Viewing post #2673315 by Baja_Costero

You are viewing a single post made by Baja_Costero in the thread called Show Your Aloes Here.
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Feb 13, 2022 12:01 PM CST
Name: Baja
Baja California (Zone 11b)
Cactus and Succulents Seed Starter Xeriscape Container Gardener Hummingbirder Native Plants and Wildflowers
Garden Photography Region: Mexico Plant Identifier Forum moderator Plant Database Moderator Garden Ideas: Level 2
That is a nice plant. The color is pretty intense. I would not know enough to ID petricola without seeing flowers.

If you do experiment with the bigger aloes, you might enjoy plicatilis. My plant flowered twice at the 3 gallon (25cm) pot size, before I put it in the ground. I would add a few observations here before you rush off and do anything hasty. Smiling

Most of those plants are pretty independent at a young age / small size. They are probably among the easiest aloes to grow from (fresh) seed because of this. It's a bit of a sprint at the beginning, which is kind of satisfying. By the time they have 3 or 4 adult leaves, they're ready for the same kind of treatment you give your other plants. So start young, to have more time to enjoy the plant, and see it in its baby phase.

Visualize a 25-30cm pot in whatever space you would use to overwinter this plant, possibly with the plant hanging over the sides. Do you really have space for such a thing?

Strong light is really important for all tree aloes. Greenhouse growers will tweak conditions to coax them into faster growing, but once you go beyond about 50% shade, or less than about 3-4 hours of sun a day, they start to get all stretchy and droopy and sad looking. I would think the conditions that work for your other aloes ought to be ideal, but again, imagine where a big pot would have to go in order to receive the rays it needs. Especially during winter, which is when a lot of these plants (like plicatilis) tend to be most active.

Also note that plicatilis is a deep drinker in containers and will typically consume more water than other aloes its size. That plant is particularly good at extracting all the moisture until the soil is bone dry.

Finally, if you're even considering a single stemmed tree aloe, africana might be a good choice because some forms don't get that huge, and flowering happens at any time of year (not just in winter). They tend to be eager to flower, and the flowers are very nice.
Last edited by Baja_Costero Feb 13, 2022 12:42 PM Icon for preview

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