Out of Control Plant
Okay, for those that followed our remodel posts last year, you may recall that tweaking the front yard landscaping was one of our later tasks. Not long after we did that, we had these odd mushrooms that popped up that I couldn’t understand. A kind individual sent a comment about that it was probably due to putting in new mulch which made perfect sense. A new oddity has emerged and I am open to comments. In the original plan and the early months or so of re-planting, we had the three aloe vera plants curved around the stone. They were all planted at exactly the same time and were essentially the same size. Three or so months ago, I began to notice the plant to the far left in facing the house seemed to be literally expanding. It hasn’t stopped and as you can see from the photo, it is now like it’s own cluster. The other two aren’t doing this and aside from the fact that I have now lost the symmetry that I had, I don’t have a clue as to what it’s ultimately going to do. It’s getting ready to basically grown into the middle plant.
Should I let it go or rip the whole thing out and start over? Hubby is looking at it like a botany experiment and wants to see what happens if we leave it alone. Any thoughts on this?
Hi Charlie,
Without being able to see your aloe vera it is difficult to be sure, but it looks to me as if your plant is producing bushy ‘offsets’. To keep a long story short, plant growth is controlled by hormones. In most plants the main stem or growth has what is known as ‘apical dominance’ which means that extra growth in other parts of the plant is supressed by the hormones in the main stem. If that stem becomes damaged (broken off, of attacked by insects which may or may not introduce a pathogen) then the plant reacts by producing elaborate new growth at the base (or lower down the stem if there is one). It is a sort of out of control growth. You see it sometimes in beech trees, where a branch produces a ‘witches broom’ of dense crossing twigs in a big lump. But it can happen to any type of plant. Unless the original plant it looking sick, which might suggest the extravagant growth has been caused by disease, it probably isn’t a problem: you could try detaching the offset growths and growing them on as separate aloe vera plants, or you could let them be and your husband can have his botanical experiment!
Kind regards, Fiona.
Thank you for the very reasonable explanation. I checked and the main plant does look healthy, so the botany experiment will proceed for at least a while.
Charlie