How to prune aloe at home: when to do it, what kind of leaves to take for treatment, how to properly carry out everything for health purposes?

The healing properties of aloe are known to almost everyone. Growing a plant at home will allow you to use leaf juice for the right purpose, including for applying traditional medicine techniques. Timely pruning of leaves will provide protection for aloe and stop the growth of the plant.

Healthy aloe often exhibits rapid growth with the formation of new leaves, flowers, and even young shoots. For this reason, such plants require regular attention and proper care. While aloe needs a more delicate pruning than other plants, following some pruning rules will help you protect the plant.

Why do you need pruning?

Lovers of growing aloe at home perform pruning for several purposes.:

The formation of a beautiful crown.The plant has the ability to grow rapidly, and the lower leaves need to be trimmed if aloe transplantation into a new, more spacious pot is not planned yet.
Removing old, dying leaves that take a lot of power from the plant. Aloe can spend these same forces on growing new, young leaves.
Trimming already dead leaves.
Protect the flower from insects. If the leaves showed signs of insect damage, these leaves are best removed immediately, until the parasites have reached other leaves.
Collection of leaflets for medical purposes. To do this, take the lower leaves, the most saturated and largest.

If you do not prune aloe with insects on it, the parasites can eventually settle on all the leaves and completely destroy the plant. For the same purpose, diseased leaves are removed, preventing the spread of the disease.

Lack of pruning of a healthy flower will lead to rapid growth, and if this proliferation is not the goal of the owner of the aloe, the leaves need to be cut periodically.

Periodicity

There is no specific frequency for cutting aloe leaves - it all depends on the wishes of the owner of the plant. If he wants the flower to grow to enormous size - it is not worth trimming it at all, but if he wants to maintain the compactness of the plant - you need to cut it when the extra leaves reach large sizes, and it seems that he is crowded in a pot.

When to pinch a medicine? You can trim it at any time of the year, the main thing is to know how to do it correctly, if you plan to use the leaves for the medicine, and monitor the flower after the procedure.

For medicinal purposes

For trimming for treatment it is necessary to take a sharp, sterile cutting item, such as a knife. Cut the bottom leaves best - they have the most pulp and juice. With a careful movement, the leaf is cut off at the stem itself, after which its spiky sides are removed and the juice is extracted.

If the owner of the plant does not need a whole leaf, it is still necessary to cut off the leaf completely, and it is better to store the unnecessary part in the refrigerator, in an airtight container.

How to crop at home?

Take a sharp knife, scissors or garden pruner.
The choice of tool depends on the size of the plant - a compact aloe can be cut with a knife, and if the flower has grown to the size of a small tree - use a pruner.
Remove the leaves located outside, most often they are easy to reach. The cut should be straight and even.
With one hand, push away healthy leaves, opening access to the place of regrowth of the removed.
With your second hand, cut off the inner leaves.
The leaves located inside the plant are removed with extreme care.The slice should be done very carefully, as close to the stem as possible.
If there are daughter shoots, remove them - most often they just get out of the pot along with the root. They can be used for reproduction.
If the "kids" are not removed from the soil, you need to get the whole plant with the root and cut off the junction of the main flower and the "baby."

In order to get aloe out of the pot, you need to tilt the pot on its sideholding the plant by the stem and pull lightly. The flower should come out easily. If this does not happen, you can squeeze the pot a little or easily tap it on a hard surface.

Further care

Special care after cutting aloe leaves does not require. The flower well “wounds the wounds”, and young leaves will appear in place of the cut leaves soon. Dry petioles can be removed on their own - this will speed up the process of growing new leaves and give aloe an aesthetic appearance.

Many houseplant owners do not even suspect that aloe is able to bloom. Of course, this often happens in natural conditions, but you can also achieve this from a flower if you fertilize aloe.

If the plant deteriorates

If the owner of the aloe noticed that after cutting several leaves the plant began to roll in one direction, you need to tie it up. In case the problem is rotting, remove the entire rotting part.

It is necessary to examine not only the trunk, but also the root system - perhaps the reason is rotting of the roots. If the plant has become soft, the leaves have changed color, dried out, or pests are noticed, evaluate the general condition of aloe.

If several sheets are affected, they need to be cut.
Inspect the roots. If rot has been detected, carefully cut off the damaged shoots without catching healthy ones.
When the lower part of the stem is damaged, the plant rots and falls; saving it will most likely be possible only by transplantation (how to transplant aloe?). To do this, cut off the top of the aloe vera, dry the slice for a couple of days at room temperature, then plant it in a small pot for rooting. At the same time, it is better to use soil for cacti (what soil is needed for aloe?).The remainder of the flower, the trunk and leaves can be revived in the aloe tree, new leaves can grow from the place of cut, aloe vera will not survive.

When sitting the crown of the head, you can not throw the trunk for a while - flower over time can give out basal processeswhich can also be transplanted.

So, aloe pruning is a fairly simple process, the main thing is to sharpen the tool well and select leaflets for cutting in advance. Sick leaves need to be thrown away, healthy (when pruning is done to prevent overgrowth) - you can save for medicinal use. Constant pruning is not a panacea for yellow leaves and other problems, if the flower dries up or its leaves rot, the problem is lighting or regular watering (how to water aloe properly?).