Aloe Vera

Cann said:

yup you are correct!

hyroot - you should've used the aloe right away...kelp can be steeped for a while, but aloe reacts with oxygen and you start losing the beneficial compounds after roughly 20 minutes. not the end of the world, but next time use it immediately!



on another note - some things are just too obvious to be seen....the 200x aloe powder can be used as a rooting powder..can't believe I didn't think of that. testing 1/2 my clones this time w/ the powder...will post back with results. definitely seems like the way to go

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Oh well. The leaf wasn't that big either. May just go loot some leaves from my neighbor.

Cann said:

hence the citric acid in the "preservative free" brands of aloe...the problem is getting the dilution right, and i'm not sure where to start with that.


the real question is - why are we trying to store it in the first place?

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Yeahhh, we'll get it right and wrong until one of us gives it a go and documents it. I'm on board to helpout once I find an answer lol.

And the ONLY reason I mentioned that is just incase you fillet more than one use worth you can at least kinda put it on "ice" ya know?!

hyroot said:

Oh well. The leaf wasn't that big either. May just go loot some leaves from my neighbor.

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Try CL bro. Some local soul should be selling it near you! Plants are a buck around these parts!

^^^^^ cl is too expensive around here. Probably going to hit up home deps this weekend. $1.95 - $3.95 for aloe plants. Probably going to order worms from uncle Jim's. The nearest worm farm I could find is 2 hours away.

My neighbor gave me a couple leaves. I just did another foliar. Added aloe and shook right before spraying. Almost instantly the leaves perked up. ... so it seems like it works like liquid light. Opens the stomata's more so they process more light. In turn leaves become very perky, pointing towards the ceiling. That's probably why it speeds up growth. I have used liquid light before. I was a guinea pig for a hydro shop. It works, but way to expensive. $60 a quart. But Free fresh aloe

Nice boss! I'm diving in w/ it in a couple weeks! Glad it's workin out

Almost 14 hours later they are so friggin perky. Even more so than earlier.

Nice Hy! Does it seems like you've kinda sealed your leaves?! Are they shimmering lol?!
I feel like with a coat of aloe, the leaves should be protected from some of the elements, like the wind in the grow room, and intense light in some places as it helps moisturize and seal that moisture.
How often do you plan on using it? I've read that it's cool to do it numerous times! I wonder if you could possibly burn with aloe?
Doesn't seems likely, but I'm sure I;ll end up doing it lol

Some info on using aloe in the garden

https://www.thegrowcorner.com/vB/printthread.php?t=2590&pp=10&page=1

No shimmering like neem does. They are just very happy. The veg awakes in a couple hours. So I will see if there was major growth over night. I used it mixed with kelp foliar. Probably use it every other day. Plus in teas. It opens up the stomatas. So not quite like a coating. Absorbs normally.


Edit:

They woke up. Depending on plant they grew 1 - 3 inches. The ones on the left in the pic. Grew the most and into the light. For each plant all tops grew at the same rate

Perky as the best fake boobs. Giggity

aloe is the bomb...yesterday I had some leaves that were borderline vertical after a barley enzyme tea/aloe watering + aloe foliar. shoulda snapped pics...got too stoned and fell asleep instead lol

how much aloe juice per gallon of water should I use for foliar feeding? I was thinking of using lily of the desert aloe juice. it's organic and preservative free, $22 a gallon. or would using a dry aloe powder be cheaper? in that case how much powder per gallon?

if I remember right, the powdered aloe comes out to ~ $7 per gallon. much, much cheaper than the bottled stuff.

I think the aloe gel or that combined with kelp meal can speed up propagation. I had a bunch of clones root in 7 days in cups of soil. The cutting straight into soil. No rapid rooters or plugs of any kind. With using rapid rooters, having roots in 7 days is normal. But straight into soil (recycled) usually takes 2 weeks to get roots.


No more buying rapid rooters and cloning gel. Plus I have 4 bins of soil chillin that Im probably only going to use for party cups. Since starting rols method.

Anyone have good advice on keeping aloe plants? Soil, light, nutes, feed/water schedule? thanks

Its a desert plant. So it likes dry soil barely damp, high heat is ok. Soil with them is not really an issue. They will do good in even sand. Just water and I topdressed mine with a little compost and worm castings. Didn't give them any nutes. Mine are in 3 gals and I water probably every 10 days or so. They will keep growing huge. So to keep them green and not reddish brown. Eventually transplant them .

hyroot said:

Its a desert plant. So it likes dry soil barely damp

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Aloe is a bit funny to grow- in that it can survive conditions well outside of it's ideal. For example it can survive really dry environments but it actually wants a good supply of water in the warm growing months. By mistake some people would look at this 'desert plant' and assume it would be upset by alot of water but that's not true- it ideally wants it's media to have a regular drenching but the key is that it also wants that water to turn over and never sit as a wet bog. So really, water it like it's a tomato plant or any other thirsty plant, which is wet the media right down but wait until it nearly (not fully) dries out and then drench it again.'

But don't take my word for it, rather than babble my own words i'll post a link and some quotes from a website about how it likes to be grown: http://www.thegardenhelper.com/aloe~vera.html

Because Aloe Vera plants are very succulent and consist of 95% water, they are extremely frost tender. If they are grown outdoors in warm climates, they should be planted in full sun, or light shade. The soil should be moderately fertile, and fast draining. Established plants will survive a drought quite well, but for the benefit of the plant, water should be provided.
Because of their popularity, Aloe vera plants are available at almost every garden shop or nursery. Unless you live in area with a very mild climate, it's best to leave your Aloe plant in the pot and place it near a window that gets a lot of sun.
You can move the pot outdoors during the summer months.
Aloe Vera is a succulent, and as such, stores a large quantity of water within its leaves and root system. During the winter months, the plant will become somewhat dormant, and utilize very little moisture. (MY EDIT: I live in Australia and even though i'm in winter right now the Aloe has not gone dormant and is actually growing/reproducing like wild fire. However there is no such thing as 'frost' here and i've never seen it in my life). During this period watering should be minimal. Allow the soil to become completely dry before giving the plant a cup or two of water.
During the summer months, the soil should be completely soaked, but then be allowed to dry again before re-watering. Aloes have a shallow, spreading root system so when it is time to repot choose a wide planter, rather than a deep one. Use a planter with a drainage hole, or provide a 1-2 inch layer of gravel in the bottom of the pot to ensure adequate drainage. Use a good commercial potting mix with extra perlite, granite grit, or coarse sand added. You may also use a packaged 'cacti mix' soil.
Fertilize yearly, in the spring with half strength, bloom type fertilizer (10-40-10). (EDIT: they aren't very hungry plants. You don't need a set feeding schedule as such, you can just read the leaves to observe the colour or just top dress every couple months like Hyroot said)
Aloe Vera plants are propagated by removing the offsets which are produced around the base of mature plants, when they are a couple inches tall (or larger). They can also be grown from seed.

the more i water my aloe the more it grows.

My cuttings are showing roots over here in 8 days with root riots and Aloe only

SpliffAndMyLady said:

My cuttings are showing roots over here in 8 days with root riots and Aloe only

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I've rooted plants with nothing but water and rockwool before... so not to say that aloe or clonex doesn't help but let's not get too sold on something before we have some solid facts. Maybe if someone is feeling experimental + has the room and a good plant to take cuttings from then a test can be done where a batch uses aloe and a batch uses water and compare the strike rate & rooting time. The more in each batch the better. Not that they need comparing to each other but one might also wish to add a clonex batch to compare.

Having said that- I actually rooted a tip cutting from a young bonsai 'Ginseng Ficus' using aloe and cheap, largely inorganic and unfertilized potting mix. I have no idea if they strike easy or not but I was pruning off a longer branch by pinching it with my finger nail and figured it was worth trying to root. I smothered it in aloe straight out of the leaf and then buried the leaf skin and gel in with it. Anyway it did strike- but I have no idea how likely that was to happen if i just nipped it off and bunged it in soil without any rooting aid

Hey guys,

Just wanted to post some photos of my clones to show that I'm not just blowing smoke when I say that only aloe works. I've used Rootech and Clonex and have never had roots that looked this white and healthy, even the clones are just as green as the day I cut them. All I did was take a single aloe leaf and squirted all of the juice out until I had the recommended 2oz that I saw somewhere on this sight. When you have 2oz of aloe juice/jelly then dilute it with 1 gallon of water, I like to add Neem Oil as well but that's just me. It's seriously all you need though, some clones (my Blue Dream and Trainwreck) root in 6-7 days flat. I have always had trouble successfully cloning the tops to plants, not with this method though. Out of curiousity I yanked one of the roots and they were strong as hell, the pressure I thought would yank a root out wasn't even enough to do that!



I've never had results that look this good with the rooting gels, I'm going to go out and get more Aloe plants asap!