Hi! I received a baby aloe plant from my friend a few months ago, and it has always grown quite horizontally instead of vertically, compared to his original mama plant. About 2-3 months ago, the bottom leaves started dripping sap(?) before withering away and eventually dying. Photos 1 & 2 are from a month ago, and 3 & 4 are from today. I moved the plant farther away from the heating unit it had been sitting near and have been watering it sparingly (maybe once in 3 weeks) but the leaves are continuing to die! Plant gets NE light by the window. How do I salvage this?
by MadeAnOopsieAgain
6 Comments
Ohhhh this won’t be helpful but I think a similar thing happened to my friend’s plant and it didn’t make it ://///// I hope yours pulls through, OP!
Take it out of the dirt and check the roots. I believe it may be suffering from root rot. The pot you have it in looks way too big and the soil looks really dense, like it’s not draining enough.
If the roots are mushy, remove everything dying or dead from the plant. rinse them off the roots then spray / dip them in a 50/50 peroxide water solution. I’d go for a really airy soil mix 1:1:1 ratio of orchid bark, organic soil and perlite. Maybe even throw in some leca and activated charcoal too.
Aloe Vera is a desert plant , it needs good afternoon sunlight.Water once /twice a week depending on your location matters.
Your soil mix looks very organic/spongy, not sure what word I want here but it’s essentially *water retentive*.
Which may be causing the lower leaves to rot.
Get it into a well draining mix.
Its a desert plant. It leaves store water and its roots need air as well as water, so it likes loose, sandy soil that is damp or dry, never wet. When things are too wet, the roots are smothered and can’t do their job, so the leaves start to wilt and get that soft, mushy look. So let the pot dry out between waterings, and make sure excess water drains off and doesn’t hang around.
Pot size matters too. In a pot, the soil needs roots to draw up the moisture. When a pot is too big, all the extra soil stays wet too long and things start to rot. So we keep pot size small, and wait til there are roots growing out of the drainage holes before moving up to the next size.
I would repot that guy into a smaller pot – only 1″ wider than the root ball. Make sure the pot drains well, and fill it with cactus or succulent mix rather than regular potting soil. Then give it a desert – bright light for photosynthesis, a grow light if needed, and soil that is damp or dry, but never wet.
I see a lot of brown spots on the leaves that look like scale. I would check for pests, see if it is indeed a scale infestation. Check other plants as well! If there’s sticky residue on the leaves, that would be an indication of pests as well (honeydew)