How to Multiply
Aloe Vera

How to multiply aloe vera plants - even if you have only one aloe vera plant to start with. In time you will have many aloe vera offsets, or babies, as I call them. These just spring up in the same pot as your original plant. That is the time to spend an hour or two moving them into new individual pots. The more room you give them the larger your plants will grow.

I'm afraid I forgot to take photos of the very full and crowded little pots that I transplanted one Saturday, but perhaps you can use your imagination as you see those little pots in the photos below, and you see how they multiplied into many larger pots from the originating ones. (For more thoughts on how to multiply aloe vera see the page on propagation).

I was off to a good start when I remembered that I had promised to take photos this time.

mixing up my potting soil with garden dirt, peat moss and straw

Almost any good sized container will do; I'm using my grandma's old enamel dough-mixing bowl here to prepare my potting soil. I had put in a few spades full of garden dirt, and a couple more of peat moss, and as I happened to have a straw bale on hand, I grabbed a handful of that to mix in too, just to make the pot's soil lighter. It tends to get compacted otherwise.

a couple of little aloe vera plants to be planted

Here's a couple of the aloe vera plants already pulled up and ready to pot. I just have to scoop my potting soil into a pail or larger container. Notice that the root has some hair-like rootlets on it. That will help ensure the plant is off to a good start.

Notice that little pot in the bottom right? Together with two others the same size, on the oval tray on the right, they were the three pots from which I've pulled all the plants I'm going to transplant today to show how to multiply aloe vera.

tossing in the dirt from one of the pots where the aloe vera froze in
winter

More mixing and stiring of my potting mix.

Here I'm tossing in a clump of hard dirt from a pot where the aloe vera froze in the winter. It has to be broken and crumbled up.


remembering to mix in some straw


I'm remembering to mix in a handful of straw to make the soil less compact over time. (Aloe vera plants don't mind being in dry, compacted soil as they will draw moisture out of the air when needed, but I think they thrive better if the soil has some room to breath).


making a hole in a pot of fresh soil mix.

Okay, I've scooped this 8-litre ice cream pail full of my soil mix, and now, after watering the soil, I use my little spade to wedge a hole big enough to plant the root of one of the aloe vera plants.


placing the aloe vera plant in the new soil

Placing the aloe vera plant into the hole, and then I always pat the soil in tight and close around the bottom of the plant. It does not like to have the leaves rest on the damp soil, so if I can get it to stand up by tamping the soil around the root, I try to do that.


planting a weaker plant in the same pot.

I'm not sure this weaker plant looks good enough to get a pot of its own, so I plant it on the side in this pot. If it takes root and perks up, I can always pull it up and move it to a bigger pot by itself.


There! Two aloe vera in a new large pot with plenty of room
to grow large

There! These two aloe vera plants are in a new pot with plenty of room to grow large.

I've lined up today's results from my how to multiply aloe vera session. Besides the larger 8-litre pail with the two plants, there are these five pots up on the shelves in my front porch. You also see the three empty pots from which these all came.





Today's results for how to multiply aloe vera

But you think that's all? Nope... I'll show you more about how to multiply aloe vera plants.

It was already a full Saturday of work around the house, so I left these plants in these two pots to transplant another time when I have time to mess with the dirt.

"Yes-but--" you may be asking, "how do you get the plants to multiply - have more babies?"

the aloe vera left to plant my next session

Oh, to have more babies? Easy. When you put them in a larger pot, they have room to grow and (this is my own theory), when they get dried out and neglected, they begin to shoot up these offsets, or babies all around them in the pot. I imagine them crying out, "Oh-no, we're dying! We've got to leave some decendants behind!"

By spring, or next fall I expect to have enough babies to do this all over again. Only, I haven't got room in my house for more pots!

I've done some test mailing of small aloe vera plants to friends, to see how well that worked out. My experiment was rather disappointing. I did it in January and April, and most of the plants froze in transit.

As you can see how to multiply aloe vera plants is not hard. Marketing them efficiently when I'm already super busy is my problem.

If you know how to multiply aloe vera - go for it; there are people looking for them. So be sure to spread the word.

On the other hand, if you really can't see yourself doing all this to multiply aloe vera plants, I have good news for you too. We can get the benefits of aloe vera without having to do the plant work! I've found a company that grows aloe vera on huge ranches, and has fine facilities for harvesting them and putting them into some amazing aloe vera products. Where you can't multiply aloe vera you can buy Aloe Vera Products from about 120 countries!

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