The Aloe Harvest

Etta processing some of the aloe leaves

Long about September of 2012, Etta and I were given an Aloe vera plant by one of Etta's friends. Aloe is a succulent, which means it has thick, fleshy parts (leaves, in aloe's case) full of water. They tend to come from arid places and need less water that other plants, but there are many examples of succulent plants that evolved in temperate areas of the world, including some sedums. Many succulents reproduce asexually by growing clones of themselves (called "pups" by aloe growers) off of some portion of the stem. Each pup will eventually produce its own roots, remain there after the 'mother' part of the plant dies, and produce its own pups when it gets big enough.

We used it as a Christmas Tree that first year

We're pretty sure the plant we received was an offshoot of an offshoot of a plant Etta's friend Will received when he started college in 2001 or so, and it was a monster. We had to stake it to keep it from leaning over and snapping, and it grew much more quickly than any other potted plant I've ever had.

The open end of the leaf where it was attached to the plant

A couple of weeks ago, I walked into the bedroom to tend the potted plants in the window, and I was surprised to find two pups coming up off of our aloe! Until then, we weren't sure how we'd keep it alive when we harvested the leaves, but we knew we'd have to cut it down soon because of how tall and heavy it was getting. Thankfully, the pups came up just in time, so today we harvested and processed the leaves, and prepared the pups for transplanting.

A cross section of the leaf, showing gel and veins

To get the gooey insides out of each leaf, you basically have to cut off the green parts without taking too much of the gel inside. The green parts of the leaf contain the photosynthesizing cells, a little waste storage, and the waxy cuticle protecting the leaf from direct contact with the environment. Between the outside layers are loads and loads of cortex cells which have relatively huge areas to store water as well as sugars, minerals (vitamins), amino acids, and other chemicals (including salicylic acid, lignins, and saponins). A lot of these chemicals are great for our skin and for our bodies when eaten, which is why aloe has been cultivated for thousands of years. There are also veins (called vascular bundles in botany) running the length of each leaf used to carry water and nutrients up from the roots, and sugars out of the leaf to the rest of the plant.

The author holding a piece of gel.

We started processing each leaf by slicing off the sharp edges. Then, pressing the leaf flat, you can run a sharp knife under the skin of about a third of the convex part of the leaf. Once the first cut is made, it's easy to cut the rest of the skin off the rounded side, leaving the gel attached to the bottom. If you press the leaf very flat, you can then slip the knife under the gel and get most of it off. Inevitably, you cut through some of the cortical cells that store the water and chemicals, so the whole table gets covered in a mucus-y goo. However, it's held together as one unit by the veins and the bonds between the remaining cells. We're going to make the gel into several products for ourselves - skin ointments, conditioners, maybe even slip a little into some food (although it didn't smell terribly appetizing). We're not quite ready to use the gel yet, so we sliced it into chunks and placed it on a cookie tray in the freezer. Once it froze, we broke the chunks apart and stored them in a plastic bag in the freezer, ready to use when we need them.
 
 So what did we do with the pups, and how are we going to keep growing them? Well to start with, I cut the whole big aloe plant off at the soil line. Then, I peeled each leaf off the stem until there were about four left. I read that you can keep the few uppermost leaves and get them to root and keep growing as well. Unfortunately, they snapped off the stem a little too high, so I'm not sure they'll survive, but I'm going to try anyway.

The two pups along with the top of the mother plant, left out to form callouses before transplanting.

Once I was done with that, I carefully wiggled the remaining stem, the roots, and the attached pups out of the soil. The pups were attached to the bottom of the mother's stem by small, underground stems of their own. One of them already has one root coming off of it, while the other does not. To get them to root, first you have to leave them exposed to the air in a dark place for a day or two. In that time, they'll secret some of the chemicals stored in the leaves to form a callous over the wound. Once the callous has formed, you can transplant them without fear that they'll rot. Generally, you don't want to water transplanted succulents until a root system as formed to discourage rot, but you should mist their soil with a little water to encourage them to send roots out. Once they have roots, you can water as normal, which for aloe, is not very often.

We've really enjoyed having this plant; it's very easy to care for and it provides a wonderful material for our health, so we'll be careful to raise the pups to maturity. I'd strongly encourage anyone reading this to get one for their desk or a window sill at home. Check back soon for my upcoming post about jade (another succulent) and the other plants I've got growing in my window!

The Regular Farmer