A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Aloe help needed

Hello Everyone, I'm not much of a plant person so I'm hoping someone here can help me.

Last summer my daughter wanted this small, 6 inch aloe plant. So I bought it for her. We now have this 2 foot plant living on my front porch. It has been replanted 2 times to larger pots and is due this weekend for another replanting.

My questions come from the fact that it seems to have had BABIES!!! TWINS!!! There are two little aloe plants growing out from under the larger plant. They are each about 2 inches long, with 3 or 4 leaves. What do I do with these two small plants??? Should I leave them where they are? Should I move them to their own pots? Are they attached to, or growing seperately from, the "mother" plant?

Thank you for any help or advice you can give me.

Bings

Aloes sometimes form offsets, or the "babies". You can transplant those shoots into new pots now, or wait until they grow one more inch or so. Soon you'll have more aloes!

aloe plants are shallow rooted plants so you are actaully looking for a shallow pot that is wide.And yes they do off set babies and can pot babies up when re pot mama aloe.I grow mine in ground and in fall I pot up into pot for a few months till spring once temps stay above 50.Great plants to have.I do fertilize mine.It never does as well in pot as in ground.when have in ground my leaves are stright up and in pot are more relaxed

Thank you both for the information. I'm going to get a new pot for the "mother" plant today. I have some small pots already for the "babies". Are the "babies" attached to the larger plant? Will they break away easily??

Living in the mountains of West Virginia we get some pretty cold winters so the aloe plant is outside during summer and inside during winter. But it may be moving inside soon because I may have a neighbor who likes aloe... Came home friday night and there was a leaf cut off. This is the fourth time this has happened this summer. I'm really amazed that someone would actually go onto another person's porch and cut a leaf off of a plant, not just once, but 4 times. I ignored it the first few times. It was outside leaves cut off close to the base. This time it was a leaf closer to the center and cut off half way down. I figure they took about a foot of leaf. If someone asked me for a leaf I would gladly cut one off.

Thank you again,
Bings :-)

Good day to you all. I hope ypu do not mind me chipping in. It was nice to read your mail. I would be very annoyed if somebody cut off leaves of my aloes. as you said, at least they can ask. the gel of the aloe is very good(and tasteless) with a silky texture for the skin or in yogurt to drink, but the green part contains elements that will irritate the bowels and is very bitter to boot. the green is used as laxative but not recommended even for that.