We were gifted a much loved aloe vera last week. The person gifted it to us couldn’t take it with them on a long distance move.
I wasn’t their first choice – since I’m known for not keeping plants alive. I never really tried. But my mom was known for killing all indoor plants – including plastic ones.
From my little study of aloe Vera plants this once is huge and limp. It was started over a decade ago with the gift of a plant part to treat a sunburn. That part was planted and it became what it is now. Everything I heard about this particular plant, is it can be fine with whatever. But I want to be careful that I don’t kill it.
My young adult son thinks it is so neat. It is fun seeing him talk about plans to water, “Spikey”.
The current plan is to get a soil moisture tester and water it when it gets to low moisture. (Any advice on what level to look for?) and the pot has a little spot on the side that is related to watering it. Any specific advice on quantity and procedure to water it. I’m hoping for advice like, “When the moisture reading gets to 2 then pour in 1 cup of water – wait 10 minutes then pour in another cup. On the first of every month add one spoon of XYZ compost plant food.”
So – Any basic easy to follow advice to keep Spikey alive? He is currently at the sunniest window.
by TedIsAwesom
2 Comments
Nothing of the sort. Only use pointed when the substrate is completely dry and after a few more days of waiting. These pots are for plants that need constant humidity (mostly tropical), the opposite of pointed. Puntiagudo can endure a long time of drought and then, yes, its watering is abundant (like torrential rain in the desert). For this, it is essential that you let the water escape from the bottom (please do not collect it at the bottom as in those types of pots), have good drainage holes and the soil is very porous and does not retain excess water. So: dry and when it comes time to water a lot of water at the time, so that it soaks everything and just as it enters, it comes out, if it stays soaked for a long time the roots will rot. If it is thirsty, the most that will happen is that you notice that its leaves are wrinkled or softer and they return to normal as soon as you give them water. So less is preferable to more.
I haven’t used soil moisture testers, so I can’t help with what to look for there.
I would have a look at the very helpful wikis linked in the automod reply at the top, and I’ll trigger a few of the replies here as well: !beginner !watering
Long story short, you will need to make sure that it’s in a very free-draining soil mix, ideally in a different pot (this self-watering pot is not ideal), and when you water you should thoroughly soak the soil mix by sitting the pot in a basin of water for at least half an hour.