How often should thesze plants be watered and what are the light requirements? I have mine in a west window. I heard that they can be brought outside in the summer but the west side of my apt. gets very hot in the afternoon.
Greg

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In the midst of the storm..I find the greatest Peace. I don't know what tomorrow holds..but i know Who holds tomorrow.

When my mother puts out her aloe plant, she leaves it in the shade on the pourch. But the pourch gets sun shining on it all the time. I'm thinking that they like ambient light more than anything. Indirect sunlight is good too.

I water it when *thinks* I water it when i think it needs to be watered lol. I probably do it once i see the soil is starting to dry a lil teeny tiny bit.

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Nako's Webshots!

I have about 6 aloes in my yard. They are all in direct sun(it gets really hot here too!) I just make sure they get plenty of water. They did go through a short period of shock,but have recovered quite well.
I also have them in the house,in a bright room. The ones outside grow faster and put off more babies than the ones inside.

Hope this helps!

Karen

I have that problem with a lot of plants. The front of my house gets full sun all day long. I buy plants that say plant in full sun but a lot of them dry up and die even though I keep them watered. I don't think there are a bunch of plants that thrive in boiling heat all day. I've decided when a tag says "plant in full sun", it means only if the temp is below 85.

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http://www.picturetrail.com/bestofour

I ended up putting mine outside on my garden cart next to my 2 spider plants. The spider plants love it there...i hope the aloe does too. Its on the west side of the apt.
Is it normal for the older bottom stalks to shrivel up and its getting brown tips also?
Greg

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In the midst of the storm..I find the greatest Peace. I don't know what tomorrow holds..but i know Who holds tomorrow.

Hi,
I have mine on a windowsill with a few hours of full sun. Give them aloe veras a bright location--they love light.

Water when dry, but no waterlogging. You don't want any rot.

For the answers to the 2 questions:

*Older leaves can dry/fall off or get brown tips. It's part of the growing cycle. Be cautious when a number of leaves fall off like it, it can signal a problem.

*Aloes can grow from seed or division of offsets. I'm not sure about leaf cuttings. Has anyone tried that yet? Success or failure?

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~Lily

My experience with aloe plants is similar but slightly different than what I have seen in this thread so i thought it might be worth posting.

I bought a small (2-3 inch high) aloe plant at a nursery earlier this year, I kept it inside until the weather had improved enough to where I could place it outside. I repotted it into a bigger pot and put it outside and forgot about it. This was around Memorial Day. Since then it has grown from a scrawny short plant with three shoots (?) into a healthy 12-14 inch plant with around 8-9 shoots. It gets the full sun that being on the SW side of the house provides and I rarely water it, it has been a very wet year in my part of the country so I did not really have to do much in watering.

At one point I lightly tied it so the leaves/shoots (sorry i am unfamiliar with the correct terminology) would grow straight up instead of out sideways. As a result the base of the plant is now very strong, before I did this the bottom shoots would weaken and fall from the plant if a strong wind hit them.

I now have a beautiful, useful and rewarding plant that is my personal project for the winter. My g/f when I first got the plant thought it was ugly and a waste of a pot and soil. Her first sunburn this year and the subsequent healing effects of the plant changed her mind pretty fast.