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Finding and Propagating Aloe Vera Plants for Your Home,
April 01, 2019
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Aloe Vera Tips & Solutions
monthly newsletter/ezine of
www.aloe-vera-and-handy-herbs.com
Vol. 8 #89 April 1, 2019

Contents:
Taking Care of Ourselves - Where to Find Aloe Vera Plants
Propagating Your Aloe Vera Plants
Survey Question: This Ezine Served Online?
Contact & Policies



Where to Find Aloe Vera Plants

A question I'm often asked by visitors to my website, is this: where can I buy aloe vera plants?

I sort of inherited my grandmother's aloe vera plant when she got dementia and came to live with us in my parents' home until there was an opening for her in the nursing home. Once I understood the value of it, I began to take off the offsets (babies) and plant them in pots of their own. Eventually I had the sunroom full with 97 pots and pails full of aloe vera plants!

As others become aware of the benefits of aloe vera, they would like to start with a plant or two as well, for years now it has seemed hart to find them for sale. I've told people to ask around among all their contacts. Sooner or later someone will introduce you to their Grandma or Aunt who has some plants to spare.

However, as this question came up again more recently, I 've started to search online and Whoa, there are stores that actually show aloe vera plants, or list them for sale at their locations. So I'm going to give you a new list of places to hunt for them. To avoid the extra costs of shipping that will likely be added to your costs, I suggest you go to different stores in your city or area, and see if you can pick some up for yourself.

Local Shopping for Aloe Vera Plants

I see now that home improvement department stores, which usually have a good plant department in spring and summer, are now stating openly that they have aloe vera and other succulant plants there. This is not a guarantee that they have a big selection. They may just have seeds, or baby aloe vera plants. But do ask them. The more the store personnel are asked about a product they do not have in stock, the more they feel there is some public demand for that item, and they will find ways to order some in.

Check out and ask for aloe vera plants at:
Home Depot - all locations in your city
Lowes - again, all locations in your area.
Rona - Home and Garden
Walmart - all locations.
Ikea - if you have one.

Another angle is your local Classifieds websites that cater to specific cities at no cost. Kijiji has that feature. (I have advertised mine on their site - for my city, Saskatoon). Another advantage is that the buyers come to your door, usually pay in cash, and that saves you the bother and expense of shipping.

Onlin Shopping for Aloe Vera Plants

I see that Amazon now has aloe vera plants. But you are wise to try the search term, as "aloe vera plant" and also as "aloevera plant". Those searches bring up some similar but also some different results. Again, they may be mainly small plants, as the aloe vera are often included in batches of small succulents, or cactii.

Another Place is Alliexpress.com

It's true that this company is based in China , but they are able to pick up on popular demand and produce it large quanities. So Aliexpress now sells aloe plants. However, it might be hard to get just one or two plants. The listings I saw were for batches of 200 succulents, with some aloe included in the trays of small baby cactii. You may find yourself with enough to sell to others, or else to start up a plantation or mini-greenhouse!




Propagating Your Aloe Vera Plants

Let's talk Propagation, or how to multiply your aloe vera plants. Here is my own simple propagation method for starting new aloe vera plants fully described, including soil preparation, whether to fertilize, and how to prop up a leaning plant.

Aloe vera plants are not hard to grow. Many have them as house plants, or if they live in a warm climate they may even grow them outside in their flowerbeds. In Texas and Puerto Rico, for example, they are grown in fields, with the leaves growing about 3 to 4 feet long! These are harvested to make into commercial products for juices and creams.

Can't get yours to grow? Or can't propagate and grow enough for your health needs?

If you give up you can always start buying the products. (I'll be happy to tell you which ones I like best).

An aloe vera plant will sprout little baby plants from it's roots. At least, I've called them babies. I believe the proper name is offsets. Later I discovered that many others refer to these little plants as pups. In any case, propagation from your first plant is quite easy.

When the babies or offsets are about 3 to 4 inches long, just gently pull away these new little plants, trying to keep as much of the white rootlet with it as possible, including any little hair roots, and place it in a depression in another pot of soil. Press the soil close around the root and your baby aloe vera is ready to grow on it's own.

That sounds almost too easy? Then lets discuss propagation in more detail.

Read the rest of the article on this page: Propagation.




Survey Question: This Ezine Served Online?

I read last week about someone who prepares her ezine as a private webpage on her website. Her ezine email is mailed out to her subscriber list to notify them of the private link to that page. This way they get to see more photos and illustrations with the articles. The online edition also has more links to other resources for more information. Would you like me to switch to that format?

There are definitely times I feel restricted with the plain text format. Even the HTML format only allows me to use different sizes and colours of fonts. Images just don't show up properly.

This switch would mean a little more work for me, but in the long run it is not much different than doing up a webpage, and I have plenty of experience with that. The idea is beginning to pull on me. So if you give me favourable feedback on this question, I am willing to make the effort. Please do let me know. The online edition would remain private - just the subscribers would get access to it for a period of time.

As usual, you just need to hit the Reply button. Since I am already quite familiar with the body of this email, you are welcome to delete it so that only your response shows in a short email.

I thank you heartily, if you are willing to help me decide on this!




Contact & Policies - Constant
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CONTACT INFO: Ruth Marlene Friesen (306)856-7785
903 23rd Street West, Saskatoon, SK. S7L 0A5 Canada.
www.aloe-vera-and-handy-herbs.com/reachMe.html

Ruth@aloe-vera-and-handy-herbs.com
(If it is your first contact with me, you will to be asked to confirm
by clicking a link in an email before you can get through.
That is just the kind of security we enjoy at SBI)

POLICIES: I am definitely against S/p/a/m! I Will NOT share your
information with anyone. Integrity as a Christian, and as a
business woman is my personal standard.
Your email address WILL NOT be shared with anyone!

COPYRIGHT (c)2019 Ruth Marlene Friesen

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