A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The House Plant Forum Aloe Vera Help!

Hi All

I've had my aloe vera plant for about 3 years now and it has grown thick and long 'leaves' (sorry, don't know what you call them in this case!), unofrtuantely the leaves are so thick and long that the plant hasn't been able to support them properly and the weight has meant the lower ones have snapped. The plant has continued to send new shoots up the centre and I am now left with a plant that is beginning to grow along horizontally as it's base has been compromised by its insistance in growing up, and it's weight has dragged it down! It has not sent out any new baby plants from the base as I understand these plants usually do. I have tried repotting it but do not want to bury the plant deeper for fear of the base rotting. It is also becoming a bit delicat to handle as the stem has bcome so bent over and all the weight is higher up the plant. Can anyone help as, despite its lovely thick green new shoots it's starting to look as if it's led a very hard life?!
Many thanks

Could you get a little cage for it to keep it up? Or put some little wooden pieces in the soil around the edges and tie string around them to keep it standing up?

I'd try to stake it or prop it up somehow.

My first thought would be to put it in the ground....but your from UK....sounds like it'd be too cold.

I have the same issues from time to time with aloe. I have previously cut the root down so that there is not so much plant in so little put (the plant continued to do well for several years afterward). My plants are topheavy too, so I have asked if anyone knows about topping them. They uproot themselves due to their weight and are quite a lot of work if given a pot by themselves (they don't mind being crowded and often do not have as many problems when they are with lots of little ones). If I get an answer, I'll be sure to forward it on to you, Sall. Where in the UK are you (it is after all a large place with lots of different weather)?

What if your soil was a bit more sandy? you think that'd give the roots a bit more support? Have you tried cutting some of the lower leaves, or would that just add to the top heaviness of it? I don't know about cutting on the tops?

Soil is fairly sandy and allowed to dry between waterings. The lower leaves end up broken often anyway because of the top being so heavy that it weighs on the rest of the plant. They have beautiful color so I know they're healthy, but the older plants (some as much as 10 years) just don't have the strength to hold themselves (yes, I tried propping with bamboo and whatnot too). I think topping it might be my only way to go. Then I can grind those leaves down in my blender.... wonder how long they'll keep.

I just gotta ask.......what do you do with the blended up Aloe?

I just recently purchased an aloe plant and did some research, I did find out that you should plant them in wider/shorter pots instead of tall pots that are narrowower. The reason for that is the roots of an aloe plant grow sideways instead of down. Hope this helps. By the way, my plant is doing good so far, I hope it stays that way.

I usually manage to kill mine before the pot gets full

Once I grind down the leaves, I package it up in freezer containers. Dress them up pretty and hand them to friends as start of summer gifts. Sunburn is popular around here (we're only an hour from the beach!) I don't, however, know how long it lasts in the freezer. It's not completely liquid, thicker, colloidal, but it really does nice on a bad burn.
All my baby plants get repotted in throw away pots for my students. As the seniors graduate, they are gifted a plant with the label "Keep growing".

Cool. You sound very crafy! I use the aloe mostly for burns and dry skin. We do a lot of camp fires here on the property in winter time. Some brave sole is always getting a little too close and takes off some hide from time to time. Ha ha. people are so surprised when I yank off a leaf of aloe and tell them to put it on their burn several times and the next day they wont feel a thing. they tease me about my 'plant healing abilities' and laugh...until the next day....when they say oh yea...I did get burned...where's the mark?!
I also use the aloe for dry skin in the winter. I'm very alergic to all that great smelling lotion. the aloe is wonderful.