Trying to overhaul a neglected Aloe plant that was in the basement, rarely watered, but had a lot of pups. Finally brought it out to the patio, separated the pups into new pots, trimmed the browned leaves off and also potted the mother plant, with only a bulbous root. Some of the pups I brought out earlier, got over watered due to continuous rain this past week. Any suggestions or recommendations are welcome. Thanks
I would soak the roots in hydrogen peroxide for 20 minutes, take them out and gently pat it dry, then dust with rooting powder to kill any lingering bacteria or risk of future rot from being left bare root in the rain. The rooting powder will help the plant recover from any shock from the repotting, separation, and recent rain. It’ll also help the pups with forming new roots, as well as the mother plants. The cactus mix in the pots from your photos looks nice and chunky enough for the aloes, so other than that, you should be good to go. If the soil is wet from the rain, you might want to repot with dry mix and allow the still wet soil to dry out before using it to repot. Hope this helps.
2 likes My only concern would be the size of the pots you’re using. You want to opt for something no more than 1-2 inches larger in diameter than the width of the root ball of each aloe, including the pups. Aloes enjoy getting a little routbound, and like many succulents, enjoy being fairly snug in their pots. It should also prevent the risk of overwatering or leaving the aloes sitting in excess moist water for too long.
1 likeThanks for the tips… and the note about the pot size. Right now the largest root ball is barely an inch wide and most of the pups have only a stem like protuberance at the end. By that measure the pots would be too large. Do you suggest packing multiple plants into the smallest size pot (6 inch) then?
0 likes That’s an option. Just make sure you let the soil completely dry out between waterings to be extra safe. Or you could opt for 2in or 3in plastic or terra cotta pots if you could get them off of Amazon overnight or something. I recently had to do that to split a bunch of plants up from a mixed succulent arrangement I rescued from the Lowe’s Clearance section
1 like These are the two pots I bought recently to repot mine. If you’re boycotting Amazon though, completely understand. Felt I should give that option just in case.
Thanks for the info. I do have a lot of these small containers from seedling trays that I got from the local farm with seedlings this year. I can reuse them. The original plant was a thick chunky plant that fell down and broke almost a year ago😖… and all I have managed are these pups until now. Wonder how long they will take to get back to their mother’s size.
1 like