Aloe vera plant needs no introduction. I am sure most of us have an aloe vera plant in their homes, either indoors or outdoors in the garden. Aloe vera is one of the NASA recommended air purifying plant, which has been proven to remove the harmful benzene and formaldehyde from indoor spaces.
Now, let us look into 3 simple and useful tips on how to grow thick and fleshy Aloe Vera leaves.
- SUNLIGHT: This is one of the most important factors that decides the thickness of your aloe vera leaves. The common reason for thin, long or leggy aloe vera leaves is keeping them indoors in spaces with not enough light. No doubt, it’s a hardy plant that survives low light conditions, but it won’t grow to its full potential if you do not keep in in direct sunlight. Remember to get a thick and fleshy aloe vera plant, you must provide direct sunlight of at least 6 to 8 hours. Like starting from early morning sun till noon sun. Try to avoid the harsh noon sun, which can sometimes burn the leaf tips and edges, especially in summer season. If you prefer to keep it all day in direct sunlight, you can install a 50% green shade net to protect it from harsh sun and let it enjoy the pleasant sun for the entire day. If you are growing indoors, you need to keep it in full direct sun light at least 2 to 3 times in a week or you can grow it under a good quality LED grow light.
- ROTATION TECHNIQUE: This is another useful trick to keep your plant healthy and get those thick and fleshy aloe vera leaves. To keep your plant growing evenly, rotate the container at least a couple of times every week so that all of its leaves get an equal amount of sun light for photosynthesis.
- WATERING: This watering trick for aloe vera is the most important tip to get thicker and fleshy aloe vera plant. You know, aloe vera is a drought-resistant succulent plant which stores most of its moisture in its leaves in the form of gel. We all know the medicinal and various other uses of this aloe vera gel. We will not discuss about that in this video. To understand this trick, you need to know what happens to aloe vera when you deprive it of water. If you let the soil go very much dry for too long, your plant will begin to use the water reserves in its leaves, causing them to shrivel and shrink. Of course, we do not want this to happen. So, the right technique to water aloe vera plant is, Yes! Deprive it of water, but not too long. Make it a lot thirsty first and then provide it will lots of water to drink. Practically, this is done by allowing the top 2 inches of soil to dry out completely. You can check this using the finger dip method or a moisture meter if you have. Water it only if the top soil is completely dry. And Watering should be thorough and deep till the water flows out of the drainage holes. This simple hack helps to grow aloe vera leaves thicker and fleshy.
If you want to know the complete care tips for aloe vera plant like fertilizer, pot selection and other useful points, you can check my detailed post on aloe vera care tips.
This video is a complete guide to aloe vera plant care and covers:
- Basic Information On Aloe Vera Plant
- Aloe Vera Plant Benefits
- Important Tips For Growing Aloe Vera Plant
- How Often To Water Aloe Vera
- How Much Sun Does An Aloe Vera Plant Need
- Best Potting Soil For Aloe Vera Plants
- Best Fertilizer For Aloe Vera
- Propagating Aloe Vera Plants
- BASIC INFORMATION ON ALOE VERA: Aloe vera is basically a cactus like succulent plant and this is just one of hundreds of different types of aloe plants and the most common type and commonly called medicinal aloe vera. Aloe vera is a stemless or very short-stemmed plant and can grow upto 100 cm tall. Its either grown as an ornamental plant for it beautiful look or as a medicinal plant to extract aloe vera gel from its fleshy leaves.
- ALOE VERA PLANT BENEFITS: Will not go into details of this topic. To mention a few, Most people are already very familiar with the medicinal and healing properties of aloe vera plants. These days you’ll find aloe vera gel in everything from skin and haircare products, to drinks, supplements, and food products. Another great benefit of growing aloe vera as a houseplant is that it helps to purify the air in our homes. I have discussed about NASA recommended Air purifier plants in a detailed post.
- ALOE VERA PLANT CARE TIPS: There’s really not much to it, and guess what – your aloe vera might just do better if you ignore it, Yes! they thrive on neglect. But, still there are a few things you need to do to keep your aloe vera growing and multiplying at its best. The two most important parts of aloe vera plant care are proper watering and lighting.
- HOW OFTEN TO WATER ALOE VERA? The most common mistake people make when it comes to aloe vera plant care is overwatering. In nature, aloes grow in desert climates where they hardly get any rain. Aloe vera succulent plants hold water in their leaves, so they can go a very long time without water. Overwatering will cause root rot, and eventually cause the stem of the plant to rot, eventually killing the whole plant from the bottom up. Aloe vera plants like to be watered more during the summer than the winter months. It’s best to allow the soil to dry out completely between waterings. The best method to water aloe vera is using the Finger Dip method. Dip one inch of finger into the soil to check moisture. Water it if its completely Dry. And when you water it, do it thoroughly, allowing all of the excess water to run out the bottom drainage holes. So, The Point to remember is Thorough and Infrequent watering is the Rule for Aloe vera and all succulents and cacti.
- HOW MUCH SUN DOES AN ALOE PLANT NEED? The second most important thing about aloe vera plant care is proper lighting. Aloe vera plants will grow their best when given lots of light. Outdoors, aloe vera can be grown anywhere from full sun to partial shade. They tolerate any amount of light. But its better to avoid direct noon sunlight. When it comes to shade and indoors, they generally tend to get leggy if they do not receive adequate light. They also do well under LED grow lights if grown indoors. If you don’t have enough sunlight in your home, then you should definitely get a grow light for your aloe vera. You can check details on these topics on Indoor plants here.
- BEST POTTING MIX FOR ALOE VERA PLANTS: The best soil or potting mix for aloe vera is one that drains very quickly, and doesn’t hold water. You can either use commercially available succulent and cacti mixes or you can prepare your own DIY succulent soil mix. One such recipe I use is:
- Any Good quality Garden Soil – roughly about 30 to 40 Percent.
- Sand: You can use River sand / Construction Sand and not the sea or beach sand for this which is high in sodium chloride that’s salt. The proportion to use is about 30 to 40 Percent. You can also use Coco peat or Peat moss instead of sand for aloe vera but it’s not recommended specially for succulents, because it retains moisture and some succulents have a risk of Rot.
- Gravel chips or pebbles or even Small Marble or granite Chips. This can be roughly about 10 percent.
- Compost: This is actually not required for succulents, because the natural habitats of most succulents and cacti is a desert. But still adding 10 percent of compost like vermicompost/leaf compost/cowdung powder. Also consider adding about 5 – 10 percent of Neem Cake Powder, that really effective in preventing rot from fungus and other harmful pathogens.
- Perlite + charcoal like Wood Charcoal pieces or biochar pieces: These ingredients keep the soil very loose and well aerated. Charcoal also has some antifungal properties as well to prevent root rot. All these mixed to about 10 percent can be added to the recipe.
7. FERTILIZER FOR ALOE VERA: Aloe vera plants don’t really need to be fertilized. But like most plants, they will certainly benefit from being fed once in a while, specially during their active growing season like spring through summer. I recommend using organic plant fertilizer on your aloe vera, rather than the chemical stuff – especially if you plan to harvest and use the gel. Compost like vermicompost or decomposed cow dung – a handful of it once in a month is more than sufficient for aloe vera plants. And this can also help to encourage flowers in aloe vera plants.
8. PROPAGATING ALOE VERA PLANTS: The mother Aloe vera plant will grow
offsets (a.k.a aloe vera pups) around the base of the plant, and these babies
can be carefully removed from the mother plant and potted up on their own to
create a new plant. It’s as easy as that! But how do you encourage production
of more babies or offsets from mother plant? Simple trick or solution to this
is using a wide container for growing the future mother plant. Plant this at
the center of this containers and you should see a lot of offsets coming soon. Aloe
vera roots do not grow too deep and hence shallow wider containers are
preferred when you are repotting.
You can also grow aloe vera from seeds. The mature aloe plant produces
flowering once in a while. This mother plant produces once in a year. But your
need to provide full sunlight to induce flowering. You can collect its seeds
pods and grow new aloe plants from these seeds.
Can you grow aloe vera from a single leaf or leaf cuttings? I have tried this many times but was completely unsuccessful. Let me know in the comment box below if you have rooted an aloe vera from a leaf.
Now in this Video, am gonna show you How to grow Aloe vera plant indoors and how to take care of it. These are the same Aloe vera babies also called as Offsets, that we separated from mother plant a month ago. You can watch the previous videos and the link is given in the description.
Well Coming back to its Indoor care!
Aloe vera is easy to grow indoors as a potted plant, and makes a wonder houseplant. Given the proper care, these amazing plants can live for many, many years.
The good news is that aloe vera plants are super easy to grow plants whether indoors or outdoors, and they do very well in pots – of any size.
The Secret here is : There’s really not much to it, and guess what – your aloe vera might just do better if you ignore it, they thrive on neglect.
But, there are certain things you need to do to keep your aloe vera plant growing to it’s best. The two most important parts of aloe vera plant care are proper – watering and lighting.
The most common mistake people make when it comes to aloe vera plant care is overwatering. They donot require so much water as you think, they are succulents and already have lot of water and moisture stored in their leaves.
In nature, aloes grow in desert climates where they hardly get any rain. Aloe vera succulent plants hold water in their leaves, so they can go a very long time without water.
Overwatering will eventually cause the stem and roots of the plant to rot, eventually killing the whole plant. Obviously we definitely don’t want that to happen!
Remember one thing, Depending on the season you need to water them, like in summer you may need to water them frequently. Firstly check the soil for moisture – not just the upper layer of the soil, but a little below an inch. If its moist then donot water them. That’s it about watering.
The second most important thing about aloe vera plant care is proper lighting. Aloe vera plants will grow their best indoors when given good amount of light.
A south facing window would be the ideal spot, but they also grow well under artificial lights. If you don’t have enough sunlight in your home, then you should definitely use a grow light for your aloe vera.
Alternately, you can move your aloe vera plant twice a week into sunlight – preferably indirect sunlight, only if its not thriving indoors.
Lastly ! the Best Potting Soil For Aloe Vera Plants is one that drains very quickly, and doesn’t hold water – like cocopeat or a mix of cocopeat and soil or sand in any proportion to make it a well drained potting soil. Also, it does not require any fertilizer – whether organic or inorganic.