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Know Your Aloe Vera Plant's Soil Preference
There are number of reasons why you would want to grow your own aloe vera plant. If you decide to grow your own aloe vera plant, the soil preference of the plant is something you will need to know.
About The Aloe Vera Plant
Aloe vera plants have outstanding medicinal value. The sap of the aloe vera leaf is packed with special chemicals and nutrients that are outstanding for treating skin irritations and skin conditions like minor burns, minor cuts, rashes, eczema, poison oak, poison ivy, or other skin conditions. The juice of the aloe vera plant has been credited with curbing a ravenous appetite and promoting weight loss, aiding with smoking reduction and cessation, and promoting healthy digestion by virtue of its laxative effect.
Soil Preferences Of The Aloe Vera Plant
Aloe vera plants are succulents, made up 95% of water. Because of their high water content, aloe vera plants are extremely susceptible to frosts and freezes. Aloe vera plants prefer soil and climate that is comparable to the climate and soil in which cacti and other succulents are grown: warm weather, bright sunshine, and well drained, gravelly soil.
With the right soil preference, aloe vera plants can be grown indoors. They do require strong, bright light, so place them on a sunny window sill or use an artificial grow light to promote growth of your aloe vera plant.
It may seem like a lot of trouble and inconvenience to grow aloe vera plants and to become familiar with the nutrition, water and soil preference of the aloe vera plant. However, once your plants are established, you will appreciate being able to harvest your own aloe vera leaves any time you need to treat a burn in the kitchen or make up a glass of aloe vera juice to cure your constipation.
Recipe For The Soil The Aloe Vera Plant Prefers
If you decide to grow an aloe vera plant in a pot indoors, start with an unglazed terra cotta, or clay, pot. Aloe vera plants have a soil preference for dry, loose, well-drained soil, and using a terra cotta pot that has not been glazed will encourage the soil to stay dry because moisture will wick from the inside of the pot to the outside. Moisture will not linger in the pot.
Once you have selected a pot, fill it with a soil mix made up one of several ways. First of all, you can buy a commercial soil potting mix and add additional perlite, crushed granite, crushed rock, or coarse sand to improve the drainage quality of the commercial potting soil.
Another alternative to making your own potting soil from a commercial soil mix is to buy a packaged mix that is specially formulated for cactus. A cacti mix soil will cover the aloe vera plant soil preference factor, because all cacti mix soils are well drained, with plenty of rocky material that aloe vera plants love.
Fertilizing Your Aloe Vera Plant
Once your aloe vera plant is settled into its pot, you need to water and fertilize it. During the winter, aloe vera plants, like other succulents, need very little water - almost no water at all. Once a year, in the spring, select a fertilizer specially formulated to create blooms on plants. Look at numbers on the package; they should read 10-40-10 or 5-20-5. The number in the middle should be the highest.
When you have your fertilizer, dilute it to half strength before you fertilize your aloe vera plant. Mix it with water, and water your aloe vera plant and your other succulents with this fertilizer mix.
Nothing on this site should be acted upon without professional advice. Articles are not professional advice and should not be treated as such.