AUSCC

Aloe Vera is a variety of succulent plant which grows in dry climates such as Africa and India. It is chiefly recognized as a medicinal plant and is used to treat burns, relieve sunburns and is in some cases rubbed on the face for clearer skin. Aloe Vera by itself is an attractive plant to have around your house. Learn how to grow aloe vera in your home; however, the added medicinal uses make it an even more useful plant to have around. As such here are a couple guidelines to help you grow and maintain a healthy Aloe Vera plant for yourself.

How To Grow Aloe Vera

Required Tools
Sunny window
Required Materials
Aloe Vera plant
Potting mix
Pot with drainage hole
Pebbles
Fertilizer
Instructions
First pick a place for your aloe plant that has rich soil, good drainage and full sunlight coverage. If you are planting your aloe in a pot, mix the potting mix, pebbles, and fertilizer to create rich soil for the plant. Cover the floor of the pot with pebbles or gravel to provide drainage for the plant. Put the potting mix into a pot about 18 inches in diameter so that the aloe is able to grow to its maximum size and set the aloe plant into it.
Your aloe plant ought to be watered at least one time per week with one or two cups of water. In hot months though, you can soak the aloe entirely as long as it has good drainage to keep the roots from rotting.
Besides water and sunlight aloe plants are fairly easy to care for. It is advised that you remove all weeds from around the plant as weeds can throw off the pH balance of the soil and affect the aloe plant. Adding ammonium nitrate to the soil yearly will be of great benefit to the aloe plant.
To utilize the medicinal properties of Aloe Vera, pick a leaf near the base of the plant and remove the outer layer of the leaf to get to the gel inside. Although people believe that the whole aloe leaf is medicinal, the outer layer has almost no nutrients and it is the gel inside that is vital. Therefore in the case of burns or insect stings, rub the gel onto the area to relieve the pain or stinging.
Tips and Warnings
Aloe Vera is really frost tender because it is 95% water, so in cold climates aloe should be planted in a greenhouse and placed under a glass to protect it from the cold. If possible keep the aloe plant indoors during cold weather.
Aloe Vera is one of those plants that benefits from foliage feeding and not just root feeding, so when watering or fertilizing the plant, wet the leaves along with the roots.
If you want suckers from your aloe plant, aloe plants can be grown from seeds but are more often grown by planting the offspring that are produced around the base of the plant.
If your aloe plant begins to wither, or brown at the tips, increase watering regularity to 2-3 times a day until the plant is restored.