Planting, Caring Aloe Vera Plants your Home

Planting, Caring Aloe Vera Plants your Home

Most everyone is familiar with the aloe vera plant, but how many people are familiar with aloe vera plant care. These pants, which are native to the arid regions of Africa, are not only beautiful but are prized for their medicinal qualities. The plants are known to ease the pain from and speed up the healing process of skin burns and the aloe vera gel is healthy for skin overall.

There are a few very important things you need to know about aloe vera plant care. The first of these is that the plant needs bright, but not direct sunlight. A brightly lit room will be sufficient for the aloe vera plant to grow. If the plant begins to develop orange or dark-brown spots, it may be sunburned.

Ideal aloe vera plant care includes soil that has good drainage. An ideal soil mixture might be a premixed soil that is meant for cacti. If you are mixing it yourself, then use a mixture of pumice, sand, and perlite. When the plant is grown outdoors, you can use a diluted plant food once per year in the spring. Worm castings or organic kelp fertilizers will benefit an indoor plant.

It is important not to overwater your aloe vera plant. The pot should have a drainage area for excess water and the plant only needs to be watered one or two times a month. In the winter it hardly needs any water at all. This is because the leaves of the aloe vera are fleshy and store water. If the plant is watered too often, then it will rot from the roots up.

When an aloe vera plant has outgrown its pot and needs to be repotted, then it is important to remove the new shoots and repot them. The mother plant can be left in the original pot and the shoots can be removed and planted in a new pot. A healthy aloe vera plant grows new shoots rapidly and it is important to remove these shoots before they grow more than 3-4 inches. Once they get bigger than this, they begin to drain too much energy from the plant’s mother, which can result in an unhealthy plant. When you replant the shoots, water them upon planting and then do not water them again for three weeks.

Overall, it is very easy to take care of an aloe vera plant. Once you know these basic aloe vera plant care tips you can grow aloe vera plants successfully, both indoors and outdoors. Then you can enjoy the beauty this plant has to offer and you can also benefit from its medicinal qualities. With the proper care, your aloe vera plant can last for years.

A Quick Guide for Growing Aloe Vera Plants Indoors

Growing Aloe Vera plants indoors is easy. These plants don’t require much care, and if they do happen to have some problems, it isn’t too difficult to bring them back. One of the main benefits of growing Aloe Vera as a houseplant is that you can have access to its healing properties all year long, even in the winter. Another reason that many people choose to use Aloe Vera as an indoor plant is that you can grow it, no matter what region of the world you live in.

If you like having tropical plants indoors, growing Aloe Vera plants helps to add something extra to your indoor garden. It has thick, meaty leaves that are greenish-gray in color, which will help to compliment some of your other more leafy and delicate plants.

Tips for Growing Aloe Vera Plants Indoors Include

You will want to choose Aloe Vera plants that have very firm leaves and are smooth to touch.

During the spring you will want to repot your plant

The reason that it is important to do this each spring is that this plant will grow a lot during warm weather months.

Aloe Vera Plants Need Sandy Soil

One of the best types of soil for this plant is cactus soil. To mix your own soil you will need to combine about two-thirds sand with one-third potting soil.

The pots that you use for growing Aloe Vera plants will need to drain well. In addition to this, you will want to fill about one-third of the pot with either pebbles or marbles, before adding the soil and plant.

Once you have the bottom third of the pot filled with your choice of marbles or pebbles, you will then want to add about two-thirds of the soil, and then add the plant. Carefully place the rest of the soil around the plant until it is firmly potted.

After you have finished, water well and then place your plant in a window that gets plenty of sun. These are plants that need a lot of sunlight so if you have a south-facing window, this would be the best location for your Aloe Vera plant.

When growing Aloe Vera plants in the summer, you will only want to water when it appears as if the soil is drying out. To determine this, touch the soil and see if it is dry and if it looks like it is pulling away from the side of the pot. During the winter your plant will not need much water at all; typically it is enough to water about every few weeks, but you probably will not want to go much more than this without water.

To use Aloe Vera leaves as a treatment for skin abrasions and burns, simply cut the leaf from the base of the plant. You will then want to cut the leaf sideways and peel back the skin; this will give you access to the Aloe Vera gel beneath the leaf’s skin.

When growing Aloe Vera plants, there are a few additional steps you will want to take to ensure that your plant is as healthy as possible.

First, you will want to place your plant outside for at least a few weeks during the summer. To do this, slowly introduce the plant to its outdoor environment by placing it in a protected spot for a couple of hours. Over the following days, simply increase its time outdoors. After about a week and a half, you should be able to leave it outside. Make sure that you bring it in before there is any danger of frost.

It is also important that you never let your plant sit in water. The Aloe Vera is very vulnerable to root rot.

Growing Aloe Vera Plants is really very simple, once you get started and know how to do it.