Aloe Vera Propagation: 8 Easy Tips For Planter
Aloe is a succulent plant that sends out new shoots from its base. You can grow more aloe plants in your home by taking cuttings from existing plants. This is a simple way to do gardening.
What Is Aloe?
Aloe is a group of about 500 species of succulent plants. One of the most popular kinds is the aloe vera plant, which is also called real aloe. Aloe vera is a plant that is sometimes used to heal sunburns.
It has antibacterial properties. Aloe plants do well in desert areas, but they can also be grown indoors in cooler, wetter climates. Aloe plants have leaves that can grow up to three feet tall and look like rosettes.
How to Propagate Aloe
Aloe propagation is easy and can be done by both new and experienced gardeners.
1. Watch for offshoots around the parent plant
2. Remove your aloe plant from its pot
When you see shoots that are up to four inches tall growing around the base of your aloe plant, carefully take it out of its pot.
Shake the plant gently or use gloved fingers to get rid of any potting soil that is still on it. The best time to repot an aloe plant is when it is growing the most, which is in late spring or early summer.
3. Divide your aloe plant
Check the base of the plant for shoots that have their own root systems. If you can, take the shoots away from the main plant while keeping their new root systems. Use a clean knife to cut off shoots that are tightly connected to their parent plant.
4. Let your aloe plants heal
5. Repot your aloe plants
If your aloe plants have calluses, you should move them to new pots, preferably clay pots with drainage holes. Before repotting injured shoots with weak roots, put a small amount of rooting hormone on them.
Use a soil mix that drains well, like one made just for cacti. The ingredients of cactus potting mix are coarse sand, perlite, pumice, broken granite, gravel, and regular garden soil.
6. Care for your new aloe plants
Dry, indirect light is best for new aloe plants. Plant your cuttings in pots near a south-facing window that gets indirect sunlight.
7. Alternatively, propagate with leaf cuttings
Even though making new aloe plants from cuttings of aloe leaves isn’t as effective as other methods, it could be useful if you don’t want to repot the parent plant.
Using a clean, sharp knife, cut off a leaf from the plant’s base and put it in its own pot with cactus potting soil. Even though the leaf is likely to die before it grows roots, this strategy may sometimes work.
8. Alternatively, sow aloe from seed
Another way to grow new aloe plants is to get the seeds from the pods of mature aloe plants. Plant the seeds in warm, moist soil and wait for them to grow. After the new growth has grown roots, put it in a pot with cactus soil.