Hi, thanks Kara for taking a look at my plant. From what I can feel, the base of the plant seems firm. Yes, the soil is compact, almost rock hard. The plant, pot and all was a gift. Since it's been growing nicely over the last 7 months, I thought I'd let it be. But I guess I should look for perlite or pumice. At the moment, I don't have any idea how to get the plant or its pups out of the pot though since the soil is so hard.

Thanks, I hope to keep my plant happy and healthy :) Just found it a bit odd that these few leaves are coming off and it would be nice to know what might be the cause so that I can prevent/ avoid it in the future.

If the soil is 'rock hard', it is peat that became hydrophobic. Very difficult to re-wet. In either case, peat is not good for growing succulents in. The water just slides off the hardened peat & doesn't penetrate it, so plants roots do not get any moisture.

Your best bet is to repot into better mix. Try to get all peat off the rots - (it's not going to be easy if it hardened). Use chopstick to try to pray it off, spray hose to wash it off. You could also fill a bowl with tepid water and swish the root ball in it. So many leaves should not come off in short period of time.

Btw, I would suggest to fill pot with more soil so the plant is not 'sinking' into container...And make sure it has drainage hole.

Thanks rina for your explanation and suggestions. I would not have thought of using chopsticks in my gardening :) Re-potting the aloe has been on my mind but since it was growing well, I sort of postponed the idea for another day. But I do see that the soil is not right for the aloe so I think that I will start looking for a better mix and work on re-potting my aloe somehow.

Jo

Many uses for many things - especially if you garden/grow plants :)

Another use for it would be checking if the potting mix is dry or still too wet to water: stick it min. halfway (or deeper - deeper is better) into mix avoiding the roots. If it comes out feeling cold or damp and/or small particles sticking to it, it is still too moist and don't water. You can us a bamboo skewer for this instead of chopstick (I prefer thinner skewer).

You may not be able to find proper potting mix in the stores, but you could make your own very easily. I prefer very gritty and inorganic mix, but many ppl buy a bag of Cactus&Succulent soil and bag of perlite and mix them together in 50/50 ratio (you could go higher on perlite. You could add some grit to it too if available (small crushed granite chips, kind that is given to chickens - another thing being used for succulents :). In your hot and humid climate, mix containing mostly inorganic particles may be better.

Edited to add: I was re-reading what you posted and wonder why is the soil so hard that you worry about taking the plant out. Hydrophobic peat is definitely possibility and as I described, but the whole thing - the soil & the plant - should come out of the pot in one big clump if that's the case. Sometimes the top layer is 'glued' - I guess it's done for shipping, but it is done with small rocks/pebbles and I don't see any in your photo.

Try to stick a chopstick or skewer into it and see if it gets in.

Hi rina, thanks for the chopstick tip. And you read my mind on the potting mix 'cause I was just thinking to myself whether I should just go with Cactus soil, or mix them with something like perlite, and your comment came in.

The reason you don't see any rocks/ pebbles at the top layer because this plant came out of someone's garden and not from a store. Since it's a gift, I thought it just wasn't polite to question the soil used :) On hindsight, maybe I should have re-potted the plant when I first got it, when it was much smaller. But I knew nothing about planting aloes then.

I don't have any chopsticks now to check the soil but I doubt it will go in very far. Almost feels like I need a hammer and chisel :D Anyway, I will try re-potting once I get the potting mix and hopefully I can get the plant out in one big clump without damaging it. Thanks rina for your help :)

Jo

If it was out of the garden, the soil could be clay. Or maybe even very fine sand. They both are very hard when dry. In container it is much worse than in ground.

I was given a jade plant that was potted in sand, I don't know how many years. The sand has compacted almost like a cement around the roots, and many roots came of it. That could possibly happen to your plant too, but if you repot it in better mix, it will eventually grow many new and healthy roots.

Good luck with repotting, and should you have any further questions, just ask. If you can, take a photo of root ball before an after cleaning - post if you have any doubts :)