Read how to grow Aloe at home and which varieties are the most unpretentious for these purposes. How to water and propagate this plant. Aloe Vera, like its indoor counterparts, is an excellent cosmetic and therapeutic agent. In order for Aloe to develop well, it needs a soil of a certain composition, the correct irrigation and growth regime.
Secrets of Aloe Vera Growing
Aloe Vera plantation in the photo Recently, you can often hear that cosmetic, skin care, hair care products contain Aloe Vera juice. This concerns one of the Aloe species called Vera Barbadensis Miller. It is quite difficult to grow this subspecies on your windowsill in a city apartment, but you can put it in a pot of earth and take care of its closest relative Aloe variegated or Aloe tree.
Read how to use Aloe in medicine, cosmetology and cooking
As for Aloe Vera, the ideal condition for its growth is more than 800 meters above sea level. This plant is able to survive in heat and cold, it thrives equally well in volcanic ash and clay soil.
Where Aloe Vera is professionally grown, experts periodically analyze soil and water. Pesticides, artificial fertilizers in the cultivation of this crop are completely excluded.
To plant a plantation, seedlings are taken from the mother bush. About 15 thousand plants are planted per hectare. When the plants reach the desired size, the leaves are carefully and manually harvested from them. At this time, the leaves should be at least half a meter in length and 12 × 14 cm in width. 6 leaves are taken from each plant, and this procedure is carried out three times a year.
Aloe Vera is native to Africa, but currently this useful plant is cultivated in many other hot countries, here is a video of how it is grown en masse:
Aloe varieties, description
If you want the closest relative of Aloe Vera to grow on your window, which also has general strengthening and healing properties, but is more unpretentious, plant Variegated Aloe or Aloe tree. These species are perfectly adapted for indoor conditions. Before talking about the tricks of growing these varieties of Aloe, you can list some that are found in the nature of indoor floriculture.
There are more than five hundred species in total. Here are just a few of them, this is Aloe:
- tree-like;
- folded;
- spinous;
- dichotomous;
- Elena;
- Suzanne;
- variegated or brindle;
- Faith;
- sokotinskoe.
Aloe folded
is a shrub or tree 3–5 meters high, its stems are bifurcated. The leaves are arranged in a fan - in 2 rows. Each row contains 10 to 16 dull green leaves, which are about 30 cm long. This type of Aloe blooms beautifully and is used for decorative purposes.
Aloe folded also belongs to succulent plants. This species is a popular houseplant. Interestingly, the diameter of the rosettes sometimes reaches 60 cm. You can turn a plot in the country into an exotic corner in the summer if you plant this subspecies or Aloe Vera. But for the winter, the plant will need to be dug up, planted in a large container with earth and kept in the light at room temperature.
Aloe dichotomous in another way is called a quiver tree
This evergreen plant can grow up to nine meters in height. It hardly resembles the familiar Aloe, although it belongs to this family.
Here Aloe Helena (lat. Aloe helenae) is very similar to its indoor counterpart, which is often grown in a city apartment. In nature, this plant is found in Madagascar, in the province of Tuliara. But this species belongs to endangered ones, since there are few such plants left, and they do not reproduce.
Scientists are trying to preserve not only Helena's Aloe, but also Suzanne's aloe, since this species is also threatened with extinction. But experts managed to collect seeds from a wild plant and grow 6 copies in nurseries in Madagascar, which are carefully looked after by botanists.
Aloe spinous
belongs to the Ksantorreev family, it is used for medical purposes. The plant consists of large rosettes that can reach 80 cm in diameter. The leaves of this species are narrow, long, curved upward. Blue-green leaves are covered with light spots and stripes on both sides. Aloe Vera is also called real Aloe. This succulent herb belongs to the Asphodelic subfamily, the Xaentorrei family. Due to its chemical composition, Aloe Vera juice is widely used in cosmetology and medicine. Analyzing the composition of Aloe Vera juice, botanists came to the conclusion? that it looks like the juice of the aloe tree. Therefore, if you did not manage to get Aloe Vera, plant its analogue at home - Aloe tree-like, and you will be able to prepare medical and cosmetic gels, ointments on your own.
Growing aloe at home
In the photo, Aloe tree-like (agave) A distinctive feature of this plant is its unpretentiousness. Even if you forget to water it, it can grow in dry soil for quite some time. At this time, the plant will feed on moisture from its own leaves. But in order to grow a beautiful healthy plant, care is necessary.
First of all, you need to properly prepare the soil
You can buy ready-made for succulents and cacti. If you do it yourself, do not add peat, as the root system of the plant treats it negatively.
If you prepare the soil yourself, then add coarse sand, humus, leafy earth to 2 parts of the sod land. Add some charcoal, it has disinfecting qualities. A little bit of broken, crushed brick will help loosen the soil.
In winter, water the Aloe plant infrequently; in summer, do not overdo it with watering either, but do them a little more often than in winter. In summer, the plant needs to get enough light, so place it on a windowsill that is well heated by the sun.
Do not forget to periodically feed Aloe with a special fertilizer for cacti and succulents. This is done from spring to late autumn - once a month. Repot the young plant annually, gradually providing it with more and more nutritional area. An old plant, which is five years old, is transplanted into a new pot of nutrient mixture every three years.
Reproduction of aloe
Most often, aloe is propagated by stem or cuttings, but it can also be grown from seeds. To do this, they are planted in sterile soil, consisting of equal parts of sand and turf. This is usually done at the end of February - in March, since during autumn or winter planting, the plants do not have enough light. You can pre-place a bowl of planted seeds for 3–4 weeks in the refrigerator for stratification.
When the seedlings grow a little, they are seated in separate containers, the diameter of which is 5 cm.
If you want to propagate aloe by cuttings, you must cut them off with a sharp knife. This is done only in spring or summer. The cut sites should dry well before planting, so the cuttings are kept in the air for a week and only then are planted in a loose, slightly damp substrate. It is not necessary to put cuttings in the water beforehand, since then they can rot. For the same reason, they are not covered with bags, plastic bottles, jars after planting in pots.
Aloe watering tricks: care
As mentioned above, Aloe does not require frequent watering. The water should be warm + 25? 35 ° C. When watering, it is necessary to moisten the top and bottom layers of the earth. In the lower one are the main roots of the plant, so watering through the pallet is necessary. This method is good because the top layer of the soil is not washed away and the roots are fed.
But when planting Aloe, a drainage layer is poured into the bottom of the pot, so the water may not reach the surface of the earth. Based on this, it is necessary to water not only through the pallet, but also from above using a watering can. This must be done carefully so as not to erode the soil layer and not overmoisten the place near the stem, since then the root collar can rot.
Aloe juice has unique properties. It not only heals wounds, is taken as a constituent of a cough medicine and in other cases, the juice helps the plants themselves. A few drops of it are added to the water in which the seeds are soaked before planting. If you water indoor plants with such a remedy, they come to life, become lush and grow better and faster.
Video about the correct planting and transplanting of Aloe tree-like:
