When Should You Fertilize Your Home-Grown Aloe Vera? What Fertilizer to Use and a Detailed Guide to Methods

Aloe vera is a perennial evergreen herbaceous plant of the genus Aloe in the family Asphodelaceae, native to the Mediterranean and Africa. Because it is easy to grow and is an ornamental plant with both attractive flowers and foliage, it is very popular with the public. So, when should home-grown aloe vera generally be fertilized? What fertilizer makes it grow well? What are the methods?

1. When should home-grown aloe vera generally be fertilized? What fertilizer makes it grow well?

In fact, aloe vera generally grows normally even without fertilization. If you do fertilize aloe vera, you can apply a dilute liquid fertilizer once every half month during its growth periods in spring and autumn. Nitrogen fertilizer should be the main type. Nitrogen fertilizers include: urea, ammonium sulfate, or granular compound fertilizer, which are all good. Or fermented animal and poultry manure, vegetable scraps, and so on. Fermented rice-washing water diluted with water is also very good. There is also leftover milk. Soy milk. Do not let the liquid fertilizer touch the leaves. The concentration should be light. If it is a solid fertilizer, it can be buried in the potting soil in an appropriate amount, keeping it away from the roots. The amount should be small. Too much will harm the roots.

However, during the growth process of aloe vera, the nutrients in the potting soil alone are not enough, and proper fertilization is needed to meet its growth needs. Organic fertilizer is better, such as peanut bran (cake), which has good fertilizer efficiency and is clean and hygienic. Before application, soak it fully in water to ferment, then dilute it with water and pour it on. If applying chemical fertilizer, apply it at a concentration of 0.1%. The number of fertilizations depends on the growth condition of the aloe vera. If the leaves are often needed for use, the frequency should be greater, applying about once a month.

2. What are the fertilization methods?

For potted aloe vera, the fertilization methods mainly use these two forms: base fertilizer and top dressing.

1. Base fertilizer

Before potting, thoroughly mix the fertilizer and the growing medium at a ratio of about 10:1, then put them into the pot together. If organic fertilizer is used as the base fertilizer, it must first be completely and fully fermented, otherwise it will cause seedling burn and damage the aloe vera.

2. Top dressing

Top dressing is carried out during the growth period of aloe vera. The fertilizer needs to be diluted first, usually applying a clear water solution of urea at a concentration of no more than 2% or superphosphate at 1%. Be careful not to make the fertilizer solution too concentrated, so as to avoid fertilizer damage. Especially when carrying out foliar spraying as extra-root top dressing, the concentration must not exceed 1%. Generally, it can be done about once every 2,30 days. Aloe vera usually grows relatively fast in spring, so at this time the frequency of top dressing can be appropriately increased, while in winter the growth rate is slow, so fertilizer can be applied less, or even not at all.