Who can give me advice about caring for aloe plants? I hear they can be tricky.
My parents got me one, and it will be handy in case I set myself on fire in the glass studio. At first I was going to name it Ali, since it’s an aloe plant, but then I decided that was dumb and cheesy. It did, however, remind me of my friend, Ali, from the summer, so I thought of naming it Crutchfield. That, however, sounded a bit too serious, so I’ve settled on Crutchy.
While we’re on plants, anyone have advice for jade plants? I acquired one of those as well, and heard that can also be tricky. I keep fearing that one day I’ll go to water it and it will explode. (its name is Jade, only because I got it by accident. My philodendron, which has been running strong for many years, is named Sydney).
I don’t know about aloe specifically, but other succulent plants need just a bit of water once a week. You could probably find more advice on a website about plants though.
Aloe’s actually a good plant to just forget about. You really probably don’t need to water it more than a cup or two twice a month (any more would probably kill it). Other than that, make sure it gets lots of sun, and don’t mess with it until it seems to have a problem.
For jade, check the plant about once a week and see if the lower leaves look at all wilty (soft, etc). Water if so. This plant sucks up moisture from the air a lot, so it probably won’t require much watering. Just don’t stress out. It’s a good plant as long as you don’t fret about watering it until it *looks* like it needs it.
Personally, I’ve always felt the worst ones are the plants that require daily watering. I stress out over weekends because of my salvia babies, afraid they’ll dry up without me there to mist them.
Ahm. Plants.
My grandpa’s a plant wizard. He was giving my great-gramma some advice just the other weekend.
He says not to water it until the dirt is dry. And I mean dry. This should be roughly over a week, I believe. Depends on where you live. And he suggests fertlilizing it with a bit of miracle grow every couple months.
As for the aloe plant.. yeah. It’s really just a “set it, and forget it!” plant. Like bella said, sun is a necessary.
When using it for burns – Don’t just slit it open and rub the goo on the burn. Scrape the gel out. You get more. It works wonders, too.
Good luck with your plants!
Thanks for the tips everyone!