sickly aloe plant.....help!

[kellid]

i was given peices of a healthy aloe plant to plant. now they are droopy and not bright green anymore, more like pale green turning yellow. here's what i did. i realize there are mistakes here, but here it is so i can make them healthy. i potted them in regular potting soil in plastic (faux terricotta) pots with drainage holes. watered. they started drooping so i watered again. i can give pics if it will help. thanks for any advice

kelli

[goldfinches]

Try not watering. Sounds like it could be drowning, to me. I've done that many times before...

[kellid]

thanks!

[einalems]

subbing b/c I never have any luck with aloe plants!

[SeekingJoy]

Leave it alone. Seriously. Put it up high on a shelf or somewhere you won't be tempted to water it for at least two weeks. Aloe is a succulent and needs very little water. It likes its soil dry.

[sunnysandiegan]

Originally Posted by SeekingJoy

Leave it alone. Seriously. Put it up high on a shelf or somewhere you won't be tempted to water it for at least two weeks. Aloe is a succulent and needs very little water. It likes its soil dry.

This is such great advice!

I have two aloe plants I purchased on the exact same day and potted the exact same way (plastic pot with drainage holes sitting inside "pretty" ceramic pot with no drainage holes with a small pile of rocks underneath the plastic pot). One is in our master bedroom up on a shelf of a shelving unit near the window (West-facing). The other is in the kitchen on top of the microwave (rarely gets used; maybe twice a month) near the slider, which is also West-facing. Same soil and potting conditions, same lighting for the most part. The one in the master bedroom is FLOURISHING!!!! The one in the kitchen looks like you described yours. I am pretty sure the only difference is the watering. Everyone pours the rest of their undrunk water into the downstairs plants, especially the ones in the kitchen. The upstairs plants are neglected more often than not. Some are more suited to that treatment than others, so I am still moving them around a bit and fine-tuning.

[lmonter]

Potting soil is sterile - might not have as many nutrients as some plants need. So keep that in mind. Plus depending on where you got it, it could have Milestone in it.

I've had better luck with seedlings and my aloe (and the rosemary I was attempting to overwinter inside, *sigh*) using a homemade mixture of compost, peat moss and perlite. I just mix it up in a Home Depot bucket until I like the consistency, and there you go.

I got some sickly purple-colored aloe from a friend (she'd neglected it for quite a while), planted it in my mixture, watered once a week if that, and now I've got 8-9 little shoots/plants from the original 3 sad, purple ones. They're just on my north-facing kitchen windowsill, and I kinda space on watering it. My grandma used to keep hers on a south-facing windowsill in the garage, and her aloe plants were huge suckers that were probably 40yo by the time she died.

[kellid]

gosh. my messages aren't being diverted to my email like it used to be?...........anyway, thank you for all the responses! i have left them alone only because i didn't want to mess them up anymore, so i'm on the right track (i hope). they don't look any better, but no worse either. i will keep updating, maybe to help someone else in the future. thanks!!!

[Bensmommy]

Aloe hates "wet feet" and traditional potting soil can hold too much water. There is special soil for succulants. Also, think tropical--- they need sun! An aloe inside will be a sad aloe.