Healthy aloe vera will grow vigorously, bloom, and even grow new plants. Therefore, aloe vera requires constant care. Although pruning aloe vera is more delicate than pruning other plants, as long as you follow the correct pruning method, the plant will hold up well. By removing dead leaves and excess parts, the plant will grow healthily and enhance your interior.
Trim the Visible Part
Prepare pruning tools. You can use a kitchen cleaver to cut off the smaller stems and roots. Scissors are also a great tool if you want to curb the growth of larger plants, so you can trim them with garden shears.
- Kitchen knives should be sterilized before cutting plants. Wipe the blade with rubbing alcohol and let it air dry.
Trim off remaining leaves. Deal with bad leaves first, carefully move branches and leaves, find dry and dead leaves, and remove unhealthy and severely faded leaves. Trim them off the stems with a knife or scissors.
- Be careful throughout the process so you don’t accidentally damage healthy leaves.
- Pests or diseases on the leaves can spread throughout the plant, so these leaves must be removed.
- Dying leaves can be caused by too little light, too little or too much water.
Trim off excess outer leaves. Use a knife or scissors to remove excess leaves to resize the plant to fit the size of the pot. Starting at the base of the plant, cleanly cut off the oldest leaves, which contain the most aloe vera gel.
- Aloe vera gel has great medicinal value. If you want to use the aloe vera gel, cut off the prickly edges and refrigerate the leaves until the next time you need to use them.
- Do not prune the leaves closest to the trunk, as these leaves are the most tender and will eventually take the place of older leaves.
Remove old stems and flowers. Cut off the stems the same way you would trim leaves. When the plant blooms, the seeds will soon fall off and die. As they die, they absorb some nutrients, which robs the new, healthy leaves of nutrients. Aloe vera grown indoors rarely blooms, so if you grow it indoors, you usually don’t have to deal with blooming.
- When flowers die, they attract insects and eventually fall into the pot, absorbing moisture and rotting.
Clean the Soil
Remove small aloe vera plants. Small Aloe vera plants are Aloe vera seedlings, which are branches of the plant. These new seedlings will rob the plant of nutrients and crowd the pot. In most cases, you can pull small aloe vera plants out of the soil or use pruning tools to remove them, but be careful not to damage the plant.
- Some small aloe vera plants will be buried in the soil and become entangled with the roots of the plant. At this point, you will need to remove the entire plant from the pot, then carefully remove the soil from the root ball and smooth out the roots.
- Small aloe vera plants are new aloe vera plants. You can transplant them into separate pots with fresh soil to grow a new aloe vera plant. Let it dry outside for a few days before planting, and use potting soil designed for cacti and succulents.
Remove the plant from the pot. Make sure the soil is slightly moist when you remove it to avoid damaging the roots. Gently grasp the stem of the plant and tilt the pot to one side. The plant should be able to be pulled out. If it doesn’t come out, try squeezing the pot or tapping it against a solid surface. After pulling it out, remove the small aloe vera plants that were not visible before.
Trim the roots. If you plan to replant the plant, you will need to follow the steps below. First, shake off the dirt from the roots, trim longer roots, and remove lateral roots. The remaining roots should take up two-thirds of the pot. Doing so will make the aloe vera easier to transport and will allow it to grow a stronger root system in the new soil. Water sparingly until the plant can adapt to its new environment.
- After pruning the roots, leave the plant outside to dry for a day. Doing this will allow the incision to heal and turn into a callus, protecting the plant.
- Check for root rot. Find and cut off any bad parts, being careful not to injure healthy roots. If possible, sprinkle sulfur or plant ash over the pruned areas.