How to Separate Aloe Vera Pups and Grow Them On

Pups are the method. Leaves are not

Aloe vera produces offsets, commonly called pups, from the base of the plant. Each one is a complete young plant connected to the parent by a short underground stem, and separating them is straightforward, quick and almost always successful. This is how essentially every aloe in cultivation is propagated.

A leaf cutting is not an alternative. Aloe leaves are full of gel and have no capacity to form roots from a cut surface, so a leaf pushed into compost simply rots, usually within a fortnight. People try this because it works for other succulents, and the failure is not down to technique. If your plant has no pups yet, the answer is to wait rather than to cut a leaf.

When to take them, and how big

Take pups in late spring or early summer. Cut surfaces need warmth to seal and roots need warmth to grow, and a pup separated in autumn will sit there doing nothing all winter with a wound that can rot.

Size matters more than most people realize. A pup taken too early has too little leaf area to support itself and sulks or dies; one left too long competes with the parent for water and drags the whole clump into a tangle. About a fifth of the parent's height, with four or more of its own leaves, is the point to take it.

The easiest time to do this is during a repot, because you can see exactly where each pup joins the parent. If you are repotting anyway, take the pups at the same time rather than disturbing the plant twice.

Separating a pup, step by step

Work with dry compost. Stop watering the parent about a week beforehand so the rootball crumbles apart in your hands instead of tearing, and so any cut you make is on dry tissue that seals quickly.

1. Tip the whole plant out of the pot Do not try to pull a pup out of a pot in situ. You cannot see the connection, and you will either tear the pup's roots off or damage the parent. Lay the pot on its side and slide the whole thing out.
2. Crumble the compost away from the base Work the dry compost off by hand until you can see where the pup joins the parent and how many roots the pup already has of its own. A soft brush helps on a congested clump.
3. Pull first, cut only if you must Many pups come away with steady gentle pressure, taking their own roots with them and leaving no wound at all. Only reach for a knife when the connection genuinely will not give.
4. Cut close to the parent with a clean blade If you must cut, use a sterilized knife and cut the connecting stem close to the parent rather than close to the pup. Leaving a stub on the parent is better than leaving the pup without one.
5. Dry the cut for three to seven days Stand the pup upright in bright shade with air moving until the cut face is dry, hard and corky. A rooted pup needs three days; one with no roots and a large cut face needs a week. This step is where most failures happen.
6. Pot into dry gritty potting mix Use a pot only slightly wider than the pup itself, in a free-draining cactus mix, at the same depth it grew before. Do not bury the lower leaves. Firm it just enough to stand up.
7. Give no water for seven to ten days Leave it dry in bright shade. Then water thoroughly once, let it dry completely, and from then on treat it as a normal aloe. A pup watered immediately after potting rots at the cut.

Never plant a pup in a large pot to save repotting it later. A big pot holds far more damp compost than a small root system can use, and damp compost against a fresh cut is exactly what you are trying to avoid.

The first three months

A separated pup does nothing visible for several weeks, and that is normal. It is putting out roots, which you cannot see, before it puts out a leaf, which you can. Resist the urge to dig it up and check.

A pup that goes slightly limp during the first fortnight is usually fine, because it has no roots to draw on yet. A pup that goes soft and brown at the base is rotting, and no amount of waiting will fix it.

If your plant makes no pups

A healthy aloe in good light produces pups readily, often several a year. If yours has never made one, the plant is telling you something about its conditions rather than about its nature.

The usual causes are too little light, a pot so large that the plant is still filling it, or a young plant that simply has not reached the size at which it offsets. A slightly tight pot and a very bright window between them fix nearly every case.

1. Give it more light before anything else A plant that is stretching in poor light puts everything into lengthening its leaves. Move it to the brightest window you have and give it a full growing season.
2. Do not over-pot it Aloe offsets more freely when its roots have filled the pot. If it is sitting in a container twice the width of the rosette, move it down a size at the next repot.
3. Feed lightly, once or twice in the growing season A dilute balanced feed at half strength in late spring and again in midsummer is plenty. Heavy feeding produces soft leaves rather than more pups.
4. Let it experience a cool, dry winter A plant kept warm and watered all year round tends to grow steadily and offset less. A genuine dry rest below 59F (15C) is often followed by pups in spring.

What to record

Write down the date you separated each pup, whether it had roots of its own, how many days you dried the cut and the date the first new leaf appeared. Rooting speed varies enormously between homes, and one season of your own figures tells you whether a quiet pup is still rooting or has already failed.

It is also worth noting which parent plant a pup came from and where it stood, because a plant in a good position offsets repeatedly and one in a poor position never does. That comparison is far more convincing written down than remembered.