I recently came upon a dichotoma at a great price and I could not resist. I'd been hesitant to get one in the past since I've learned they can be tricky with regard to over watering.

Has anyone dared to plant an aloe dichotoma in the ground? or is it better left as a container plant? If I do decide to plant it in the ground, is there any special soil prep? I guess I need to prepare extremely well draining soil. I suppose it should also be extra large hole to plant it?

I happened to be at the San Diego Zoo yesterday and got a little inspired. They have a couple of remarkable specimens there. Here is one from the zoo, and they seem to have the plants growing in gravel or pumice? Its also on the high point of the display up an a significant berm...

They have them here at the Desert Botanical Garden. Also on a little 'hill' in well draining soil with lots of gravel - pumice is so light it makes for a hard substrate for the plant to root in as it grows. I had mine planted in the ground at the old house. It was doing fine, but it did not survive getting transplanted right before the summer to my new house. Just not enough time to settle in before it got hot... sad about that as I got it as a little 4 inch tall seedling and got it to about 4.5 feet tall... took a long time, but such is life.

So I would think they should be OK in your area, but you do want to make sure it has good drainage.

Here's a lil' one at the Huntington in San Marino.



These plants do well in our (SD/NW BC) climate if you withhold summer water. On top of the considerations about drainage, it's really important to exercise discipline with water, which is easy in a Mediterranean-type climate because you just have to be hands off during summer, at least once the plant is established. Withholding water also tends to result in a superior form, or so I've been told, though I have no experience with dichotoma. There's a photo in one of Jeff Moore's books of a local (SoCal) dichotoma that ended up pretty statuesque after about 15 years, and the key seemed to have been the plant was at the top of a driveway and got only rain (no irrigation) from there on out. (According to the story, this plant was the only 1 of 10 plants dug up from a grower's field and transplanted that survived the move, mainly because of consequences due to too much water after installation.)

We've had a ramosissima here in the public garden for about 10 years. The soil here is mostly alluvial sand and rock, so drainage is rarely an issue. When I first had the plant it rotted out in its 5 gallon pot after some torrential winter rain. I chalked that up to it being a (perhaps not so well) rooted cutting and the original soil not having nearly enough rock in it. Anyway, I dealt with the rotted parts and put the plant in the ground immediately afterwards, and it has been putting along ever since. The seedlings I grew subsequently are all going strong in pots (going on 8 inches) and I hope to plant a group of them one day.

Thanks for all the info. mcvansoest sorry to hear that you lost yours over the summer. It looked like a nice plant. I think I saw in in some pictures of your garden on this site.

Based on this feedback I think I've already decided to plant it in a new location. One that is driest and at least 20 ft from any source of irrigation. I'll be sure to put a good amount of drainage material. Its in a place on a slope so I'm thinking of doing a retaining wall to level and then back fill it with the well draining soil / gravel mix Hopefully this keeps it up high enough.

Its raining today though.

Yep it was bucketing here... it is warm enough that I see it as a positive... no real cold spell to follow this rain which is what makes rain problematic here in the winter... but the night time low is 50 tonight... so this should be good rain for the Aloes.

I have been concentrating on replacing my Aloe Hercules that I had to leave behind at the old place... I found one which I am picking up tomorrow. After that I will see about getting another Aloe dichotoma. Unfortunately those do not come cheap at any decent size... so I will have to start small again. No hybrid vigor to help there.

We got buckets too. The forecast was for gentle rain showers off an on totaling ~0.3 inches. We got about twice that in two bouts that were 20 minutes each.

I'm happy to hear you are putting in new tree aloes in the new garden. That's exciting. Its always fun to dig in the dirt putting in new plants.

Just adding this a a note for future reference for when I come back to this thread. I also couple of months ago put in a retaining wall around the Hercules for fear it might tumble down the slope its planted on. Anyway after last nights rain I saw the water nicely draining away out of the joints and hopefully away form the roots.

Hercules acquired and planted. When I was picking the plant up the person I was buying it from showed me a number of dichotomas at about 6 ft tall that he said were also for sale... Just not in my budget at the moment. Something to look forward to though. I will post a pictures of the new Hercules later. it is about 3-4 ft tall given it growth speed it should be good sized in no time once it roots in.
I put it a little elevated, but like the one I had at my old place relatively close to the eaves so that it gets a lot of run off from the roof when it rains as that seemed to really help with the previous one.

As things start to open back up I'm back at it. I was finally able to get the soil and gravel needed to back fill the retaining wall. I finally decided on a mix a mix of 2 parts 1/4 inch gravel, 1 part sand (washed), 1 part pumice, 1 part cactus / succulent soil, 1 part original soil. It rained a couple of times heavily while I was back filling so I have been able to see the difference. Drainage is much improved when compared to the original soil.

So far been in the ground about 3 weeks All's well so far.

18 months after planting and still going.

Hi all,
I have an Aloe Dichotoma that needs help. It has been in the ground for 10+ years. Its in full sun. I'm careful not to overwater and not to water during the summer months. I have never fertilized or pruned it. It is rather spindly and has a smallish head which has never branched. What do you think I'm doing wrong? Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Steve

I'm not sure you're doing anything wrong, to be honest, from what you've described. For what it's worth, we're now at the end of the dry season and the rosette is probably the smallest it ever is, just as a natural consequence of the drought ... that will begin to reverse in a month or two and your tree probably will look leafier by spring. That wrinkle of course does not explain why it has not branched, but maybe others with more experience here will have an explanation.

Looks fine to me as well. Some can take a while before they branch. Here are a couple I saw at the San Deigo zoo in their "Africa Rocks" garden.