Aloe Vera Part 2

Well, it turns out that we did our aloe harvest a little prematurely. I didn't do all the reading I should have done before we started hacking and slashing at our plant. The best way to propagate aloe is to remove and plant the pups that grow off the mother plant, but you have to do it after they have their own root systems. I saw the pups and thought it would be fine to just take them off and plant them. I did just that, and not three weeks later, they had both fallen over from rot. One had a single root while the other had none, which means they were left detached from their mother plant without a way to take in water. Their own energy reserves were just not enough to fight off the bacteria in the soil while establishing root systems

Original pups with one and no roots. Not mature enough to plant on their own.

That was a tough blow. We've had the aloe plant almost since we moved in together, and before that, it belonged to a mentor and friend of Etta's for like, 8 years, and was on its third or fourth generation. Luckily, we also saved several of the smaller leaves, because I read you can propagate an aloe plant from a leaf cutting, like you would with jade. When we harvested the aloe, I cut the bases of the leaves we were saving with a sterilized razor blade to minimize risk of rot, and left them on a wood surface under a white cloth for 3 weeks to allow the cuts to close up and scab over. If you just stuck a fresh wound into the soil, the leaf would rot in no time.

When they healed over, I decided to run a test. I treated half the cut ends with a hormone powder that encourages root formation, and the other half with honey. Honey doesn't encourage root growth, but it will fend off pathogens while the leaf is working on new roots. After I planted the cut ends in the soil about 1 inch, I watered the soil and placed the pot up on a shelf in our bedroom (since it's usually warm and not too bright in there). The idea is to get the soil wet to encourage roots to come out, but to keep the soil warm and dry after that to discourage rot-causing pathogens. I don't know why you don't want to put the cutting in sunlight, but I think it's because the sunlight might make the leaf photosynthesize, which would cause some water loss and the sugars that were made would have nowhere to go since they're normally stored in the roots.

When you plant a leaf cutting, you have to be very patient. If you try to do too much to help the plant, like watering, you could end up killing it. So I waited two weeks before I did anything. At that point, I gave each leaf a little tug to see if they could resist the upward force. If they did, that would mean roots had started to grow. Alas, none did, and when I pulled them out, they were all turning brown and rotting.

Rotted ends after a failed rooting attempt. This was from my final round of 3 leaves

Another blow, and I was starting to get anxious. I didn't want to kill Etta's plant for good, so I threw out the dead leaves and started over. I sterilized a blade, cut off the brown parts and left the leaves to heal over again. I also got rid of the soil, because it had a lot of whatever bacteria caused the rot in it. I did virtually all the same things, and once again, all of the leaves started to rot rather than root.

This time it was serious. I only had three viable leaves left, so it was basically my last try. I went online and did more reading, and made my procedures a bit more specific. This time, I cut the leaves at a 45° angle, which is supposed to help them form roots better. I used only honey to treat the leaves once they scabbed over, and I planted them in fresh soil. The soil I'm using is made for cacti plus a bit of perlite, which is expanded volcanic glass that is sterile and allows greater air and water penetration to the soil. I watered each leaf with distilled water so as not to add pathogens to the mix, and finally put the pots on a heat mat in a window with a cheesecloth over the glass to let in some light, but nothing intense.

And I'm happy to report that it worked! For one of the leaves. That's like a 7% success rate across all the attempts I made. I'm still pretty nervous about it, but the healthy one definitely resists my tugs, so I think it'll be okay. The other two rotted just like all the others. I don't even know what's going to happen next - whether it will make pups that will grow into plants (this is what jade leaves do) or somehow turn part of itself into a stem and grow more leaves. I'm betting on pups coming up, but not after a good long while for it to get its roots established first.

The final, healthy, rooted leaf!

I guess all of this is to say that if you're going to harvest your aloe, don't do it until it has pups that are fairly substantial. Try to dig around a little bit and see if they have roots before you go cutting them off and sticking them in the soil on their own.

The Regular Farmer

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All photos copyright 2014 Ryan Heisler