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Sick aloe vera - need help ASAP
Kat8
Posts: 1
I was given a small (four inch) aloe plant four years ago. It's been growing completely fine up until now. It lives in an unglazed terracotta pot and is about a foot tall. I have it in normal potting soil but plan to get cactus soil tomorrow. I water it about twice a month. The last time I watered it was three days ago. Anyway, I noticed today that one of the leaves was rotting near the stem. The other leaves feel softer and more fleshy than normal, as opposed to the firmness they usually have. I pulled the plant out of the dirt and looked at the roots. The bulb looks perfect, nice and white. The roots are way shorter than they should be though and really weak. I cut the two rotting leaves off and peeled the flesh that attached them to the bulb off as well. All of the other leaves look totally fine, other than a few being softer than I'd like. Can anyone help? I literally baby this plant. I'll be crushed if it dies. Thanks.
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Mine did a similar thing, so I put it into the greenhouse and left it alone. I thought I'd killed it but no, lo and behold, it over wintered in there and started sprouting fresh new leaves in spring. I gave it a little drink and it has flourished since. Pansyface is right neglect it and it will thrive! Good luck
I nearly killed my aloe vera a couple of years ago too, Kat . I should have asked for advice here from these very knowledgeable posters but didn't! So, I did it the hard way and found this online
http://www.aloeplant.info/aloe-vera-watering/
I bookmarked it and revisit it when I need reminding!
I too was given a tiny 2 inch aloe plant but was busy in the garden at the time so grabbed the nearest bag of compost to pot it up and didn't discover till later that I actually potted it into carniverous soil, but as I only give the plant an egg cupful amount of water once a month the aloe has thrived on it.
It is on a sunny window sill on my landing, it is a bright green and has long healthly leaves and it is now ten times the size!