Aloe Vera Re-Potting
You'll all remember Cassandra.
Or maybe you won't. I haven't given an update on her condition since the watering plants escapade when she was nearly dying.
But then, I moved… and everything changed. As you can tell from this picture she has been prosperous and multiplied in our new home.
Now, I am unsure if this is because I remember to water her more, or she has more sunlight by this West facing window (let me tell ya I get some amazing sunset views out of that in the summertime. Previously I had her in a North facing window that where the sunlight was blocked by the duplex next door), or simply because she’s not confined to a stuffy room.
The last time I counted, there were thirteen baby plants growing in this pot.
Unfortunately, these children will eventually choke each other out and all die if not separated and re-homed in a timely manner.
That timely manner was months ago.
But I procrastinated, until one day I decided that I needed to re-pot and re-home all of these plants before going to Florida. That gave me a total of two days.
Tuesday - to procure pots and replant all of the babies.
Wednesday - to put those babies up for adoption at my local dance studio.
Thursday - I worked, had to clean my house, pack, and mentally prepare myself for traveling.
Friday - I was gone by 3am.
That set me a really tight schedule. After I got done nannying on Tuesday I went to Walmart to get some cheap plastic potting pots. As per usual Walmart was a complete dissapointment (I don’t know if anyone else experiences that same thing, but it always seems like they never actually have what I need). Rather than giving up I just got creative and went to the party section hoping to find some plastic cups. The only ones of those they had were these:
Weird color changing cups that were a bit defective, but I was on a time crunch and had limited options and now room to be picky. I bought them.
I then set up this cardboard box to keep the potting soil from getting all over my floor (message from the future: it didn’t work).
Now, usually I would do a project like this one outside. However, I live in Idaho and it is winter and it was drizzling freezing rain outside. Not good weather for plants or people. Plus, with my deadline, I had no other option.
Step 1
I laid everything out to take a nice picture of all of my supplies.
Side note: when I opened the bag of potting soil I discovered that my mom had actually sent plastic pots in it, basically my entire trip to Walmart was useless.
My materials here were the aluminum foil lined box, a pomegranate box, a bag of potting soil, color changing plastic cups, scissors (I originally intended to cut the tops of the cups off to make shorter pots), and a vase filled with water that I didn’t think about until after taking the picture and at that point I didn’t have time to take a whole new picture.
Step 2
I dumped Cassandra out of her big pot, gently removed the dirt from around the roots, and began the process of carefully separating the baby plants’ roots from the main root.
It took a long time and was a lot dirtier than I thought it would be. It was during this process that I realized my ingenious aluminum foil lined box was going to be mostly useless in keeping my floor from getting covered in dirt.
Step 3
All of the plants were then stuffed into muddy potting soil for transportation to their new homes.
And yes, I realize that they would not do well in cups for long term, because there is no drainage system in the bottom. I could have poked holes in the cups, but that would have taken time, which I didn’t have, and this allowed people to experience re-potting for themselves for when these guys grow up and have babies of their own.
Only twelve fit into the box which I figured was going to be a problem as I have a thing about having to carry multiple little things rather than having to carry one big thing or being able to have everything in a bag and having your hands free.
It’s probably the main reason I like flying as much as I do. Everything literally has to fit into two bags (or one if you want to pack really light and travel with just a backpack. I highly recommend it).
Anyhow, back on subject. I didn’t like the idea of having to take thirteen plants to the dance studio because that meant that I would have to juggle the box and the one straggler plant and not drop everything and somehow be coordinated (for those who don’t know, I’m not very coordinated. I constantly run into counters, trip over air, and drop things - mainly my phone). Really all this meant is that I had to get rid of one plant before taking the rest to the studio.
That worked really well. I re-re-potted one into a terracotta pot that I hammered holes in the bottom of, and gifted it to my boss.
Real quick here is a before and after picture, I guess, though it’s really more of a progress picture. It’s crazy to think that that is the same plant.
Ok, on to what you’re really wondering about. Yes, I was able to get rid of all of the babies Wednesday evening. I really don’t know where half of them went but the two that my boss and my friend have I will get to keep track of. My friend named hers Grimpoteuthis (pronounced grim-POT-ih-this), which is the Latin name for a Dumbo octopus, because aloe vera plants remind her of an octopus.
Also, Florida was amazing! We saw TWO gators (that’s impressive because I’ve been there three other times and never once seen a gator, although they’re supposed to be pretty common down there), several dolphins (also exciting because I’ve never seen one in real life before), and not as many lizards as last time (probably had something to do with it being winter and all that).
I got sunburned and got a mysterious rash on my feet and ankles that made the flights home absolutely miserable. But it’s not really an adventure unless something like that happens.
