Please help. I think my new aloe suffered from rot.

[emilleejoyce]

Okay. So I posted this in the succulent growing help section yesterday but I'm getting impatient waiting for some help and hopefully I get more help in this section. I'm only impatient because I'm really worried about my aloe and would like some advice before I try to take care of it on my own.

So basically, the aloe I bought online came in the mail yesterday and I was greatly alarmed by how few roots it's had. My question is: is this normal for an aloe aristata or is this a sign of damage?

I have been treating my aloe as if it is suffering for root rot. It is unpotted right now. I removed any dead or mushy roots and washed off as much dirt as possible. Today I plan to remove the outer leaves of the plant which are pink and kind of mushy at the base. I'd like to know if this is a good plan of action and if my aloe will be all right in the end.

It also appears to be severely dehydrated, and I would like to water it but if it is suffering from rot, I need to know so I don't further damage it. Also, when can I expect new roots to grow? My personal opinion is that my aloe will be fine if I remove the outer leaves and continue treating it as I have, but I am extremely worried and would like some second opinions. I've wanted an aloe aristata for a while now and I don't want to lose this one.

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I hope it's not in bad form to have reposted this in another forum after only one day. I was hoping moving this to the sick plants section would better convey my urgency and worry.

[Melt In The Sun]

It looks healthy to me...it doesn't have much in the way of roots because it was an offset from a larger plant (the thick part in the middle of the roots is what's left of the rhizome). I wouldn't bother removing any leaves; they're just a little soft from being dehydrated. I'd pot it up and wait til it roots, and I expect it'll be just fine!

[emilleejoyce]

Should I wait to water it until spring? Or can I water it once the roots heal from my "doctoring"? Will roots grow immediately or only after the weather warms up? Thank you for your help!

[Tiggy]

I've had one of these for a few years now and I don't think that you have anything to worry about. Last year I re-potted my large one and I also became worried as when I touched it, it didn't seem to have any anchorage with it's roots and I was afraid that they had rotted. I just left it to see what would happen and sure enough as the season progressed it became firmly attached flowered, and then produced three off-sets which are now healthy little plants. I wouldn't water it for quite a while in fact you could probably wait until after the cold weather, (unless you see it absolutely screaming out)and then water sparingly If you water unnecessarily in the winter it may root rot. The outside leaves are better left until they shrivel and detach at a touch. My plant was left out even through the winter at the beginning and survived, but I now put her in the gh and just leave her there on the floor until the temps. pick up. I missed one offset and it has now developed on the mother plant beautifully and is much larger than the ones that I removed and re-planted. If in doubt DON'T water. Leave it. There's not too much info. on this plant on the internet, but this page might be of interest for you : http://www.worldofsucculents.com/how-to ... -aristata/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Hope that helps.

Susi

[GreenThumb]

You're right, Susi. There's hardly any information at all on those plants.
Thanks for your advice!

[greenknight]

I wouldn't remove the outer leaves until they dry up. The plant will pull moisture from them to grow new roots.

[Tiggy]

Here's mine as of yesterday:

This is the mother plant, it's in a 20cm. pot, I think it is a bit deep but can't find one shallower. (Maybe I could cut one down???)

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Here's the one that I missed.

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Here you can see the dried up parts, they will stay there until they are ready to drop off.

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And here the pups that I took off this year. As you can see the one that I missed on the mother plant has developed much better.

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Susi

[emilleejoyce]

Thanks for all the replies! I haven't been on here lately to see them. Just recently when I was watering my other house plants, I decided to look at my aloe and I think y'all are right. When I first planted it, it was very wobbly in its soil, but now it feels a little more firmly anchored. I think it is slowly developing roots. I have "watered" it twice so far with an eye dropper. Just a little moisture which won't pose any danger of rot but which, I hope, will help stimulate the aloe to grow roots. (I have no idea if that's how it works). I'm glad to know my little aloe won't die because I was horribly worried when it first arrived in the mail!

[Tiggy]

Just make sure that you don't water it too much. Last year mine stayed in the greenhouse all winter and didn't get hardly any water at all. When they are resting in the winter they don't need it.

Susi

[emilleejoyce]

I gave it it's first heavy watering a few days ago, though it wasn't enough water for it to leak out of the drainage holes. I don't plan to water it again for a while. It's in a small pot right now so it seems to have dried out quickly. Some of the leaves have these white almost translucent spots on them. I don't know if I should be worried or if this could be a sign of some problem? And some of the outer leaves I suspected would die have started to shrivel. I'm hoping to repot it into a larger pot when it warms up.

[Tiggy]

I would just leave it now until spring arrives, it's quite normal for the outside leaves to shrivel, it will grow once the weather warms up. I'm not sure what you mean by those "white translucent spots", can you post a close-up photo for us to see.

Susi

[emilleejoyce]

So hopefully you can see what I mean on this picture. It was hard to get my camera to take a really close up picture. Basically there are these white spots developing on the outer leaves towards the tips of the leaf. They look almost as if the leaf in that spot has been bleached and some of them are big enough that you can see light through them. I don't know what this is or what causes it and I don't know if I should be worried.