Learning to Prune Aloe Correctly and Enjoy a Healthy Plant

I have two types of aloe: an ancient, grandmother's pot, in which the agave languishes for a hundred years. His hand does not rise to throw it away, you have to shape it from time to time for a more decent look.

The second is soapy. Thick leaves, like aloe vera, only speckled. The outlet is much smaller, the window sill is not a garden bed after all.

There are two problems with pruning. Firstly, I have to cut the leaves from time to time for all sorts of homemade lotions and masks, I have soapy aloe with juicy leaves just for them.

I use the centenary for all sorts of tinctures. Just when I form a bush, a lot of green mass remains.

How to prune aloe leaves

Leaves are cut in two cases:

1. For the purpose of hygiene, all dried leaves damaged by pests or sunburn are removed. Such leaves only take away the juices from the plant.

2. Harvesting for personal use - in this case, the most juicy and mature leaves are cut off from the bottom of the stem.

Leaves, especially healthy ones, are fragile and crack easily. Cut them off correctly with the sharp tip of a knife from the inside as close to the stem as possible.

At the junction, the leaf wraps the stem with the base, it is thinner, so the cut does not ooze. Slices do not need to be processed.

How and why to prune the stems

Aloe is not a cactus, it grows quickly. In many varieties, the lower part of the stem is elongated, remains bald. Weight collects at the top of the shoots and often overturns the pot.

Therefore, at the desired level, I simply cut off the top of the head with a sharp clerical knife, sprinkle it with a crushed tablet of activated carbon and let it lie for several days until the cut dries. Then I root this cutting in another pot, immediately in the soil for cacti.

If the trunk of the aloe is healthy, if necessary, you can propagate the plant: it gives root shoots, and sometimes lateral shoots. However, in a pot with an overgrown specimen, they are usually full of overgrown.

Important points when pruning:

● tools must be sharp. The trunk of the aloe can become slightly woody, sometimes a pruner is required;

● cut leaves are stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks, and their useful qualities are becoming higher: from stress, the plant begins to produce additional active substances;

● if the aloe has pleased with flowering, the wilted inflorescence should be cut off quickly. A dying flower pulls nutrients for the ripening of seeds, the bush itself takes on a stunted appearance;

● side shoots can be cut without removing the plant from the pot. It is enough to dive into the ground with the tip of a knife and cut off the connecting underground stalk.

The baby can be pulled out, it will easily grow additional roots if it is planned for planting;

Important: if the specimen is transplanted as a whole, you need to cut out all damaged roots and cut off a third of the healthy ones. In fresh soil, the aloe will grow a new strong root system.