Aloe vera plants often produce masses of babies. Use these tips for dividing aloe vera pups from the parent plant to get more plants for free. Full DIY video at the end
If you have an aloe vera plant or are considering getting one then you need to be prepared for aloe vera babies. Lots of babies. Aloe can be grown from seed but most of the time you’ll get a plant thanks to how successful they are at sprouting little plants. I currently have TWENTY-FIVE aloe vera pups growing on and needing new homes.
If your plant has started to grow pups, the instructions below will help you divide, re-pot, and grow them on. The video below will help you too. PS — my aloes are Aloe vera var. chinensis and may look different to yours.
Masses of baby plants growing from the base of the larger parent plant
Getting aloe vera babies
First things first. You will need a mature and healthy aloe vera plant to work with. Once you have it for a while you’ll probably start noticing miniature aloe plants forming at its base. Wait until those aloe vera babies are about three to four inches tall before you start dividing them.
If your plant is mature but not healthy then it’s unlikely that you’ll get babies from it, and if you do they might not be of the best quality. Aloe vera plants like:
- Free-draining compost – either a cactus compost or mix one part Perlite with two parts peat-free compost
- Sunny situations – remember, they’re a desert plant
- A good watering once in a while. Drench their compost only when it’s dry visibly and to the touch. Wait until it’s completely dry before watering again.
Larger aloe pups can pull away easily from the parent plant
Dividing aloe vera pups
Most aloe vera pups will be firmly attached to the base of the parent plant but will also have their own roots.
- Take the parent plant out of its pot and then brush as much of the compost from its roots as possible.
- Find each baby plant and see if you can pull it away from the main plant easily. If it comes away and has roots you’re good to go. If it does not have roots it won’t grow on.
- For aloe vera babies that won’t give, use a sharp and clean knife to carefully cut it off of the parent plant.
The one parent plant produced all these extra babies
Allowing wounds to heal
Like all succulents, aloe vera’s wounds need to dry and callus over before you pot it up. Lay the parent plant, along with all the pups, in a cool, dry, place out of direct sunlight. Leave them there for between 1-6 days before you re-plant them.
You can re-pot the parent plant and aloe vera babies after 24 hours. If you’re busy and can’t get around to it, you have up to about six days before they begin suffering for being out of the soil. You’ll notice after a day that the cut parts on the roots will have dried up to a slightly rough finish.
Grow all the aloe plants on in their own pots
Repotting Aloe Vera Pups
The baby plants will need their own homes now and a chance to grow a full root system.
- Each baby plant will need its own pot sized about 4″ in diameter. If you need to buy them, consider using these biodegradable pots.
- Plant them in free-draining compost – either a cactus compost or mix 1 part Perlite with 2 parts peat-free compost
- Gently tuck each plant into its new home and firm down the compost around it. Plant it no deeper than it was growing out of the ground at before.
- Wait three days before you water them. After then, water the plants only once the compost dries up.
How long until they’re mature?
Aloe vera plants can live for up to twelve years. That’s a decent amount of time for a plant! That also means that it takes some time before your aloe vera pups reach the stage where you can harvest their leaves for gel.
Keep in mind that aloe vera doesn’t need much in the way of fertilizing. They benefit from being replanted in a new pot with new compost each year. Barring that, a light balanced feed in spring or autumn will be plenty.
It will take three to four years for your aloe vera babies to grow as large as their parent. During that time, they’re a great purifier of air in the house and look great as a house plant. When they’re large enough, you can use the gel you harvest from their leaves to treat burns, insect bites, sunburns, and even to make handmade lotion.
Hi
My aloe plant has grown a long shoot this week, it looks a bit like asparagus! It’s about 6 inches tall and about half an inch in diameter. What should I do please? thanks
Your aloe is about to bloom! Enjoy it when it does, since aloes don’t bloom as often as other flowering plants.
Our aloe has a pup we’ll need to repot soon. I think you mentioned in the video that you can’t reuse the soil that you break off the roots during the separation process. Why?
Old potting mix is depleted in nutrients. When repotting, always use fresh potting mix to give the best growing medium for your plants 🙂 You can put the spent potting mix in the compost pile or as mulch in the garden.
My 3 year old aloe had some pups. When I was digging the mother plant up I heard a popping sound from the roots. Does that sound mean I broke off roots? And if so, will my plant make it? Thanks!
Probably, but it’s difficult to know without seeing your plants. Aloes are pretty hardy though so I wouldn’t be too concerned.
I was given several aloe plants to repot. If the lower leaves become sucked in, like loss of water, will they come back? Should I cut off? They are still green.
Give them time to recover Zena. They’ll need time to settle into their new pots and then to focus on building strength. Leave the tips if they’re still green and don’t look diseased.
I just transferred my pups. But I didnt let them dry before putting them in dirt… they didnt receive much damage in their roots, all but two came out of the mothers pot with all their roots. I only had one with a thick root from momma and I left them in the pot. Is that okay?
I’m sure it will be fine 🙂
I have a very old aloe that put out a family of leaves. I pulled the collection off the mother plant but there are no roots. Now I don’t know what to do. I stuck them in fresh cactus mix before I checked this site. Is there any hope? Thanks. Darlene Olivo
Unfortunately, if there aren’t any roots, they probably won’t grow. When your mother plant produces pups again, let the babies grow three to four inches tall before separating them. That way they’ll have a decent root system and will definitely survive.
Can you tell me if it’s okay to transplant my pups now while they’re actively growing? I read somewhere on another site that you shouldn’t transplant during a active growing season.(?)
You can replant the pups at any time 🙂
This guide really helped me bud my aloe vera plants and bring them back to life! Really helpful DIY guide
How much water do aloe plants need and what type of climate do they like?
My plants will be indoor plants. Direct or indirect sunlight?
Bright, indirect sunlight is best but saying that I have aloes in full sun. As for water, I don’t measure it. Just water the potting mix thoroughly each time it dries out completely.
Hi, I’ve just bought my first aloe Vera plant. I’ve bought a nice decorative pot for it to go in but understand the plant needs to be in a pot with holes to drain the water. So can I just leave it in the pot I bought it in, then sit it in the soil in the decorative pot? Sorry this is all new to me. Thanks.
Hi Debbie, the soil needs to be in the pot with the drainage holes and the plant. You can set that inside the decorative pot if you wish.
Hi Tanya, I have a very old Aloe Vera plant never repotted ( shame on me) what size pot should I put it in please?
It healthy and has one baby. Advice would be appreciated
Thank you
Rosemary
Hi Rosemary, I’d choose one a little bigger than the one it’s in now. The baby can go in one a lot smaller, initially.
My pups are not doing well! They are turning really sickly yellow brown and the tips are drying out. I watered them and am waiting for the soil to dry out (made the mistake a while ago of watering the mama too much, don’t want to do that again). Any advice?
Pups sometimes turn that yellow-brown colour but that doesn’t mean they’re sickly. It’s likely they’re stressed from being in direct sunlight and hot temperatures. Keep them out of direct sunlight and with luck, they’ll begin filling in and revert to green.
Hello! I have 4 teeny tiny aloe pups planted in little individual pots. They each have tight dried leaves (or maybe it’s more of a skin?) wrapped around the base of each pup. It almost looks like these layers are restricting new growth. I can see little baby leaves growing up through them, but I’m wondering if I should gently cut these off at the base so that the new leaves and the existing healthy leaves can spread out and have space. What do you think? Thanks in advance!
I’d leave them alone — baby plants can burst out of a seed no problem, so a little papery ring won’t hinder them.
My aloe plant, which I thought was on the brink of dying, had 6 aloe pups!! When I re-pot them can I put a few in the same pot or do they all need to be in their own space? Thank you!
They should all have their own pots if possible
When you buy a aloe plant from the store how long should it stay in the store pot and then what size pot should you transfer it into I bought a small one 4 inch I guess pot say. 69 (328 mL) Please Help
If you want your aloe to grow bigger, pot it up into a slightly larger pot as it outgrows the last. Mine get re-potted every couple of years but you could do it more often if you’d like.
I love my aloe Vera plant but it is over 3ft tall and is starting to lean over making the pot tip over. My question is can I cut the bottom leafs off and push the stem into the soil more so it won’t tip over
Imagine a child is outgrowing his shoes. Would you trim him down so that he fit in them again, or would you buy him larger shoes to fit his feet? It’s the same with plants 🙂 Pot your plant into a larger container and it will not only stop tipping over but be much happier.
Hello, can you tel me how much of perlite I add to the soil? A few only or a handful? I am going to report plants to pots of different sizes. And do I place perlite at the bottom or just mix it up with the soil?
Another question is about the pot. Can I plant them straight into the ceramic pot, or plastic/organic first and then place it in a nice ceramic pot?
Potting soil mixes for aloe vera — you mix everything together:
one part perlite to two parts potting soil (this is a soil-less potting ingredient)
or
one part grit (or perlite), one part sand, one part potting soil
Plants need pots with drainage holes at the bottom for water to escape. If your pot doesn’t have holes, then you need to plant the plants into ones that do have holes. They’re often plastic and people put them into decorative pots after to disguise them.
I don’t think that’s true. The parent plant went through all this time and energy and resources to create baby pups. It’s not going to just suck them dry right after. That would be a waste.
The only way I can imagine that happening is under extreme stressful conditions like drought where the parent plant might have to sacrifice any offshoots to survive.
So you don’t have to worry about the pups! I’m leaving some pups on my aloe vera and I may replant them next year. They’ll grow faster in their own pots but right now parent and pups all seem happy and are all growing in their shared space so I’ll leave them be for now. 😉
My Aloe plants are in the ground vs in pots. How do you suggest dividing the pups without removing the entire plant from the ground? I moved into this house 2 years ago and there are 5 very large Aloe plants needing attention. They “seem” happy as they frequently bloom, but really need the pups removed.
I’ve read elsewhere that leaving the pups too long with the mature plant will drain it…how much time do I have? And is there no proven method to have them proliferate all together?
The pups that have been cut and are waiting to be potted, where do you suggest they be stored?
Someplace dry, out of direct sunlight, and at room temperature or slightly cooler.
Thank you for this information! I’m overwhelmed with aloe plants and I didn’t know the part about letting the roots callus over before replanting. 🙂
Thank you for a great, informative video. It was clear and easy to follow.
Aloe Vera is very beneficial for our health I recommended all the people must grow aloe vera in you gardens.
Thank you for a very easy reading and non- intimidating instructions on repotting an Aloe Plant!
Joyfully
Natalie