Aloe vera is a lush green succulent plant that originates from the Arab world. It is one of the most beneficial plants used widely in medicines and cosmetics. You can propagate and plant Aloe vera effortlessly if you have decent knowledge about it.
Most people face an issue in propagating Aloe vera without roots. They consider that a fresh green Aloe can’t grow after planting it without roots. But it can!
You can plant your Aloe vera even if it has zero roots.
Now the question is: How to plant Aloe vera without roots? This article will tell you two of the most beneficial ways to plant Aloe vera without roots. If you are incisive about this topic, let’s get straight into it.
But before looking at how to plant Aloe vera without roots, let’s discuss why your Aloe vera plant has no roots or how it loses its roots.
Why Does my Aloe Vera have No Roots?
Your Aloe vera plant can lose its roots for many reasons. Some of these include:
- Overwatering.
- Hypothermia.
- Re-potting.
- Soil Problems.
- Damaged Plant.
You just need to detect the problem and secure your plant from it in that scenario.
Overwatering
Aloe vera is a drought-tolerant — it’s a succulent, duh! — and can survive a long period without water. It loves dry soil and usually needs watering once a week. Try to water it when the top 1 to 2 inches of the soil dries out.
If you water it regularly with your other water-loving plants, your Aloe may die due to overwatering.
A bad watering schedule coupled with an unhealthy potting mixture can cause waterlogging, leading to root rot.
Click here to see how to treat a plant with root rot.
Waterlogging can fill up the air spaces in the soil and causes roots to die due to suffocation. It usually happens when your plant’s root system is not well established — it has a shallow root system.
Overwatering your Aloe plant is also a source of many other problems, including sap-sucking pests infestations.
Hypothermia
Exposure to cold temperatures causes hypothermia, and it is a significant problem in the case of Aloe vera.
Cold drafts cause the plant’s temperature to drop down, which increases the growth of root rot fungi. The development of fungi can boost up when the soil is cold and wet during winter.
Repotting
It is best to place your plant at a suitable spot and leave it there as transplanting or repotting can disturb your plant.
Newly propagated plants enter into shock even before the roots can find any time to develop. A newly propagated Aloe leaf may take several days to establish roots after repotting.
If you propagate your plant by leaves (I have elaborated the method further in the article), you must allow the cuttings to dry out for a few weeks. Otherwise, roots wouldn’t be able to grow, which results in the death of your plant.
Soil Problem
Soil is the primary element for the growth of any plant. If you don’t provide your plant with good soil, it does not respond well.
Aloes prefer well-drained, loamy soil with a neutral to slightly basic pH between 6.5 and 7.5. If the soil does not drain well, it results in over-clogging, which causes oxygen suffocation in the plant. Due to this reason, the plant’s roots cannot grow, and it causes root rot in the plant.
Related Article: How to Make the Best Potting Mix for Indoor Plants According to the Nature of Your Plants Themselves.
Damage
The roots of the Aloe vera plants are very fragile. If you pull the plant out with a quick jerk, you may clear away the whole root system and leave your plant without roots. So, try to take proper care during transplanting if you really want to grow your Aloe vera.
In propagation with pups, untangle the roots of the baby plant gently from the mother plant. Any mistake results in the roots damage, and your plant will not be able to grow.
How to Plant Aloe Vera Without Roots?
So, how to plant Aloe vera without roots?
Planting Aloe vera without roots is a possible and easy task. You just need to have some information about it, and you can propagate them with ease and peace. People usually plant parent Aloe vera without roots by taking cuttings for propagation, which is a pretty straightforward process.
There are two methods commonly used for the propagation of Aloe vera. These include:
- Propagation by offsets.
- Propagation by leaves.
With that said, let’s see how to plant Aloe vera without roots:
2 Best Ways to Plant Aloe Vera Without Roots
As I mentioned above, we can plant Aloe vera without roots, and there are two best ways to propagate Aloe vera. Now it’s time to discuss both of these procedures in detail.
Method #1: Propagation by Offsets
It is the easiest way to propagate the Aloe plant. In this process, you have to locate the pups or the baby plant portions attached to the mother plant.
Pups depend upon the parent plant for nutrients until they grow their roots and are commonly called offsets or offshoots.
Aloe vera plants can only produce offsets when they are a few years old. You have to encourage your plant to grow offshoots if you want to propagate them. You can easily do it by providing your plant with proper care, plenty of light, and sufficient fertilizer.
The removal size of pups depends upon the specie of Aloe vera, but you have to wait till the offshoot is about a couple of inches tall.
You can propagate Aloe vera with offshoots by just reading these simple steps.
Step #1: Choose the Right Offset
- Make sure to choose the proper offsets having few leaves and their own root system.
I know you are here to know how to plant Aloe vera without roots, but offsets will have some healthy rootlets attached to them most of the time.
- After locating the offshoot, remove it gently. Softly untangle the roots of pups from the mother plant.
- Use a sharp knife to cut the pup away from the mother plant.
- Sterilized tools are essential to prevent your plant from diseases. Be careful not to disturb other parts of the plant during cutting.
Step #2: Remove Damaged Rootlets
- Inspect the offset’s roots and check if there is any damage or rot. Remove damaged parts, if there are any, or your plant may not be able to grow in the future.
Also, make sure to inspect the mother plant for damage.
Step #3: Planting
If your pup does not have enough roots, then dip it in the rooting hormone, which helps your plant grow roots faster.
- Plant your pup in the dry cactus potting soil.
- Leave it for a week or two, then water the soil when it develops roots.
- Do not press the soil mix too much because the roots need breathing space.
New Aloe plant survives in dry places with indirect sunlight. So, try to find the best spot so that your plant can grow freely without any hesitation.
Method #2: Propagation by Leaves
You can also propagate your Aloe vera from leaves.
It may be the best point for you as you can buy some leaves from the market and multiply them into new Aloe plants while sitting in your home.
This process is also quite simple but has low success rate than the offset method.
Propagation by offshoots is highly recommended, but if your plant does not have roots or you just have some rootless Aloe vera leaves, you can choose this method.
Let’s discuss how to plant Aloe vera without roots using leaves step by step.
Step #1: Get a Leaf or Take Cuttings
If you don’t have an Aloe vera plant, just buy some Aloe leaves. But if you already have some leaves having no roots, this method would be valuable for you.
Aloe leaves contain moisture, and they can be disposed to rot before any root establishment.
However, you can still propagate your parent Aloe vera from its leaves.
- Cut the selected portion of leaf from your mother plant using a sharp, clean knife.
- Do not remove the leaf from the joint; just cut its part from a few inches above the base. Try to make a neat and clean-cut.
Step #2: Dry your Leaf Cuttings
- After cutting your selected part of the leaves, please place it in a sunny or warm area to dry out for a few days or weeks.
- Otherwise, there may be a chance that it will simply rot.
- If that happens, the portion cannot grow, and you have to start again with a new cutting.
Once the leaves dry out, you can plant them in your succulent potting mix.
Step#3: Planting the Leaves
Rooting hormone is not necessary for the leaf propagation method. Leaves can grow roots on their own.
- You can just fill the container with the well-drained, slightly moist soil and put the cutting side down into the soil.
- After some weeks, you can see the growth of the roots and other parts of the plant.
- Water it consistently, but do not immerse the cuttings in water.
- When your plant establishes roots and new leaves, you can adjust your watering pattern to the routine.
With all that said, now you know how to plant Aloe vera without roots.
How to Care for Aloe Vera after Planting?
The Aloe vera plant is much easy to care for and to maintain. You just have to keep some things in mind:
- You may not give much attention to the pot in which you planted your Aloe vera. But the pot has a vital role in the growth of a plant. Avoid plastic pots and prefer one made of clay so that it can absorb the excess moisture and prevent root rot.
- After propagation or planting, place your cuttings in a well-drained loamy soil mix with a neutral to slightly basic pH.
- As I mentioned above, Aloe vera is a drought-tolerant plant which means over-watering will be very dangerous. Water the soil only after it dries out.
- Use natural fertilizers such as banana peel which slowly releases potassium for your plant’s healthy growth.
- Although Aloe vera loves sunlight, too much exposure to direct sunlight can result in excessive dryness, which ultimately causes the death of your plant. It is better to go for indirect sunlight.
How Fast does Aloe Vera Plants Grow?
We get many questions about Aloe vera plants, including how fast Aloe vera plants can grow after propagation? or how can you boost the growth rate?
If you also have such questions in mind, let me answer them in detail, and I hope you will get the best advice after reading further.
Aloe plant usually takes 4 to 5 years to reach maturity, and their average height is about 3 to 4 feet.
Although Aloe vera has slow growth, it is a fast-growing succulent comparable to the others. As for the plant’s growth rate, it produces new leaves after a month or so.
There are some tricks from which you can boost the growth of your Aloe vera. As Aloe vera can grow in arid environments, you do not need to invest a lot in increasing its growth rate.
- You can move your indoor plants outdoors for some time to provide them with sufficient sunlight. Or you can place them in front of an East or a South-facing window.
- Aloe vera is not a foodie and generally needs no fertilizers; if the potting medium has the correct water pattern, you can fertilize it with liquid fertilizers only during the growing season to speed up its growth. Avoid over-fertilization as it causes root burn to the plant.
- The rooting hormone also seems to be beneficial in encouraging the growth of roots for newly propagated plants.
- If you want your Aloe vera to grow faster, secure it from the sap-sucking pests that suck the life out of your Aloes. Usually, pest infestations occur due to overwatering.
Those are some simple steps you can follow for your plant’s better, healthier, and swift growth.
Conclusion
Aloe vera is an excellent succulent plant with many benefits in medicine and cosmetics. The plus point is you can grow Aloe vera simply in your home. But the main issue is how to plant Aloe vera without roots. Some people think it might not be possible, but it is.
There are usually two methods to propagate or plant your Aloe vera. If your plant has roots, you must use the division method or propagation by offshoots. But due to some mistakes or accidents, your plant may lose its roots; or does not have any pups.
In that case, you also have another option. You can use the leave propagation method.
These methods are effortless and require little knowledge, which I described above.
Although Aloe vera is slow-growing, it is much faster among the succulents.
Besides these points, we have awarded you with simple techniques you can use to boost the speed of your plant.
If you still have an issue with this topic, you can mention it in the comment section below. I will try my best to help you.
Regards: Moiz Atiq.