Indoor gardening with Aloe Vera is exceedingly popular for every plant lover. Unlike other plants, its drought resistance provides hardiness, tolerance to environmental conditions, and ease of maintenance. In addition, they don’t require frequent watering as succulents because Aloe leaves store water.
It’s also helpful to have on hand because Aloe Vera gel has many medicinal properties you can use to heal and hydrate the skin. However, you may wonder, how fast does Aloe Vera grow?
Aloe vera plants grow from a pup to a full-grown plant with mature meaty leaves measuring 8-10 inches in 3-4 years. Aloe vera plants, like other succulents, have a slow growth rate, but they’re not the slowest of their kind. (Learn How Long For Atrazine To Work)
Most often, you will grow Aloe plants indoors rather than outdoors; to do this, you’ll need to prepare the proper growing environment. You need the proper soil, adequate sunlight, and a small amount of succulent fertilizer to boost the growth rate.
The good thing is that the plants can quickly propagate from the mother plant or broken leaves. So, learn more about growing Aloe Vera fast in our guide and see the actual growth rate you may expect. By the end, you’ll have a far better idea of how long it takes to grow your own Aloe Vera from cuttings or seedlings.
How Long Does It Take Aloe Vera To Grow?
Aloe Vera is an easy plant to care for, and anyone with a green thumb can do it. However, certain factors can stunt or even kill its growth. Understand Aloe Vera and its dislike for frequent watering before you can grow your plant.
Plants grow slowly in such conditions, allowing the entire plant to concentrate on water retention. The Aloe root system travels horizontally across the soil mix in quest of water, which the succulent easily stores.
Because there is no competition for sunlight, unlike tropical plants, there is no need to grow tall. They don’t generate many leaves or leaf spears, yet new leaf sprouts in two weeks. Your plant’s surroundings must be optimum for growth. Your home environment differs from growing Aloe outdoors or in their natural habitat of the desert, hence their slow growth pace.
It may take some getting accustomed to, but perseverance will cause a healthy Aloe Vera plant.
Aloe Planter Type
Like Aloe Vera, succulents prefer well-drained soil and often require the soil to dry out before re-watering. Plastic pots can be used; however, these retain moisture, which harms your plants’ roots and can lead to rot. Planters constructed of terra cotta or other porous materials are desirable and weighty.
How big do Aloe plants get may be asked, and it’s another reason to use terra cotta as these are hefty enough to support your new plant that could end with noticeable growth. Planters also need a large drainage hole to allow proper drainage after watering.
Planters must be deep enough to hold the plant’s entire stem; thus, choose wide pots for the shallow roots to spread out. The Aloe mother plant sprout offsets called puppies, which can crowd and compete for resources, thus slowing the mother plant’s growth. (Read Will Frost Kill Grass Seed)
Baby plants can be removed and replanted to avoid stealing mother plants’ resources.
Potting Mix
Like other succulents, Aloe Vera requires well-draining soil. These are often sterile compost blends with a trace of earth that makes up the well-draining potting mix.
Soil or slow-draining combinations keep the roots moist, which leads to your leaf tips withering. On the other hand, your plants will grow faster because perlite or coarse sand mixes don’t hold moisture.
Sunlight Requirements
Plants need as much light as possible to make energy, thus leading to further growth. Succulents require 3 hours of direct sunlight per day to thrive. If you offer your plant over 8 hours of sun per day, it will become stressful and slow down.
Choose a bright spot in the room to grow your plants in the winter. Experts advise keeping your plant at least one meter away from the main lighting window. When you ask how fast Aloe Vera grows, they like direct sunlight, yet not too much light as this can blanch the leaves and hinder the plant’s growth rather than offer rapid growth as you may expect.
It has been proven that windows facing south provide optimal lighting. However, you can use artificial light if you need to make up a shortfall in hours.
Temperature Requirements
Temperatures between 10 and 30°C are ideal for an Aloe Vera plant (50 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit). Because Aloe Vera plants are primarily water, gardeners should grow them indoors during the cooler weather.
Frost damage to outdoor Aloe plants is typical throughout the winter months, thus limiting growth or causing damage. A healthy plant can be easily identified from one that has been chilled. Healthy, firm leaves have lots of gel in their spears. The cold shock causes drooping, yellowing leaves in your Aloe plant. (Read What Temperature Is Too Cold To Water Plants)
Watering Aloe Plant
Aloe Vera owners should remember that their plants are drought resistant. These growing plants need little water since their leaves store water.
As a succulent plant, Aloe Vera plants tolerate drought, and this member of the succulent family needs less watering than too much, as do other succulent plants.
Allow excess water to drain from potting soil after watering; only water when the topsoil is completely dry. The brown tips and shrinking leaves show a lack of water for the Aloe Vera plant. (Read Does Vinegar Kill Fungus In Mulch)
Over-watering Aloe Vera plants have severe consequences on the plant’s health, such as black spots on the leaves.
If the soil surface of the potting medium is wet, the plant could rot, which is the most common mistake when growing Aloe vera plants.
How Long For Aloe Plant To Sprout?
Another crucial factor to consider while growing Aloe Vera is whether the plant is grown indoors or outdoors.
Indoor Aloe Vera plants mature slower, yet these pointers can help Aloe Vera grow faster.
An Aloe Vera plant, like other plants, passes through an active growth stage in the spring and summer, followed by a dormant or resting period in the winter, when it grows little or not at all.
Plant Health
Aloe Vera plants that are weakened by pests, diseases, or poor growing conditions grow faster. There are a few things you can do right now to speed up the development of a new Aloe houseplant:
Potting Soil
Aloe Vera requires well-draining potting soil to keep its roots from sitting in excess moisture. Include coarse sand or perlite to prevent over-watering, which can cause root rot and disease, slowing or preventing plant growth. This slow growth rate enables sustaining efficient water retention.
Fertilize
Although Aloe Vera plants are light feeders and do not require fertilizer to thrive, fertilizing the plant will give it an extra injection of energy, allowing it to grow more quickly. Succulents require a low-nitrogen fertilizer developed specifically for them.
During the active growing season of April to September, fertilize your Aloe plant twice a month, diluting the fertilizer by at least half. Fertilize solely during the winter months when the plant is dormant.
To prevent chemical burns, apply fertilizer after irrigating the potting medium and let the excess water drain out of the soil. This will give you the best Aloe Vera growth rate, allowing you to check how fast Aloe Vera grows.
Growing Container
Choosing a suitable growing container might also help your aloe vera grow quickly. For example, the soil will dry out faster in a clay or terracotta planter. Always use containers with drainage holes. The pot’s size is also vital:
Put your Aloe Vera in a three-times-larger container than its root ball. The mother plant will also produce offsets, which can overcrowd a small pot.
Use Banana Peels
Banana peel tea is an excellent way to deliver healthy growth to newly potted Aloe Vera plants. Before planting your Aloe Vera, you can also bury chopped banana peels in the potting mix to slowly release potassium for a precise growth rate.
This will help the plant grow strong, resist pests and diseases, and use water and nutrients efficiently. You may also soak banana peels in water to make banana peel tea for Aloe Vera plants.
Encourage Root Growth
Coat the plant stem or existing roots with rooting hormone powder to induce faster growth. To encourage root growth, avoid watering newly potted plants (after thoroughly watering baby plants) for 2-3 weeks.
How Long Does It Take For Aloe Vera To Grow From Seed?
The time of year and where you live can all impact the growth of your Aloe Vera seeds. Naturally, it will only take 2-4 weeks if optimum conditions are satisfied. An Aloe Vera plant takes years to mature, so you might find this hard to believe.
The good news is that Aloe Vera seeds sprout quickly if they are correctly placed and satisfy all their growing conditions, which is long identical to how you should care for a growing Aloe Vera plant.
So, how to grow Aloe Vera fast from seed? To create a regulated environment for the seedlings, ensure that the container is large enough and less soil is used. It’s essential to choose well-drained soil. You can use a 50/50 mix of feat and horticultural sand or a combination of sand, sterile compost, and perlite.
Wet your soil, scatter your seed (an inch apart) around your container, and then cover it with light sand.
Ensure that the temperatures for growing Aloe Vera seeds are fulfilled at 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Growing seeds outdoors may be typical if you live in a warm climate environment.
You can supplement your seed’s growth with artificial light and some bottom heat if you live in a cooler climate. (Read Will 2, 4-D Kill Pine Trees)
Seeds, like Aloe Vera plants, would require further attention. To maintain high humidity, some gardeners would place pots in plastic bags. You can also spray the soil until seed sprouts appear, which takes about 2-4 weeks. Keep in mind that it needs to be kept warm for two weeks to develop its roots.
After removing the heat mats, water the seedlings just enough to keep them alive, don’t let them drown. After seeing at least four leaves grow, you can start repotting them into larger pots to support their growth stage. Follow the same growing and care instructions for an adult Aloe Vera plant.
