ze leetle elper]

^^ Seems to be getting a bit greener since I haven't watered it in 2 weeks!!

[~Obsidian~]

I suck with succulents :( :p

How're the twins doing? I just stuck them in that pot on the morning, because they were in heavy terracotta pot - did you transplant them?

[ze leetle elper]

lool nope, they are still in there, doing great it looks like to me :p Will put them in a bigger one this weekend :D

[Kirsten]

One of my brilliant friends today tried to take something out of the oven without oven mitts and promptly burned his hand (to the point where the skin was like bubbling off). He called me in desperation looking for aloe and I donated him a leaf and told him he should feel special since my plant only has like eight leaves! :p It helped tremendously with his burn, though, so that was good :)

[ze leetle elper]

Obsidian: the twins are doing well a year on lol! I seperated them (sob!) a few weeks ago as they were too big to be in the one pot any longer! Here is one of them on my kitchen window :D The other is exactly the same size on my bathroom window lol! :p

[~Obsidian~]

I suck with succulents

I still stand by this remark! :p
Obsidian: the twins are doing well a year on lol! I seperated them (sob!) a few weeks ago as they were too big to be in the one pot any longer! Here is one of them on my kitchen window :D The other is exactly the same size on my bathroom window lol! :p

Masha'Allah! :D

[Kirsten]

Well, yesterday was a bad day for my plants. Apparently while I was gone the greenhouse setup blew over in the wind, knocking over like half my tomatoes and promptly decapitating one near the bottom of the stem. (I'm still trying to figure out how on earth that could have happened, since there's not anything nearby that could have made such a clean cut... it almost didn't look wind-done.)

Then I moved to my aloe plant, which is on the other side of the room, in a box, far away from the wind, and I find that it's been completely uprooted. WTF?! I'm starting to think more and more that this wasn't wind done, but whatever...

Anyway, I cleaned off the bottom leaves of the aloe as well as I could, so now it looks like this: http://i43.tinypic.com/20fxeyq.jpg I'm waiting for the outside to dry out a bit, and then I'll go ahead and replant it.

[ze leetle elper]

The twins (now 2 years old :p ) have goven birth to many offspring lol!! I've lost count how many times I have repotted the offshoots that keep growing out of them!! Today I seperated one of the *twins* from its children (lol) I counted 4 so inshaAllah they will do well in their own homes (pots :p )

The other twin also has about 3 kids, but haven't sperated it yet!

I think the more careless I am with them the better they seem to do which suits me cos I sometimes forget to water them for months on end! :o

[ze leetle elper]

I just read this:


Aloe will not bloom until it is fully mature, which happens at about four years of age. When aloe does bloom, it produces bright, yellow flowers on long, protruding stems.

Indoors

Most Aloe Vera grown indoors will never bloom. Aloe Vera plants kept indoors are not likely to bloom at all. Occasionally these house plants may produce flowers if they receive a great deal of sunlight, but most will not.

http://www.ehow.com/facts_7270188_do-aloe-vera-plants-flower_.html

however one of my aloe vera plants (see previos pages for its birth and upbringing history lol :p ) has a tall stem through the middle and a bud appearing on the end!!! :cheerleader: :cheerleader:

I've only had it since a baby, maybe 2 years or so I forget? Do I do anything special with the flower? How long does it flower for? Any advice appreciated! :GreenThumbs: