Just put it in a pest luck, cover it up and spray it everyday. If you want an organic rooting hormone soak some willow bark in water. Also to the dude who said vermiculite is for aeration, vermiculite holds a lot of water. You need perlite for aeration.
Willow - active compound is Salicylic acid Aloe Vera - same compound, i.e. Salicylic acid @ 1,200% higher levels.
Good question for which there isn't much to give you an answer because the most studied Aloe vera variety is the one grown commercially, i.e. yield. I've read a half-dozen book about aloe vera exclusively and the 'general consensus' that the variety doesn't really matter as it relates to human health which as things turn out are also the benefits we want to see in our soils, i.e. enzymes, 83 elements, vitamins, phyto-hormones, etc. That's the best that I can do... CC
Good enough for me. I'm glad you had at least an idea of an answer. I was lost. I knew it had to be similar but, given that it is not the same exact thing you never know. Thanks! <3
I've been successfully using the coffee can cloner for a little while now and I don't think it's more simple. Just water, some protekt and about 2 ml of ful-power. Under a 60w cfl no spraying or dome or nothing, usually have root growth within 13 days or so with a 90% success rate
I'm a lil new here, but was surprised it took that many answers to suggest aloe. Aloe is a MUST have for organic growers. Not only for cloning either. With a regular bubble cloner and you'll have nearly 100% success and a bush of roots. Good stuff, and it works damn great as a regular foliar feed as well
I'm in the process of rooting some clones now, only thing I used was an aloe leaf I cut off my plant that grows in my room. They're looking healthy, no yellowing, no drooping, I'm expecting all to root. I need to grow much much more aloe, so I get about the same biomass as I have in comfrey
I grow my own comfrey and aloe as well, those are two keepers for a good setup, I am tryin to find some stingin nettles also, but they seem to have kinda vanished from the local forests, kinda strange, they were all over the place a couple yrs ago... The cool thing about aloe is that you can find HUGE plants at like orchard supply or whatever and they are like 5-10 bucks for big-ass plants, and they grow super easy. I rotate three aloes, all three different varieties, if you have the big one, one blade will make enough tea for about 2-3 gallons. I do need more comfrey though. It's cool in CA, at least here on the coast, the dandelions grow year round, and you can't pick them fast enough. So I have a bucket of dandelion-tea/FPE all the time.
I went hiking one day this summer and came back with about 2 grocery bags jammed full of stinging nettles (gloves are definitly a must). I was thinking about trying to transplant some and grow it in my garden, but I think I may just try to ensure all my hiking spots remain stocked with the plant. I also did a 5-gal bucket full of Dandelions, that was one nasty FPE. Comfrey's def my favorite bioaccumulator because of how much you can harvest in one summer! I made dandelion jam with the yellow flower heads and it tasted very similar to honey I may have to check out this orchard supply or whatever...
inkyscratches Yes - aloe vera juice and the one product that you can consider is from Lily of The Desert which is the largest packer of aloe vera products in this country. This is available at any health food store including Whole Foods. This is very easy to find. You need to choose their version which is listed as 'preservative free' meaning that it does not contain Sodium Benzoate and/or Potassium Sorbate - you want the version(s) which use either Citric Acid or Ascorbic Acid as the preservative. Mix 1/4 cup to 1 gallon of water. The better option is to use the concentrated freeze-dried products, specifically the 200XX Aloe Vera Powder. 1 gram of this powder mixed with 199 grams of water = pure Aloe vera extract (aka Aloe vera juice). 1 gram mixed with 'about' 4.50 gallons of water gives you the 1/4 cup ratio of using juice. If you need a source for the 200XX powder let me know and I'll post some sources. This is the least expensive route other than growing your own. Fresh is always best. The 200XX powder is available in organic, human food-grade and is produced in Australia which has very strict purity and safety standards vs. materials out of China and Mexico. HTH CC
I feel ya. I just did what you wrote below... Trimming was pretty horrific. Not that I have a LOT of experience with that. I had read somewhere on GC about doing that with seedlings so I gave it a shot. And you are right. I won't do that again. I just trimmed this one. Not at ALL looking forward to doing this one.
Larfy fucking whores! Next time I will cut a clone to sex instead of dealing with that crap! As I am sure you can agree, it just is not worth it to monster crop. Have fun with the last one.