Aloe Vera Plant Care
What You Need to Know About Aloe Vera Plant Care
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 dilute 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.