Before buying an Aloe plant you need to know about its watering needs. Because it is hard to save the Overwatered aloe plant.
Aloe Vera is a tropical plant so it needs less water to grow. It can easily recover from drought but saving it from excess water required special skills.
But there are some proven tips that you can follow to remove the extra water from the plant and save it from dying.
Today you’ll know how to save overwatered aloe plants. Also, the perfect method of watering aloe Vera.
What are the signs of an overwatered Aloe plant?
Before jumping to the solution, you need to know about the main symptoms of Aloe vera overwatering problems. Below are the signs that you see in an overwatered aloe plant.
Soft and fluffy stems and leaves are the first symptoms
The glossy thick leaves look faded in color
The tips of leaves turn brown
Fungus in the potting soil
Unpleasant smell from the base of the plant
Brown circular Blisters in the leaves
The entire aloe is turning brown
Note: Coldwater is the cause of dropping aloe leaves. Give it normal-temperature water to keep its beauty. For more info on this topic keep reading the article.
Risk factors with Overwatered Aloe Vera plants
The leaves of this succulent plant are designed to store a good amount of water.
When you give water to aloe vera plants the roots quickly absorb it from the soil and transport it to the major parts of the plant.
To check this cut the aloe vera leaf and inspect it closely. You will observe that the pulp contains a high amount of watering gel-like substance.
In each leaf cell store a good amount of moisture in it.
Aloe plants develop this type of water-storing cells because they are native to tropical deserts. We all know deserts get only a few centimeters of rain per year.
When you give extra water to aloe, even in its growing stage.
The plant cells start storing water more than their capacity. This makes the green bright leaves soft and fluffy.
This also invites the fungal bacteria and your aloe becomes infected with rot and leaf rot.
Fungus lives in high humid area and aloe also need high humidity to live. Therefore, fungal attacks are common on aloe vera plants.
Once you see the stems or leaves are rotting, take immediate action to save your plant.
Use fungicides to kill the bacteria.
Bonide 811 Copper 4E Fungicide
Liquid copper fungicide
Remember that copper and neem oil are the main ingredients in all fungicides.
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Techniques for Saving Overwatered aloe plant?
To save the suffering Aloe Vera plant you need to act fast. Because once you see the brown tip on the leaves this means the aloe is almost completely damaged. But there are a few techniques that may help to revive your plant.
Take a paper, or pencil to make important notes. Notes will help you to act fast because your aloe plant does not have enough time.
Here is the complete step-by-step guide
Loose the soil by poking your finger in it and gently take out the plant from its pot.
Remove the soil from the roots with a paper towel. Do not apply pressure on roots this will damage them. Damaging the roots means inviting more problems. Use chopsticks to remove soil from roots that you cannot remove with a paper towel.
Use sterilized sharp garden tools to cut the rotten part of the infected roots. (Do not touch the healthy roots)
Now cover the healthy roots with a paper towel and place the plant in your garage or in the basement. Where it can only get limited less bright light. Let it stay there for 72 hours. The temperature of the room must be above 8 degrees C.
Select the new container according to the current root size (after the cut).
Use fresh potting soil: 50% general potting soil or special aloe vera soil and 50% gravel or small-size pebbles. This helps the soil to drain quickly and also increases air circulation.
After 72 hours repot the plant in the new fresh soil.
Do not give water to the transplanted plant for another 72 hours.
After that give some clean water and put the plant in a partially bright location
Make sure the pot that you use has a draining hole and is made of porous material.
Now follow the regular watering routine.
How to water Aloe vera plants without damaging their roots?
Proper watering applications are secret to healthy aloe plants.
To keep your plant, safe from fungal diseases learn the moderate watering technique. It is disused below.
You need to focus more on the type of water. Check the quality of water, then supply it to the growing aloe vera plants.
I do not use tap water for watering my aloe vera.
Because the tap water in my area contains a high amount of chlorine and heavy minerals.
These impurities get collected in the root area of the aloe plant. This blocks the absorption of water and important nutrients.
This results in a lack of water in the aloe vera leaves and also makes them nutritionally deficient. This turns the aloe plant brown.
Use filtered water for watering aloe vera plants.
Such water does not have heavy material but has all the essential nutrients.
Watering from top
This is the most convenient method of watering plants.
In this case, you need a watering can with a long mouth. So that the water can directly go to the root zone without wetting the leaves.
Pour water directly to the base of the plant to avoid overwatered aloe plant
Stop watering when the soil stops absorbing it and you see water on the top surface of the pot.
After 40 minutes check the plant and see the water collected in the tray.
Remove the extra water from the tray and clean it with a paper towel. By doing so you can save your aloe plant from overwatering problems.
Watering aloe plant from below
In this technique, we use a big tray or container and fill it with clean drinkable water. Then place the aloe plant pot in it and the bottom hole in the pot absorbs the desired amount of water.
This way the large-size roots do not get extra wet and small tiny roots get the proper amount of moisture.
This method also saves nutrient loss due to watering. Because when we water from the top the water comes down due to gravity.
The nutrients also come down along with water and settle at the base of the plant.
Whereas half of them drain out with water through the bottom hole.
Organic liquid fertilizers are costly and losing them just due to the watering technique is very painful. Change your watering technique and save lots of money on fertilizers.
How to water aloe in spring and summer?
Spring and summer are the active growing seasons of aloe vera plants. Watering aloe on active days is a crucial part.
Generally, they need water once a week. But this is not applicable to every aloe plant in the world. The daily changing temperature and humidity increase or decrease the watering needs of aloe.
Let the soil dry between watering sessions. You can use a soil moisture meter to check the amount of moisture in it. A soil moisture meter is an inexpensive device but is very useful in indoor gardening as well as in outdoor gardening.
We cannot see inside the plant pot therefore our researchers make this brilliant device to help us in gardening.
For the best deal on soil moisture meters, go to Amazon and choose the best-selling meter.
Watering aloe in the winter season
The Winter season is the dormancy period of plants. It means that plants of all types stop growing in the winter season.
Aloe vera is a tropical desert plant, we all know the temperature in tropical areas is on the warmer side for 365 days.
This clears that the winter is going to be a hard time for your growing aloes.
Roughly the aloe plant needs water once in 30 days in a cold climate. Because it has the ability to store enough water in its leaves.
And the cool temperature slows down the growing process and plants do not need much water for daily functioning.
This way they always have sufficient water in their leaves.
The only top watering method is good for watering aloe vera in the winter season. The below watering technique will invite many unusual extra watering-related problems.
Note: Remember that you can save overwatered aloe plants in spring and summer. But you cannot save it in the winter season.
Because the cold weather does not give any help in evaporating water from the soil and aloe vera leaves.
How to water repotted aloe vera?
The first thing that you need to keep in mind while repotting is you need moist soil. Do not use dry soil for potting up the aloe vera plants.
Because for plant safety, you are not going to water it for a minimum of 20 days.
The second thing is the size of the pot and the time of repotting.
Repot the aloe plants once a year and spring is the best time for repotting aloe. Because it is their growing time period
The plants start growing their roots right after the repotting. This saves the life of the plant and they get established in the new pot in just a few days.
Step-by-step repotting instructions
Water the aloe plant 48 hours prior to repotting. This helps you to easily take out the plant from its old pot.
At the time of repotting gently tap the pot to lose the soil. Then try to gently pull the plant.
If you are unable to pull it then use shape tools or your hands to lose the soil.
Once you take out the plant from its old pot, Clean the old potting soil and check the health status of the plant roots.
If you find brown roots cut them from the root ball and immediately repot it in its new pot and in new soil.
Do not give water to repotted aloe for 20 days if the new soil is already well-moistened.
This is all about the Overwatered aloe plant that is suffering from extra water in its plant pots. I hope you like this article and that now you are able to save your plants from frequent watering.
If you still have any questions in your mind, feel free to write us, and we will reply ASAP.
