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Repotting Aloe Vera

ByNell Foster Published on

I had an Aloe Vera plant that was not looking good. See how I made it a whole lot happier by repotting it and moving it out of the sun.

I love my Aloe vera and use it almost every day. It’s truly a plant with a purpose! It was in a warm, sunny spot my front garden and both the plant and pot were looking a wee bit sad. It was time to take action and make my beloved plant a whole lot happier. By the way, the pot will get a facelift one of these days.

Here’s the Aloe vera & the pot before the re-do. You can see all the dried & discolored leaves as well as the roots growing out of the bottom. The painted had almost completely peeled off the pot. Not a pretty sight.

A couple of Winters ago we had a 4 day cold (around 35 degrees…brrrrr) and rainy spell, not too common for us here in Santa Barbara. The succulents were saying: “what’s up with this?”

That in addition to the fact that my poor Aloe was getting too much direct sun and needed repotting had caused the leaves to turn pale and orangish. Here’s something you need to know: the leaves of the Aloe Vera will turn orange if they get sunburned.

I’m sure the environmental stress of that cold rain didn’t help either.

Here’s the baby, or Aloe pup, which I removed off the mother plant.
The baby in it’s new pot. It lives under a Coprosma & next to a bromeliad so it’s mostly shaded. It’s starting to green up a bit too.

If you want to watch me repotting this Aloe, see what potting mix I used and learn how to remove the baby, then be sure to watch the VIDEO below. Lucy had to help me pull it out of the pot and quite a few of the roots were lost but no worries, this is a tough plant. Almost 3 months later, it’s firmly rooted in and greening back up like crazy.

Related: Answering Your Questions About Aloe Vera

Here are their fat, fibrous roots. They store a lot of water in those roots & leaves so don’t overwater them.

Repotting Aloe Vera

They’re succulents so use a fast-draining mix. Again, refer to the video to see the recipe I used.

They root deep so don’t use a shallow pot, they need room for their roots to grow down. Wait until the babies are a good size to remove them.

Don’t place in hot sun after repotting. Sun is fine as long as it’s not hot & there’s not too much of it.

Don’t water frequently. I water the baby every 3 weeks because it’s in a small pot. The mother gets watered thoroughly about every 2 months.

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Here’s the new digs for my Aloe vera. It’s a tricked out, painted plain terra cotta pot. I love to use glass chips as adornments. My plants so deserve an artistic home!
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This pic was taken 3 months after the making of the video & the plant now lives at the base of the stairs leading up to my front porch. It gets nice bright light with a bit of filtered sun & has greened up already. I can easily snip a leaf when I need it.

Thanks for reading,

Signed by Nell Foster

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32 Comments

  1. I have a lot of aloe vera in 1 large pot. My roommate has one huge aloe in a small pot. How do you grow one single aloe in 1 pot. Is it because hers is a different variety? The ones in my large pot are making babies all the time. In fact, I believe one of my babies is now in her pot. She had this plant for 2 or so years before I moved in, and she never had a baby in her pot before. I learned about the partial sunlight thing from my mom who had a beautiful deep green aloe that was outside on the patio where the back of the house and the attached outside utility room met (L-shape) where the direct sunlight didn’t quite reach.
    Thanks.

  2. Hi Leslie – Yes, there are different species & varieties of aloe. Some pup (produce babies) much more readily than others. Nell

  3. Hi Nell, I’m in Sydney AUST -it’s summer! I have a large Aloe Vera plant in a largish plastic pot. I water it daily. It doesn’t have any pups and I’ve had it six years! Am I watering it too often?

  4. Hi Wynn from Sydney – it’s pretty warm these days here in the Arizona desert too! Some aloes don’t readily produce pups so you may not have an aloe vera. Aloe veras should produce pups readily; especially if practically ignored. They like bright, bright light (out of direct pm sun) & to thoroughly dry out in between watering. Don’t drown it with liquid love! Nell

  5. I bought a couple plants and one was Aloe Vera. We have city water and it’s real bad. It started killing my plants. I now have replanted all and am watering with better water. Every plant is alot better except for my Aloe. (I don’t water a bunch and it’s in I direct sunlight.) It’s brown…Will it turn green again? Or is there no chance?

  6. Oh, and I replanted it in Cactus soil. It only had 3 roots but they were huge.

  7. Hi Helen – It depends. If it’s brown & mushy, it’s too much water. It’s hard for an aloe to recover from that. If it’s brownish yet firm, it’s stressed in some way. Plants turn color due to environmental stress. They will revert back to green once the stress is gone. The aloe veras growing outdoors here in Tucson in full sun are brownish orange. The ones which aren’t, are more green. Nell

  8. That’s fine Helen. The 3 roots, if they’re large, should be enough. Nell

  9. Our aloe has sprouted a long stem with some buds at the top of it. Is this normal?

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