Somehow I left standing water in the center of this Aloe secundiflora and it rotted. Does anyone know if there is anything I can do to keep the plant going? I looked it up in the PlantFiles and it is a solitary type aloe. Down in the very heart it doesn't seem rotted but I don't see how it can produce more leaves.
could try cutting it down to base level, theres a chance it might send out a sucker if the main plant body is destroyed - solitary cacti will sprout offsets if the growing point is cut off, maybe something similar could occur with aloes?
I would not cut it down. It looks like the plant has been cored, which may be enough to trigger branching. You will just have to wait and see.
Hi Nancy,
I had the same happen to an Aloe dichotoma this year - not sure yet what will happen. Last year it happened to an Aloe ferox x arborescens hybrid and I just left it and it took a while but seems to have resumed growing. No branching for me unfortunately on that plant. I am keeping my fingers crossed that my A. dichotoma is going to be OK.
I would wait for a bit - if it rapidly starts to rot downwards, I'd follow DMersh's advice and chop it lower down, but for now a keep dry and wait and see approach might be best.
Nancy, I was reading about the aloes of East Africa and your plant was mentioned there a few times. The story is sort of interesting.
First thing, A. secundiflora is supposed to be resistant to trampling, compared to other aloes. You read that right. By livestock and the like. I would imagine the qualities which support its survival under those conditions would include the ability to branch when the growth point is ablated.
Second thing, A. secundiflora is kind of a big deal for herbal medicine, at least locally. There is a lot of harvesting from wild plants (and your aloe is common in Kenya). Tons of product are being moved. Apparently it hasn't had bad effects on the population (yet). I don't know what the aloe extract is supposed to cure but it probably works pretty well as a laxative, if nothing else.
There are other aloe species harvested in that part of the world. I think it's sort of indiscriminate. But interestingly one of the aloes that grows there (Aloe ruspoliana) makes nasty alkaloids and is poisonous (in fact has been used to poison animals).
The things that you can learn on the internet. Cheers!
Thanks so much everyone for your ideas. I am going to leave it alone for now and watch to see it doesn't rot down any farther. If it does, I will cut it off. Otherwise, I hope eventually it will grow from the center or put out a baby plant. It was in deep shade because I thought the AZ sun would burn the leaves, but now I've read it likes sun, so I'm moving it slowly into more sun.
I'll let you all know what happens.
Baja, do you have the address of the site you mentioned. I'd like to read about the aloes of East Africa!
Here's a pair of links for you Nancy. For some reason I'm unable to find the other pages I was reading.
http://www.cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/com/pc/14/E-PC14-09-02-02-A4.pdf
https://cites.unia.es/file.php/1/files/WG3-CS1.pdf
This message was edited Sep 1, 2014 7:54 PM
