Dividing Aloe plant

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the neighborhood and my buddy MaViRose says to ask away if I have questions - so here we go.

I have inherited a rather large medicinal aloe plant which was my grandmothers. Since her passing it has gotten only token attention until I was able to work with it. Now that I have nursed it back to apparent health - with nice green leaves - my next question is how to divide it. Keep in mind that there is considerable sentimental value with this plant - so I'm careful with this one. I know it needs to go to a bigger pot, but it is long and winding - though full with no broken leaves (except the ones my son used on his sunburn). So if someone can lend me some suggestions - well that would be the verys!

Thanks

swoznick

have diveded many with good luck it is easy. just carefully dump out the plant and remove all the suckers and pot them in new pots up to the first good leaves(remove any dead ) if the thing is getting huge(we have one that takes 2 people to carry it gets moved twice a year) and you don't want to put it into a bigger pot i did this already with good results. befor you repot it put it back in and see how much is between the rim of the pot and the bottom good leaves. now chop that much off of the bottom of the roots plus and extra inch or two. then just repot it. the one i did this to is in a 20+ gal. pot. any questions email me

Thanks Troy for the reply and vote of confidence. Wow - an aloe plant that takes two people to move it - now that's a lotta plant. I'm timid when it comes to doing stuff like this with my grandmother's plants, but your way seems the safest that I've read yet. I did read earlier forum thread just now where someone in my same predicament was advised to lop off the top and set it aside to make roots. Have you done this practice and would it work? I don't know much about aloes and I'm not sure how they root. I have'nt peeked into the pot yet to see if there are suckers growing for the repotting - I wanted to know what to do before upsetting anything. But I'm going to need to do something soon. I'll get brave this weekend and turn it out of the pot to see what my options are with this plant. anything else you might think of would be wonderful.

Thanks again and abundant blooms.

Different aloes can need varying treatments. Since you mention medicinal and a sunburn, I assume you have aloe vera. There should be some very obvious pups all around the base and even climbing out of the pot if it's crowded. If there aren't, I might be a little inclined to wonder if it's aloe vera, as this one makes pups in the first year or two. Maybe your grandmother removed them, or maybe you have a different aloe. There are several different ones, and some would require more careful treatment than aloe vera.

Aloe Vera. don;t over water, I keep mine in a north bond window in my faimly room. Heavy drapes behind it winter and summer. I try to water it once a month, don,t always make it, i really water it when I do.

Hey folks,

The "leaves" on this aloe plant are long coming to a point, and then seem flat on one side - not roundish like other's that I have seen. There are small pointed edges along the leaves and it looks a bit varigated with white flecks along the leaves. When I first took the plant over - it was under nourished ( leaves pale and almost translucent) and I'm sure the plant is quite old. It has greened up nicely the past few months and seems to be healthier. I'll try to take a picture and post it up so that folks can see what I'm working with. I just have not looked closely enough to see if we have pups growing.

Thanks
swoznick

pictures cool