I am death to Aloes

[Cathpot]

On a thread a while ago I confessed to being a killer of aloe vera, and there was much astonishment that anyone could kill aloes.

I decided to give them one more try and took a few Aloe Vera plants off my sister - for whom they were thriving ….and have been killing them over the last 3 months.

Not enough sun? Too much water? Photos attached which have been labelled by MN as sensitive images presumably because of the horror to Aloe lovers.

Advice welcome

How much water have you been giving them?

Probably too much? I have been watering when the soil felt really dry but they are in reasonable sized pots so maybe that was a surface dryness . How often would you water ?

I would base it on how dry the soil was. So is the pot uncannily light when I pick it up? It can go weeks without. If the leaves start to shrivel (without discolouring or looking unhealthy) it’s a sign that it’s beginning to use water from its leaves. I wouldn’t normally let it go that far, but you can leave succulents a long time.

They need less water over winter as they’re not growing actively.

Way too much water I think, and the roots have taken a hit so the plant is dying from the bottom up.

They are succulents and can go weeks on end without being watered.

Right- have moved them into the spare room where I won’t be tempted to water them and they get a bit more sun. Should I take them out the pot and check if the roots are rotting or have I put them through enough?

It won’t do any harm. You can take off any rotten roots

It looks like you have Thrips on them. The little critters can kill plants dead.

Will have good look for thrips later. Would thrips only target aloes?

Right. Had a good look, I think you are correct about thrips. Lost cause??

Bin it, Thrips are a pita, and will spread to other plants. They are impossible to eradicate with bug sprays, and a huge nuisance. Check any nearby plants too.

I'm not sure about that. They were plaguing my monstera . I used provado bug killer. Seemed to work.
When I had it on the aloe though I chucked it, as it was covered in them. I think they like the taste!

You may have managed to kill the adults, but they lay their eggs in the soil surface, which then hatch out to nymphs, and the cycle begins all over again. They don’t discriminate which plants they go for either, and can be a major pests of African Violets for example.
I had a big problem of them on my Lithops (succulents) collection years ago, and found nothing that would control them, but thankfully they just disappeared eventually. They did like yellow flowers the most, strangely enough.