Gardening Tips - Grow Aloe Vera

Aloe Vera is a variety of succulent plant which grows in dry climates such as Africa and India

. It is primarily recognized as a medicinal plant and is used to treat burns, soothe sunburns and is in some cases rubbed on the face for cleaner skin. Aloe Vera on its own is an attractive plant to have around your house but the added medicinal uses make it an even more useful plant to have around. As such here are a few guidelines to help you grow and maintain a healthy Aloe Vera plant of your own.

Required Tools

Sunny window

Required Materials

Aloe Vera plant

Potting mix

Pot with drainage hole

Pebbles

Fertilizer

Instructions

First choose a spot for your aloe plant that has rich soil, good drainage and full sunlight coverage. If you are planting your aloe in a pot, mix the potting mix, pebbles, and fertilizer to create rich soil for the plant. Cover the floor of the pot with pebbles or gravel to provide drainage for the plant. Place the potting mix into a pot about 18 inches in diameter so that the aloe can grow to its maximum size and place the aloe plant into it.

Your aloe plant ought to be watered at least one time per week with one or two cups of water. In hot months though, you can soak the aloe completely as long as it has good drainage to keep the roots from rotting.

Other than water and sunlight aloe plants are pretty easy to care for. It is recommended that you remove all weeds from around the plant because weeds can throw off the pH balance of the soil and affect the aloe plant. Adding ammonium nitrate to the soil yearly will be of great benefit to the aloe plant.

To use the medicinal properties of Aloe Vera, cut a leaf near the base of the plant and remove the outer layer of the leaf to get to the gel inside. While persons believe that the complete aloe leaf is medicinal, the outer layer has just about no nutrients and it is the gel inside that is essential. So in the case of burns or insect stings, rub the gel onto the area to relieve the pain or stinging.

Tips and Warnings

Aloe Vera is very frost tender as it is 95% water, so in cold climates aloe should be planted in a greenhouse and placed under a glass to protect it from the cold. If possible keep the aloe plant indoors during cold weather.

Aloe Vera is one of those plants which benefits from foliage feeding and not just root feeding, so when watering or fertilizing the plant, wet the leaves as well as the roots.

If you want offspring from your aloe plant, aloe plants can be grown from seeds but are more commonly grown by planting the offspring that are produced around the base of the plant.

If your aloe plant starts to wilt, or brown at the tips, increase watering frequency to 2-3 times per day until the plant is restored.

by: Barbara

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